Pittsburgh police said Friday they launched an investigation after officers detained — but did not arrest — a person who reportedly scaled the Downtown skyscraper that reigned for 40 years as Pennsylvania’s tallest building.
A man and a woman, who authorities did not name, were involved in a “reported incident” Thursday at the Gulf Tower, police spokeswoman Cara Cruz told TribLive.
Footage of the climb, which was reported by WPXI-TV, could not be found Friday afternoon on social media.
Cruz said the two people “were cooperative and provided full statements to police” at the bureau’s Downtown Public Safety Center on Thursday.
Cruz said officers “obtained digital evidence” but did not elaborate.
Police have consulted on the case with Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Cruz said.
The two people do not work in Gulf Tower and “did not have authorized access or permission to be there,” she added.
Gulf Tower, the 44-story Art Deco skyscraper on Grant Street at Seventh Avenue was the tallest in the state from the 1930s until the U.S. Steel Tower opened in the same block in 1970. The building once served as the headquarters for Gulf Oil Corp.
Rugby Realty principal Larry Walsh, whose firm owns the Downtown Pittsburgh building, did not return phone calls or an email Friday seeking comment. The Secaucus, N.J.-based firm purchased the skyscraper in 1988 for $26.8 million, Allegheny County property records show.
Draxxhall Management Corp., whose security guards at the nearby Koppers building monitor the Gulf Tower, also did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Contractors last year started building 225 apartments — plus more than 100 luxury hotel rooms — inside the Gulf Tower. That work — part of nearly 1,100 new residential units either under construction, in the planning process or being pitched in Downtown Pittsburgh — is part of a broader $600 million effort to revitalize Downtown.
