Father Pitt

Category: Architecture

  • West End Savings Bank & Trust Co.

    In classical times, worshipers deposited their money in temples, leaving it under the protection of the god. In neoclassical times, banks were built in the form of classical temples, but the only god was money itself.

  • Lobby of the Arrott Building

    The small but richly gorgeous lobby of the Arrott Building as it appeared in 2013, before the current renovations.

  • Tower at PNC Plaza on a Fine Day

    As seen from the Diamond or Market Square, the surface of the tower reflects the cumulus clouds scudding through the sky.

  • United Steelworkers Building

    The United Steelworkers Building in a picture from last December. The architects were Curtis and Davis, who did nothing else that old Pa Pitt knows of in Pittsburgh.

  • Art Deco Details in Mount Lebanon

    Colorful Art Deco ornament on a building in the Washington Road business district, the Pittsburgh area’s most thoroughly Art Deco neighborhood.

    These splendid details are on a building that, at first glance, seems utterly undistinguished. A bit of sensitive restoration to the storefronts could emphasize the Art Deco character of the building and make it more of an ornament to its streetscape.

  • Lobby of the Frick Building

    Everything in the Frick Building is gleaming white marble, with just enough accents to keep the interior from becoming entirely invisible. Above, the staircase at the Grant Street entrance. Below, the revolving doors and clock at the Grant Street entrance.

    The lobby is shaped like a T, with a hall from the Grant Street entrance ending at the long hall from Forbes Avenue to Fifth Avenue, seen here from the Forbes Avenue entrance.

    Even Henry Frick himself is gleaming white marble, rendered by the well-known sculptor Malvina Hoffman in 1923.

  • Pittsburgh Playhouse

    The Pittsburgh Playhouse building on Forbes Avenue is a harmonious addition to the streetscape. It manages the unusual feat of looking 21st-century and classical at the same time.

  • One Oxford Centre

    One Oxford Centre is a cluster of octagons put up during the 1980s construction boom downtown. In fact it was to have an even taller partner next to it, but that never materialized before the boom went bust. The architects were the firm of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, now known as HOK, currently the biggest architectural firm in the United States.

  • 311 and 321 First Avenue

    These two buildings are nearly identical, but differ in their decorative details. The cherubs on the pilaster capitals of number 321 are especially notable.

  • The Times Building

    Frederick Osterling found a niche for a while making Richardsonian Romanesque buildings in a city that couldn’t get enough of Richardsonian Romanesque once it got a look at Richardson’s courthouse. Osterling attacked the style with more enthusiasm than most, and his works are certainly more than just Richardson knockoffs. The rich detail of the Times Building (1892) is a good example of his work.

    The picture above was put together from ten individual photographs. Considering the narrow street, it is a very accurate rendering of the façade; but old Pa Pitt apologizes for a bit of fuzziness near the top. Below, the two grand arches of the Fourth Avenue entrance, with their wealth of intricate carved detail. [Addendum: The carving was almost certainly by Achille Giammartini, who also worked with Osterling on the Marine Bank and the Bell Telephone Building.]

    The Times Building runs all the way through from Fourth Avenue back to Third Avenue, and the Third Avenue entrance arch is certainly impressive.