Terminal Tower

Only open certain days and times, if you can get to the observation deck you absolutely should. Other than that, expect fairly standard shopping, food court (plus a Hard Rock Café) and movie theatre.
The lobby is the real stand-​out here as during the holidays they do displays from balloon animals to animatronics around the dancing fountain.

The observation deck is great. My young children weren’t very interested but that could be because they’ve been ruined by the Willis Tower. But, I love Cleveland. It’s beautiful! So, I enjoyed the deck. The food court is nice, very crowded. Hard Rick is a plus at this mall. Shopping is pretty limited.

The observation deck is pretty cool, even if you’re a born and raised Clevelander like me :)

I have been visiting the Terminal Tower my whole life since about age 7, which was well before they put in the current «Tower City Center» mall, so you can imagine. I am not a fan of the mall or the casino additions, but I enjoy the parts of the old building that have been preserved and cleaned up/​fixed up, such as the ceilings and the gilded elevator doors.
This review is primarily for the Observation Deck, where you buy a ticket and go up to see the view. I had been up there 2 or 3 times when I was much younger. Over the years it has been closed and reopened and renovated at various times so I thought it would be fun to check out the latest incarnation. I bought a ticket online, which entitles you to a half-​hour visit at a specified time. The day I picked was pretty uncrowded from the look of the advance ticket sales and also from the lack of people when I arrived. I noticed there were other days when the online tickets were completely sold out for a lot of the times and I would suggest avoiding that scenario, simply because there is not that much room on the observation deck and the windows are not that big.
Anyway, once I arrived, and got parked, and walked a very long way from the rear parking lot to the front of the building where you take the elevators up to the deck (note, this is not at all well marked and I had to ask about three people to find where to go… how hard would it be to put up some signs pointing the way to the «observation deck tour»?) I rode the elevators all the way up and stepped out into a tiny area with some folding chairs that I assumed was a lobby leading to the actual deck. Surprise, that WAS the actual deck, which seems to have been remodeled so it looks like it did in the 1930s.
Now, I love the 1930s, and old timey architecture, and they did a nice job, and it was clean and pretty and all that, but it was also boring as heck. What you basically have are walls with a large wooden sashed window every few feet. This is not enough windows (or enough space in general — what is with the several dozen folding chairs taking up the whole floor?) on a crowded day, and even on an un-​crowded day, the sashes of the windows impede your view. Plus, the windows were very dirty on their outsides. Maybe I happened to stop by on a day before the annual power wash was scheduled, but if I were a photographer, I would not want to be taking any pictures out of a window as dirty and smudged as these were.
I seemed to recall there used to be a little souvenir stand up there so you could buy a memento of your visit. In fact there is a historical photo showing such a stand. Nothing like that exists now. You can’t even get a postcard of the place up there. They don’t even have a box or platform or little viewing telescope that costs a quarter to amuse kids who visit. There are very few exhibits on the walls (again they probably don’t have the space).
I would also note that as of 2015, Public Square is being ripped up and remodeled down below so your main view straight down is going to be of a big patch of construction pit. Another side of the tower has an old photo of the view that points out buildings and stuff that, if you look at the actual view, do not exist any more. Cool from a history standpoint, but underwhelming from a viewing standpoint.
Overall it seems like the redesign was more for holding small receptions or events up there than entertaining a lot of tourists up there. It’s still OK if you want to see the deck looking like it did in the 30s, or just enjoy a nice view of Cleveland and the lake (best on a sunny day). But kind of underwhelming, especially when I got told my 6 dollar ticket didn’t qualify me for a parking validation so I got stuck with a bill for 9 dollars for parking outside with no valet. I would have had to spend 30 dollars in the mall (which has pitifully little of interest to buy) to get free parking. Really, Tower City? Not encouraging…

Great historical building in the center of downtown. The observation deck is a must for anyone, buy a ticket for $ 5 from the bottom floor of Tower City and take the elevator to 42^nd floor. The historical detail has been preserved and you can see all of Cleveland (best if done on a sunny day!). There are helpful placards along each window so you know what you’re looking at. It can get a bit crowded (relative, this is Cleveland after all!) on the weekends with tourist families, so go during the week or early.

