Update: Thanks to our correspondent David Schwing, we know that the architects were Link, Weber & Bowers, an all-star firm of local ecclesiastical architects.1 The article follows as it was originally published.
This is about as perfect as an Art Deco storefront can get. What is especially cheering is that the ground floor is a new construction, using modern stock materials to create a storefront that matches the spirit of the rest of the building. Until a little more than twelve years ago, the ground floor had been bricked up in an unsympathetic fashion, as you can see in a 2008 image from Google Maps.
Father Pitt does not know what the initial K stands for at the top of the façade, and would be delighted to be informed. (Update: K is for H. S. Kossler, who commissioned the building.)
- Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 1930. “Plans have been prepared by Link, Weber and Bowers, architects for a store and apartment building, to be erected at 442 Main Street, West End, for H. S. Kossler.” Now 450 West Main Street; the Italianate building to the right is 440. ↩︎
