Wyndham Grand - Downtown Pittsburgh

[TheFugitive]

This is a very imposing 25 story, 700+ room hotel that looms over Point State Park.
It is the most visible building as you look straight into Downtown from the fountain
at the Point.

This hotel opened in 1959 as the Pittsburgh Hilton.  My late uncle was in charge of
building maintenance here for many years.  He had lots of interesting stories to tell
as when celebrities and pro sports teams came to town they generally stayed at
either the Hilton or the William Penn.  It was prominently featured in the episode
of Route 66 that was filmed here in 1961.  One of my uncle's friends had home
movies he took of the fight scene between Martin Milner and Lee Marvin in which
Milner accidentally broke Marvin's nose.

Hilton sold the hotel to local owners in 2006, who continued to operate it as a franchise
under the Hilton name.  They quickly ran into cash flow problems.  They began a major
construction project which had to be halted, and remained half-finished for years.  Due
to this and various other complaints about the building, Hilton revoked their franchise
in 2010, and the hotel became a Wyndham.   

The expansion construction work was finally completed in 2014.