The Great American Tower at Queen City Square
Cincinnati, Ohio

The Great American Tower topped out last month at approximately 5,800 tons of steel, one year and one day after work first began. Thornton Tomasetti is providing structural engineering services to HOK, which designed the 1.6-million-sf building. After the completion of a 130-ft tall, 150-ft wide interconnected elliptical steel tube crown at the apex of the building, at 44 stories, the tower will be the tallest building in Cincinnati. The 400-ton tiara will be put in place in August and will push the building’s height up to 665 feet. The project comprises an 11-story, 1,600-space post-tensioned concrete parking garage; an 800,000-sf, 33-story office tower above a portion of the garage, with 750 spaces for parking in the tower; and a public pedestrian walking area with retail space that connects to an adjacent building at 303 Broadway. When finished in early 2011, the tower’s lead office tenant Great American Insurance Co. will occupy 22 floors.