These two buildings are nearly identical, but differ in their decorative details. The cherubs on the pilaster capitals of number 321 are especially notable.
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311 and 321 First Avenue
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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.
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Victory Building (in Better Light)
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945 Liberty Avenue
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Forbes Avenue Side of the Frick Building
Louis Sullivan was of the opinion that Daniel Burnham’s success in the classical style was a great blow to American architecture. But what could be more American than a Burnham skyscraper? Like America, it melds its Old World influences into an entirely new form, in its way as harmonious and dignified as a Roman basilica, but without qualification distinctly American.
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Regal Shoe Company
This oddly domestic-looking storefront is made for a high-class tenant, and has found the perfect match in Heinz Healey’s haberdashery. The building was designed by Alden & Harlow, whose usual good taste is apparent.
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Fifth Wood Building
This is classicism walking the knife edge between Art Deco on the one side and modernism on the other. The architect was George H. Schwan, a Pittsburgher who was a much-employed designer of attractive smaller houses as well as churches, school, and commercial buildings: his most famous commission was designing practically all the original buildings in the model Akron suburb of Goodyear Heights.
Addendum: The article has been rewritten because Father Pitt knows of many more works by Schwan than he did when he wrote the original article. See the Great Big List of Buildings and Architects for old Pa Pitt’s latest research.
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Standard Life Building
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Morse School
Now part of the Morse Gardens apartments, this fine-looking 1874 school was designed by T. D. Evans, who also designed the similar Springfield School in the Strip, St. Adalbert’s School a few blocks away on the South Side, and the McNally Building downtown.1 The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
- In the original version of the article, Father Pitt had said that he knew nothing about T. D. Evans, but he has learned more since then. ↩︎
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Ewart Building
The prolific Charles Bickel designed this well-balanced Romanesque building, two doors up from another one of his Romanesque creations on Liberty Avenue, the Maginn Building. Below we see both of them in context, with, of course, a bus coming toward us, because old Pa Pitt likes to do that.
