55 Public Square

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55 Public Square is a 22-story office skyscraper in downtown Cleveland at 55 Public Square. It rises about 300 feet (91 m) and was finished in 1958. It was the first new tall building in Cleveland since Terminal Tower and the city’s first tall International Style tower, using a reinforced concrete frame for the upper 12 floors because steel was in short supply. The building sits back from the street behind a small pedestrian plaza, with a one-story restaurant at one end. A seven-story parking garage is on the north side. It cost about $17 million to build and was first owned by Vincent Astor and the Brooks-Harvey Company.

Over the years the building changed hands several times. Willett Properties bought it in 2003, and Optima International LLC bought it in 2008.

55 Public Square has about 430,000 square feet of space and is classified as class B office space. It is similar in look to New York’s Lever House, but much larger (Lever House is about 250,000 square feet). The site sits on the former site of Charles F. Brush’s arc lamp, the world’s first electric street light, and a replica lamp hangs outside the restaurant.

Before the current building, the site housed the third and fourth Cuyahoga County courthouses. The fourth courthouse, built in 1875, was replaced by the Lakeside Avenue courthouse in 1912 and demolished in 1931 for a parking lot.

In 2005 a small fire occurred on the 18th floor due to overheated equipment; firefighters contained it and only minor damage occurred.

In 2013 First National Bank of Pennsylvania moved Parkview Federal into the building and updated signage. In 2018 the building was sold to The K&D Group, which turned much of the space into apartments and moved many offices to the top floors.

From 1959 to 2013, John Q’s Steakhouse operated just outside the base with outdoor seating on the plaza. It was sold in the 1980s but kept its name. In 2023 chef Rocco Whalen opened a new restaurant, Fahrenheit, in the former steakhouse space, opening July 13, 2023.