BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building vs One Post Street Building

Comparing the BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building and the One Post Street Building is compelling because they were both designed by Welton Becket and Associates, yet they stand in different cities (Pittsburgh, PA and San Francisco, CA), and were completed a decade apart.

What this will allow us to see, is how the same firm's approach adapted to different places in different periods of time.

The BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 725ft (221m) with 54 floors above ground, while the One Post Street Building reaches 528ft (161m) with 38 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building and the One Post Street Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

The One Post Street Building was completed when the Postmodernism was still an emerging movement, giving it a pioneering role. By contrast, the BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building came later, when the style was already more established.

Both the BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building and the One Post Street Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The BNY Mellon Center Pittsburgh Building uses a Frame structural system, which relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight, while the One Post Street Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, that combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.