Fifth in our Public Square series is 200 Public Square know as the Huntington Bank Building, the BP Building or the Standard Oil Building. It has been all three. Originally Standard Oil announced they were going to build a skyscraper on Public Square and began construction in 1982. By the time the building opened in 1987, BP had bought out Standard Oil and it became known as the BP building.
The biggest controversy surrounding the building was a large piece of public art ordered by Standard Oil to sit in front of the building. BP officials decided they did not like it nor wanted it. They donated it to the city of Cleveland, who eventually placed it in Willard Park on Lakeside Ave, several blocks from Public Square. That piece of public art is Claes Oldenburg’s Free Stamp – one of Cleveland’s most famous pieces of public art.
But BP moved their headquarters to Chicago in 1998. Eventually Huntington Bank moved their corporate offices into the building and placed their name at the top in 2011.
The building is the third tallest in Cleveland at 45 stories tall.
