One of the few first-generation skyscrapers outside downtown, this was originally the warehouse for the Bernard Gloeckler Company, a prosperous dealer in “butchers’ supplies & tools, store fixtures, refrigerators, etc.,” according to a 1913 city directory (where the name is spelled Gloekler; we have also seen Glockler and Gleckler). It was later called the Pennrose Building, and of course it has been adapted as luxury apartments. It was built in 1906; the architects were the Philadelphia firm of Ballinger & Perrot.1
The building was reinforced concrete throughout, and Ballinger & Perrot literally wrote the book on reinforced concrete: Inspector’s Handbook of Reinforced Concrete, by Walter F. Ballinger and Emile G. Perrot (New York: The Engineering News Publishing Co.; London: Archibald Constable and Company, 1909).
- Record & Guide, June 13, 1906. “Ballinger & Perrot, architects and engineers, 1200 Chestnut street are working on plans and specifications for a factory building for Bernard Gleckler [sic] & Co., to be built at Penn avenue, Pittsburg, Pa. It will be eleven stories and basement high, 100×80 feet and be constructed of reinforced concrete with slag roof and have a front of artificial stone. It will be equipped with elevators, wired for electricity and every up-to-date and modern factory furnishings. Will be ready for bids in about two weeks time.” During the planning, as we learn from other listings, the size of the building went from eight floors to eleven and finally settled on ten. ↩︎
Leave a Reply