Peter Diana, Post-Gazette The UPMC logo may soon adorn the three sides of Pittsburgh's tallest skyscraper. Click photo for larger image.

The region's largest employer will sit atop the city's tallest office tower.

So, the thinking goes, why not put the logo up in lights, too?

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center President Jeffrey Romoff confirmed yesterday that he wants the "UPMC" sign atop the 64-story U.S. Steel Tower as part of an agreement to move the headquarters of the Oakland hospital conglomerate Downtown. UPMC will fill five floors in the triangle-shaped landmark -- bringing science and medicine to a building associated with Pittsburgh's history as an industrial power.

The deal gives Mr. Romoff the best view in all of Pittsburgh. He and other senior executives will work from the 62nd floor -- the highest rentable space and former home of the panoramic Top of the Triangle restaurant, which closed in 2001. Board members will meet up there, too.

UPMC needs city permission to place its logo on all three sides of U.S. Steel Tower -- no, the name would not change. A request is expected to go before the Pittsburgh Planning Commission, and based on past controversy surrounding skyline signs from Highmark and Mellon Financial Corp., the application could generate some debate.

How does U.S. Steel -- which still has its headquarters there -- feel about the prospect of a UPMC sign atop a building that honors the Steel City's namesake industry?

U.S. Steel spokesman John Armstrong said, "That's an arrangement they made with the building. I am not going to comment on that. The building is still the U.S. Steel building."

He then added: "We are delighted to have them as a neighbor."

Both companies lease space in the building.

It is "fitting" that the region's largest employer (UPMC has 43,000 workers in southwestern Pennsylvania) would one day sit atop Pittsburgh's largest building, said Oxford Development Co. President David Matter, who attended yesterday's news conference.

"It's where they belong," he said. "UPMC has almost singlehandedly replaced heavy manufacturing as the backbone of the regional economy."

UPMC, a nonprofit that booked $5.7 billion in revenue last year, expects to start occupying its new Grant Street address in March 2008. It will move approximately 2,250 employees there over four years, consolidating people from the executive staff, finance and treasury, corporate communications, legal, planning, marketing, human resources, payroll, benefits and information technology.

Along with space on the 62nd floor, UPMC also will occupy the 58th, 57th, part of the 56th and the 22nd floors. It currently has employees on the 28th floor -- and they will remain in that space for another three years, according to building leasing agent Andy Wisniewski, who approached UPMC about moving 14 months ago.

Initially, UPMC will lease 185,000 square feet, although it expects to need as much as 500,000 square feet within five years -- bumping U.S. Steel Tower's occupancy rate from 82 to 96 percent.

The move also alleviates some space pressure in Oakland.

Once UPMC's headquarters moves Downtown, the nonprofit will shift clinical administrators into its current Oakland headquarters -- Forbes Tower along Meyran Avenue. The maneuvers will free up valuable space in its nearby hospitals to expand clinical programs.

Another argument made yesterday at a press conference was that UPMC's move Downtown will strengthen the connection between Pittsburgh's business center in the Golden Triangle and the city's academic and medical nexus in Oakland. UPMC believes that connection could be even stronger if it is allowed to merge with the financially-troubled Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, a Catholic medical center in the Lower Hill District.

UPMC and Mercy are awaiting federal and state approval of the $120 million merger -- a deal that would give UPMC access to more than half the hospital market in Allegheny County. The Federal Trade Commission recently asked both hospitals for more information, indicating a heightened level of scrutiny. Both the FTC and the state attorney general are looking into possible antitrust issues.

Mr. Romoff is "optimistic" the merger will happen and dismissed concerns that the union will result in higher prices and less competition. UPMC operates 19 other hospitals.

Such criticisms, he said, "couldn't be further from the truth." It's a "simple decision." That being "whether Mercy hospital will continue to exist." If Mercy closes due to financial problems, patients will migrate to UPMC anyway, argued Mr. Romoff, and the community will lose the chance to retain about 3,000 jobs and potential for new investment in the Lower Hill.

"We are confident the attorney general will see this issue . . . as we have," Mr. Romoff said.