Father Pitt

Category: Downtown

  • Eagle on the Boulevard of the Allies

    Matched eagles guard the Grant Street entrance to the Boulevard of the Allies viaduct, built after World War I and named in a fit of residual patriotism.

  • Lion on the Colonial Trust Building

    Another Fourth Avenue lion ornament, on a building that was a later work of Frederick Osterling.

  • Court Place in Chinatown

    Pittsburgh’s Chinatown was tiny but packed. Much of it was destroyed in the building of the Boulevard of the Allies after the First World War, but it remained a Chinese enclave for another decade or so, and Chinese businesses rebuilt along the stump of Second Avenue beside the Boulevard ramp.

    The Chinatown Inn is the only business remaining from the old days of Chinatown. Another Chinese restaurant is a modern addition. The rest of the two blocks remaining in Chinatown is mostly given over to lawyers’ offices.

    Addendum: The Chinatown Inn occupies the On Leong & Merchants Association building, designed by architect Sidney F. Heckert.

  • 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.

  • Lion on the Commercial National Bank Building

    No street in Pittsburgh, and possibly in the country, is denser with lions than Fourth Avenue. These little lions decorate the Commercial National Bank building by Alden & Harlow, one of the small but richly ornate banks that filled in the gaps between the famous bank towers.

  • 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.

  • Victory Building (in Better Light)

    Old Pa Pitt published a nearly identical picture of the Victory Building a while ago, but he was unhappy with the patch of blinding sunlight that washed out one corner of it. Here is the same view in more even lighting.

  • 945 Liberty Avenue

    From the days when this part of Liberty Avenue was mostly warehouses and light industry, this building, nicely restored, shows how much effort once went into ornamenting at least the front even of a utilitarian commercial structure.

  • Kaufmann’s Clock from Fifth Avenue

    The famous Kaufmann’s clock, seen from the east on Fifth Avenue.