The Carew Tower is a 49-story, 574-foot Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Cincinnati. It was the tallest building in the city from 1930 until 2011.
Industrialist John J. Emery wanted a "city within a city" with offices, shops, a hotel and a parking garage. It was announced shortly before the Great Depression began, but work kept going. The office tower topped out in July 1930, and the entire complex was done by early 1931 at a cost of $33 million.
The hotel opened as the St. Nicholas Plaza in 1931. The tower was named a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The National Park Service called it one of the finest examples of skyscraper modernism in America.