It’s not the tallest building in the city, but it sure has a nice view! Definitely worth it for those new or have never seen it before! You can find some hidden secrets from up there.
I took a 360 from my Nexus 5 here:

The observation deck of the Terminal Tower is amazing. It’s very hard to find out about, as there is no advertising, but the views from up there are second to none. We need to advertise this so the tourists can enjoy this and get a great view of our city and realize how big Lake Erie really is. Plus it’s cheap to go up there. The sky deck at Willis Tower in Chicago is about $ 20, and this is only $ 5. It’s really hard to complain about that in my opinion. So… just go up there and enjoy the view of our wonderful city.

My mom has worked here for 36+ years and Ive been coming here all my life. Great Cleveland landmark! Cops do a pretty good job of keeping the turds out. Check out the observation deck up top if ya get a chance. Also, the brothers who built it lived there… the one whole floor is their old apartment. its mostly for private rental but check it out if ya can!

Probably my favorite building in the city. It’s majestic and beautifully designed inside and out. A real architectural gem.

Very cool pic whoever took it. Well, for Clevelanders its our Empire State Building. Its also one of our three buildings downtown.

«Cleveland. Where the lake is Erie and the tower is Terminal.» — John Grabowski of the Western Reserve Historical Society.
This weekend, we traveled 42 flights to the observation deck of the Terminal Tower. Oft heralded as Cleveland’s most iconic structure since it’s birth in the late 1920’s; the view was remarkable. Located centrally on Public Square, the observation deck offered a 30 mile, 360-​degree view of city. The Flats, Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga River and the distant suburbs could all be seen from this vantage point.
Mike Hudson, lead singer of the ‘70s punk band the Pagans compared the Terminal Tower to a «medieval fortress,» or the «Emerald City of Oz.» Beloved local weatherman Dick Goddard refers to the tower as the «Gray Lady.» Call it whatever you’d like, the Terminal Tower is an awe inspiring structure.
It’s architecture is certainly unique to the other skyscrapers in this city. Similarities are often drawn to buildings that came out of Communist USSR in the late ‘30s-‘50s. Whether or not the Stalin inspired Gothic designs were a point of reference or not remains unknown.
Primarily used today for mixed use office space, the Terminal Tower, despite no longer being the largest building in Cleveland, will forever reign as one of the most memorable symbols of the city. Whether in daylight or at night when lit up in one of the alternating colors depending on season or significance, the 80-​year-​old tower is plenty deserving of serving as landmark to Cleveland’s Public Square now and into the future.

Gather round kids. Way back when the 1^st Star Wars movie came out one summer, I was in Cleveland as a student intern for the old Standard Oil of Ohio or SOHIO. And during previous winters, I really did walk to school 2 miles through the snow and up hill both ways.
During the weekdays, I took the Rapid from Cleveland Heights Downtown to Terminal Tower. Like the rest of Cleveland at that time, things were a little frayed at the edges both inside and out. But I did have a nice window view of the mighty Cuyahoga was often entertained by the tale of the burning river.
Many thanks to John S. for his nice writeup for Terminal Tower and for giving me another chance to bore other Unilocalers on my continuing trip down memory lane.

In solidarity with the City of Cleveland’s perennially rough treatment at the hands of wealthy people who once owned or played for its sports teams, I’m writing a review of the good old Terminal Tower.
What’s the Terminal Tower? It’s a 708-​foot skyscraper in Cleveland. Why is it important? Well, besides being the most iconic non-​sports building in Cleveland, it was the tallest building in the world not in New York City from its completion in 1928 until 1953. Yes, there were taller buildings in the Big Apple, but it’s pretty impressive (or some other adjective) that the biggest thing this side of Gotham wasn’t in Chicago or Boston but in Cleveland. And from 1953 until 1964, the Terminal Tower was the tallest skyscraper in North America outside of New York.
When I lived in Cleveland, I always loved the Terminal Tower. It helped me orient myself when I got confused by the area’s curving streets, and it’s much nicer looking than the Key Tower (which is taller than it), Jacobs Field, and the court building they finished in 2000.
They also light it up with different colors depending on what’s going on. I moved to Cleveland the summer they got the Browns back, and the Terminal Tower was lit with orange lights to celebrate this. I think there’s also a bald-​eagle nest way up there.
The observation deck is pretty cool, although I think they closed it after September 11. In general, it’s pretty interesting how the tower itself is integrated into the supporting buildings below it. I think the first time I took one of the elevators up, I wasn’t even aware that I was in the tower itself.