The city is set to begin construction soon on a 21-story, contemporary convention hotel at the western edge of the skyline − the first major high-rise built Downtown in years. To mark the occasion, The Enquirer ranked the neighborhood’s tallest buildings.
Here’s where they stand:
1. Great American Tower at Queen City Square
This 667-foot-tall skyscraper, built in 2011, is the tallest building in downtown Cincinnati. According to the Council on Vertical Urbanism, it’s also among the top 300 tallest in North America and top 2,270 tallest in the world. (For reference, a supertall skyscraper is anything over 984 feet tall. There are 236 supertalls globally. )
Developed by Eagle Realty Group, an arm of Western & Southern Financial Group, the 41-floor tower at 301 East 4th St. is made of concrete and steel and features a 130-foot-tall tiara made of 300 tons of steel.
2. Carew Tower
Carew Tower, a former mixed-use office building, stands 574 feet tall with 49 stories. Built in 1931, the Art Deco complex at 441 Vine St. was the city’s tallest building for 80 years until construction on the Great American Tower began.
Bought by New York’s Victrix Investments in 2022, Carew Tower is set to undergo a $162 million transformation into 375 apartments and commercial space by 2029. It also houses the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza.
3. PNC Tower, a.k.a Sky Central Apartments
The third-tallest building in downtown Cincinnati is the 495-foot-tall PNC Tower, also known as Union Central Tower, at 1 West Fourth St. At the time of its completion in 1913, it was the fifth-tallest building in the world.
The 31-story historic structure has been under a $90 million conversion from office space to 281 luxury apartments since 2022 and is expected to wrap construction in December. It’s now called Sky Central apartments.
4. Scripps Center
The 36-story Scripps Center may look like one of downtown’s newest office buildings, but it was built in 1990. At 468 feet tall, the tower at 312 Walnut St. is No. 8,477 among the world’s tallest buildings.
Featuring 500,000 square feet of office space, it’s the headquarters of E. W. Scripps Company and was designed to look like a lighthouse to mirror the company’s logo.
5. Fifth Third Center
Downtown’s Fifth Third Center, the corporate headquarters of Fifth Third Bank, looms over the heart of the city, Fountain Square, at 423 feet tall. The 32-story steel building at 511 Walnut St. was built in 1969 featuring International style architecture.
Will downtown Cincinnati’s new convention hotel be in the city’s top 10 tallest buildings?
At 264 feet tall, the planned convention hotel at Fourth and Plum Streets will not be among Cincinnati’s top 10 tallest buildings. It will be taller, though, than the buildings directly around it, including The Enquirer’s headquarters in a 15-story building on Plum Street.
