From the “form follows function” era of the middle twentieth century comes this round bank. Round is probably the most impractical and anti-functional shape you could come up with for a bank, but modernism sacrificed function for a striking effect much more often than Victorian classicism did. This was built in 1965 for Mellon Bank.(1) It now belongs to Citizens Bank, which bought Mellon’s retail branches when Mellon merged with Bank of New York and decided not to deal with grubby working-class people anymore.
Footnotes
- Our source for the date is this Post-Gazette article. (↩)
2 responses to “Round Bank in Squirrel Hill”
Mars Bank used to be particularly good about having weird and wonderful futuristic branches, but they’ve settled into the same brick Colonial Revivalish pattern as just about everyone else.
First Federal of Monessen (now part of Community) had the misfortune of being led in the 80’s by a CEO who really wanted to be an architect. This led to some beauties like the Great Pyramid of Donora:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1781593,-79.8552035,3a,75y,36.4h,87.42t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUpvxCpRn602kL39mMK7NUw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
and the leakiest wall in Rostraver.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1362549,-79.8432107,3a,75y,166.61h,89.85t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDvUhIT-PHZDzvfN4mXjoGg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
At least they stood out!
And, so far, stood up. Thank you for pointing these out. Old Pa Pitt needs to make an expedition to the mid Mon Valley soon, but it seems the interurbans no longer run down there—someone cut off the line at Library, of all places—so he will have to summon up the ambition to drive or take the MMVTA bus.