BNY Mellon Center getting fresh coat of paint
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Painters are at work on BNY Mellon Center, Downtown.
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It will take 3,000 gallons of paint, 2,500 gallons of primer, 150,000 gallons of water and a whole lot of time.
Pittsburgh's second-tallest skyscraper is getting a new face.
Over the next year, the exterior of BNY Mellon Center, all 54 floors, will be repainted, going from its current "weathered cedar" look to bronze, which will be its new color.
BNY Mellon won't say how much it is paying for the makeover, which also will include the installation of a new sign and logo at the top of the building, formerly known as One Mellon Center. The sign and logo alone are expected to cost $900,000.
The company is billing the repainting as a massive capital improvement project. Lane M. Cigna, a BNY Mellon spokeswoman, said the existing paint was starting to deteriorate, prompting the work.
"It is a class A building within Downtown Pittsburgh. It's maintenance and improvement to an important building," she said.
It is no ordinary paint job.
The face-lift will involve the use of 2,500 gallons of a teal primer, 1,800 gallons of a tinted intermediate coat and 1,200 gallons of the bronze finish coat.
To strip paint, workers will use a sophisticated high-pressure waterblasting system, one that delivers five to six gallons of water per minute. The closed-loop system minimizes airborne debris, recycles water and captures the old paint and residue for disposal, the company said.
BNY Mellon estimates that the closed-loop system will use 150,000 gallons of water over the course of the work, far less than the 1.65 million gallons it originally anticipated.
The painting itself will be decidedly low-tech. Brushes and rollers, tools of weekend do-it-yourselfers, will be used by 32 painters to coat the 723-foot-tall skyscraper.
Ms. Cigna said sprayers are not being used to protect surrounding properties and pedestrians.
"That would not be a very neighborly thing. You can't control the spray," she said.
Workers began stripping paint and applying primer to sections at the top of BNY Mellon Center in late April. The primer is visible on the Grant Street-Fifth Avenue side.
The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011, although Ms. Cigna said the timetable is dependent on the weather. The priming and painting will be done in sections.
Ms. Cigna said BNY Mellon selected bronze as the new color for the building because it fits with the branded corporate color scheme of bronze, silver and gold.
She said the color also "works well within the surrounding landscape," which includes the Allegheny County Courthouse and the U.S. Steel Tower, the city's tallest skyscraper.
The stripping, priming and painting is being done by Ohio-based Thomarios, which has offices in Pittsburgh. The general contractor is Turner Construction Co. While MetLife owns the building, BNY Mellon is the master leaseholder and is responsible for its upkeep.
Of Downtown's largest glass and steel skyscrapers, officials at the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation could not think of one that has been repainted as part of a simple makeover.
"It's not something that people tend to do," said Al Tannler, PHLF historical collections director.
First Published August 5, 2010 12:00 am
