The chairwoman of the city planning commission is no fan of the design of the proposed U.S. Steel headquarters to be built on the former Civic Arena site.

During a briefing before the commission today, Christine Mondor likened the five-story, 285,000-square-foot building to one she would see in a suburban office park. She wasn't sure it was fit for the iconic steelmaker.

"I'm just concerned that it looks like it could be anywhere. It looks like it could be a suburban office building somewhere," she said.

The L-shaped headquarters, to be built across from Consol Energy Center, would feature mainly steel and glass, two of the products that have figured prominently in the city's history. The developer, Clayco Realty Group, has said the design intends to pay homagee to U.S. Steel while serving as a catalyst for development at the lower Hill District site,

But Ms. Mondor said the design doesn't make a bold enough statement about the corporation or its legacy.

"If you walked up to it, would you know that it's U.S. Steel? I'm not sure," she said.

Ms. Mondor added, "As a city we need to ask of our legacy projects design excellence. We only get to build the U.S. Steel Tower once and we did it well. We only got to build PPG once. We only got to build the convention center once. This is not a huge structure . . . but we only get to build the first building once."

Chris Cedergreen, chairman and senior principal of Forum Studio, the project architect, said the comments are "understandable" given the emotional connection to U.S. Steel and Pittsburgh.

"But the reality is we have constraints and I do think that the building has a strong presence and it does reinforce the U.S. Steel brand and I think it has a timeless quality to it," he said.

Mr. Cedergreen said his firm would "look at everything" in terms of addressing the concerns but noted that U.S. Steel has set a limit on what it wants to spend to terms of rent. Additional costs related to the design could affect that.

Nonetheless, Ms. Mondor said it is not unusual for developers to tweak a design between the briefing and a formal hearing before the commission. The U.S. Steel project is scheduled to be back before the commission March 24.

"These guys are good designers. They can work it. They can think about it. I'm not asking for a redesign. It's happened before in other projects. [They] think about it and come back and things get better. This is part of the conversation."

Ms. Mondor would not say whether she would vote in favor of the project as it now stands. She is just one of eight members with a vote. Another member, Paul Gitnik, also asked that U.S. Steel consider a green roof on the building to soften its impact on the Hill, as some residents had requested.