The Renaissance Cincinnati Downtown Hotel (previously known as the Bartlett Building and the Union Trust Building) is a historic building in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, located at 4th & Walnut Street. The 19-story tower was the tallest building in the state for 3 years until completion of the Fourth & Walnut Center.
History Planning and construction By March 11, 1899, J.G. Schmidlapp and A.B. Voorheis had purchased a plot of land measuring 97 feet on Walnut Street and 106 feet on Fourth Street from the Gibson estate for $350,000. Schmidlapp and Voorheis, who were respectively president and vice president of the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company, announced plans to construct a new commercial building on the land that would stand at least 12 stories tall and cost $500,000. In late March, Schmidlapp and Voorheis met with New York City-based architect George B. Post, leading to speculation among local architects that Union Trust planned to hire a non-Cincinnatian for the project. Chicago architectural firm D. H. Burnham & Company, led by Daniel Burnham, was ultimately hired to design the building. The National Park Service states that it is unclear which architect within the firm designed the structure, but it speculates that it may have been Frederick P. Dinkelberg, as he later worked on a D. H. Burnham & Company project in Cincinnati. A 1912 article in The Cincinnati Post identified E. R. Graham as "the architect of the building".
The design for the building was completed on July 13, and the plans were submitted to Union Trust for review by July 21. These plans included 17 stories instead of a previous proposal of 16, a "palatial" aesthetic with elaborate ornamentation, and a "conservative" minimum cost of $1,000,000. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, the plans indicated that the building would "eclipse anything in the West". By September 29, plans for the building had been officially submitted to Cincinnati's Building Inspector's Office with an estimated cost of $250,000. T. Nicholson & Sons Co. was listed as the building's primary contractor. The building was given a permit on October 6 after the Inspector's Office raised the cost estimate to up to $450,000.
Groundbreaking occurred in October. Three buildings on the site were demolished to make way for the new structure. The skyscraper's cornerstone-setting ceremony was held on April 28, 1900. The stone contained a bronze time capsule filled with a variety of objects, such as copies of Cincinnati newspapers, plans of the building, and photographs of politicians. President Herman Gopper of the Commercial Club smoothed the mortar on the stone with a silver trowel that was subsequently gifted to Schmidlapp, while Voorheis delivered remarks on Schmidlapp's behalf. The ceremony's principal speaker was James E. Mooney, who stated that "the laying of the corner stone of a great modern commercial temple, to be erected on this site, which we have just witnessed, marks, as I believe, the beginning of a new era in the progressive development of this great industrial metropolis".
By early May, three labor disputes were affecting the project. The first was triggered by Nicholson's hiring of nonunion hodcarriers. The second involved a conflict with the Architectural Iron Workers' Union over wage increases. The third strike, scheduled for May 7, was a sympathetic response to an ongoing dispute between the Chicago Contractors' Association and the Chicago Building Trades Council, as many of the project's workers were from Chicago. A resolution to the Iron Workers' Union pay dispute was ratified on May 8. Schmidlapp and Voorheis helped arrange for an end to the strikes, and the agreements were endorsed by the Building Trades Council on May 9.
The structural steel framework of the skyscraper was completed on June 30. By that time, exterior masonry had advanced to the eighth floor, and the entire building was projected to be enclosed within 30 days. On July 14, the workers were ordered to add an additional story to the building, bringing it to 18 floors. A strike by building mechanics on the project was resolved on October 3.
Commercial use Union Trust moved into the skyscraper on January 1, 1901. The company declined to have a formal opening ceremony for the building, instead deciding to resume its standard public-facing operations on January 2.
On December 10, 1912, a fire destroyed the adjacent Gibson House hotel before spreading to the Union Trust Building. Firefighters struggled to suppress the blaze above the twelfth story, and 45 cleaning women became trapped on the top floor. Several of the women were preparing to jump to their deaths when they were rescued by firefighters; no lives were ultimately lost in the skyscraper. Schmidlapp estimated $50,000 in damages to the building, while losses for building tenants were estimated at $150,000. The tenant that suffered the most damages was architect Gustave W. Drach. Building architect E. R. Graham, after surveying the structure the day after the fire, stated that it was "6%" damaged. Schmidlapp stated that 80% of tenants would be able to immediately return to the building and 95% could return within two weeks.
The Union Trust Building became overcrowded as its namesake company grew its operations and demand remained high for downtown office space, prompting Union Trust to consider expanding the skyscraper. On May 9, 1913, Union Trust bought a plot of land to the west of the Union Trust Building for $200,000 from the William Miller estate. The plot, valued at $143,130, had been the home of the Rendigs-Lothmann Company, which was destroyed in the 1912 fire and had a valuation of $15,000. At the time, the Union Trust Building's original plot was valued at $692,250, while the structure itself was valued at $700,000. The purchase ended plans by the Miller heirs to commission a new six-story building that was to be designed by Tietig & Lee. The Enquirer reported that Union Trust intended to build an 18-story addition to the Union Trust Building on the land at a cost of least $300,000. Graham, Burnham & Co., the successor to D. H. Burnham & Company, was hired to design the addition.
