Cleveland Skyline Buildings Guide: What's Actually on the Model

The Cleveland skyline is one of the more legible in the country — a handful of buildings, each with a distinct enough silhouette that most Clevelanders can name them from a moving car on I-90. Our Cleveland skyline sculpture is built from that same silhouette, not an abstraction of it. Here is what is actually on the model and why each building made the cut.

Key Tower

Key Tower is the tallest building in Cleveland and in the entire state of Ohio, reaching 57 stories and 947 feet to the top of its spire. Designed by architect César Pelli, the same architect behind Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, it was completed in 1991 and has held its title as Ohio's tallest building for more than three decades since. Its stepped, needle-topped profile is the single most recognizable element of the modern Cleveland skyline and anchors the top of our model.

Terminal Tower

Built by the Van Sweringen brothers as an office tower rising directly above Cleveland's Union Terminal rail station, Terminal Tower opened to tenants in 1928 and was officially dedicated in 1930 at 708 feet and 52 stories. For most of the twentieth century it held a genuinely remarkable title: the tallest building in North America outside New York City, a distinction it kept from its completion until 1964. Its clock and its Beaux-Arts crown are still the most historically loaded silhouette on the Cleveland skyline, and it anchors Public Square the way it always has.

Sherwin-Williams Headquarters

Sherwin-Williams was founded in Cleveland in 1866 and has remained headquartered in the city ever since. Its new 36-story, 616-foot headquarters tower, completed downtown in the 2020s, is the fourth-tallest building in Cleveland and represents the most significant addition to the skyline in a generation — a genuinely new silhouette on a skyline that had not meaningfully changed since Key Tower topped out in 1991. Its presence on our model marks it as the newest chapter of the Cleveland story, not just a legacy landmark.

Why These Three, Together

Terminal Tower represents the Cleveland of the 1920s rail and industrial boom. Key Tower represents the Cleveland of the early-1990s downtown revival, built during a period when the city was actively rebuilding its financial-district identity after decades of decline. The Sherwin-Williams tower represents the Cleveland of right now — a company that has been headquartered in the city for over 150 years choosing to build its future there rather than relocate. Three buildings, three distinct eras, one continuous downtown skyline.

How the Model Is Built

Each Cleveland skyline sculpture is 3D-printed in matte black with brushed gold lettering on the base reading CLEVELAND, hand-finished, and shipped within three to five business days. It comes in three sizes: a 6-inch Small at $34.99, a 7.5-inch Medium at $54.99, and a 9-inch Large at $74.99. The proportions between Key Tower, Terminal Tower, and the Sherwin-Williams headquarters are scaled to match their real relative heights, not stylized for effect — the model is meant to be a recognizable, accurate silhouette of the actual city, not a generic "downtown skyline" shape with Cleveland's name attached to it.

For more on how the skyline fits as a gift, see our Cleveland skyline gift ideas guide.