K&L Gates has had its name in lights, splashed across the Pittsburgh skyline since last summer. Next week, the largest law firm in the region is moving into its new home, atop of which it installed its name in anticipation of completing renovations and occupying 14 floors of the 37-story tower.
The building at 210 Sixth Ave., Downtown, was formerly called One Oliver Plaza, and is now known as K&L Gates Center.
K&L Gates fully renovated the ground-floor lobby and adjoining plaza, and created a double-height reception space and a two-story conference space. Its 28th floor main reception area includes original mural-work by Brazilian artist Beatrice Milhazes, whose work is included in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophia in Madrid. The renovation project employs daylight harvesting and energy-efficient lighting, and is expected to achieve LEED certification, a significant feat for a space within a 1968-vintage structure.
Washington, D.C.-based Lehman Smith McLeish was the architect, and Structure Tone was general contractor.
This is K&L Gates' first move within Downtown Pittsburgh. It had been located in the Henry W. Oliver Building for all of its 63 years. K&L Gates last renovated its office space in the late 1990s. Michael Zanic with K&L Gates says the firm was ready to move, as its previous space was "E"-shaped, which was "not the most efficient floor plan for a law firm." The rectangular floor plan at the new K&L Gates Center attracted the firm, Zanic says, as did the opportunity for naming rights. "We're proud to be here in Pittsburgh and incredibly thrilled to have our name on the skyline," says Zanic.
K&L Gates operates offices in 36 cities worldwide, including its most recent site in Warsaw, Poland as of March of this year.
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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Michael Zanic, administrative partner, and Mike Rick, media relations and PR, K&L Gates
Image courtesy of K&L Gates