On September 9, the Enquirer reported that Union Trust's executive committee would soon "take up the question" of building the addition, as Schmidlapp had recently returned from a trip to Europe. The architects requested that Cincinnati Building Commissioner Rapp review plans for the addition later that month. Rapp refused to examine the plans unless Union Trust agreed to upgrade the fireproofing of the existing building. His specific demands were for the elevator shafts and stairways to be enclosed, for wooden window sashes in the building's court to be replaced with metal ones, and for standard windows in the court to be replaced with wired glass. At a conference with Rapp and the architects on September 23, Schmidlapp agreed to Rapp's requests, after which Rapp agreed to review the addition plans.
On March 13, 1914, the Enquirer learned that the architects of the addition had received permission from Union Trust to begin awarding contracts. By March 27, Wilke & Hogue of Chicago had been hired as the project's general contractor. A permit for the addition was issued on May 9, by which time the estimated cost had been reduced to $200,000. An American flag was raised over the addition on August 5 to celebrate its topping out, with workers having laid roughly one floor of steel per day. On December 28, the Enquirer reported that the addition was "nearing completion".
Union Trust combined its stocks with Fifth Third Bank in 1919, though the banks remained officially separate. Union Trust and Fifth Third formally merged into the Fifth Third Union Trust Company in 1927 while maintaining distinct offices. The skyscraper's full name thus became the Fifth Third Union Trust Building. On October 14, 1929, Fifth Third Union Trust purchased property between the west side of the building and an alley off of Fourth Street. That same day, the bank's vice president announced plans to raze the two structures on the plot and build a 17-story addition to the Union Trust Building, which would be accompanied by a remodel of the existing banking space. The addition was slated to increase floor space by 35% and facilitate the consolidation of Fifth Third Union Trust's offices into one building, ending the need to occupy Fifth Third's pre-merger headquarters. The expansion was projected to be completed the following year.
Burnham's firm, by that time renamed Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, was again hired to design the new addition. The Ferro Concrete Construction Company served as the general contractor. On July 10, 1930, demolition of the existing buildings on the plot began and plans for the addition were filed with Building Commissioner C. M. Stenger. The addition was estimated to cost $750,000. On March 11, 1931, the bank asked Stenger for a permit for $800,000 in renovations to the existing Union Trust Building. Portions of the annex were already occupied by the beginning of 1932 as construction continued. On May 28 and 29, 1932, millions of dollars were transferred from Fifth Third's old headquarters at 14 West Fourth Street to the Union Trust Building under the protection of 80 armed guards, which the Enquirer contemporaneously stated was "probably the largest movement of monetary wealth through Cincinnati's streets at one time". After over a year of construction, Fifth Third was scheduled to begin operations in the completed building on May 31 and formally dedicate the structure on June 1.
By March 5, 1954, the Union Trust Building's manager had informed tenants that the skyscraper would be renamed the Fifth Third Bank Building, effective January 1, 1955. The purpose of the name change was to "capitalize on the popular usage of the bank name".
Fifth Third announced on May 11, 1966, that it had agreed to negotiate a lease in a new building that the Cincinnati Redevelopment Corporation planned to build on Fountain Square. Ahead of its expected relocation, Fifth Third sold the Fifth Third Bank Building to the Dayton, Ohio-based Miller family on March 3, 1967 for an undisclosed price. The Millers agreed to lease part of the building back to Fifth Third until the bank was ready to move. The tower was expected to retain its name until after Fifth Third left. Fifth Third was scheduled to move to its new headquarters on December 15, 1969, though it planned to continue operating a branch in the Fifth Third Bank Building.
After Fifth Third's departure, the Fifth Third Bank Building was renamed the Fourth and Walnut Building. In September 1973, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority authorized plans to move its headquarters to the tower. By June 5, 1985, the skyscraper had been sold for $8.5 million to a joint venture consisting of the investment counseling firm Bartlett & Co. and two of the real estate partnerships that it advised. Bartlett planned to invest millions of dollars into a renovation of the building, which was to be coordinated by Columbus, Ohio-based architect Tom Converse. Bartlett also expressed interest in connecting it to the Cincinnati Skywalk at an unspecified point in the future. Bartlett planned to lease two floors in the building and move in the following year. By March 1986, Bartlett had moved into the skyscraper, which had been redesignated the Bartlett Building.
The company sold the building for $8 million in 2006. At the time, it was also home to Fosdick & Hilmer (engineering firm), an American Airlines reservation center, CVS Pharmacy, Phillip Bortz Jewelers, and Jimmy John's among many others. In June 2010, after a second failed sale of the building, Fifth Third Bank foreclosed on the property and all tenants vacated the building.
Hotel conversion