Category: Oakland

  • Two Victorian Rows on Craig Street

    207–213 South Craig Street

    Two rows of houses that have adapted to the trendy business atmosphere of South Craig Street. The row above has been adapted with minimal external modifications.

    Breezeway

    Since old Pa Pitt is a connoisseur of breezeways, he could not neglect this exceptionally fine example.

    207–213 South Craig Street
    311–315 South Craig Street
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    This row has been altered a bit more, though some care was taken to preserve its distinctive outlines.


    Comments
  • Store and Apartments by S. A. Hall, Oakland

    41–425 South Craig Street

    This building at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Craig Street was designed by S. A. Hall in 1904.1 It still holds down its corner very well, and most of the original details are preserved—including the art-glass transoms.

    Stained glass with torch
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
    1. Source: Pittsburg Press, April 26, 1904. “Architect S. A. Hall has awarded to the Iron City Construction Co. the contract for the erection of a two-story brick and stone store and apartment building on the corner of Craig and Forbes streets for George A. Charles. The structure will cost $25,000.” The building ended up with three floors instead of two, but Mr. Charles is shown as owner of the property on plat maps. Thanks to David Schwing for the information. ↩︎

    Comments
  • College Club, Oakland

    College Club

    Lamont Button, who made a specialty of high-class houses for the higher classes, designed this club for university women, which opened in about 1932. “It is planned to provide rooms on the second and third floors for college girls working in the city,” the Press reported. “The first floor will have a large social hall and tearoom. In the basement will be a main dining room and several smaller dining rooms. An auditorium seating 470 will be included in the plans.”

    College Club

    Today the building belongs to Pitt, but on the outside it has hardly changed from Button’s elegant design—a simplified, modernized Georgian that could hardly look out of place anywhere, and fits perfectly in the wildly diverse Craig Street streetscape.

    College Club
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Comments
  • Pittsburgh Athletic Association Building, by Janssen & Abbott

    The architects’ rendering of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association Building. It was published as the frontispiece to the Catalogue of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club’s Fifth Exhibition, March, 1910.

    We have photographs of this building by day and by night.

  • Bellefield Bridge

    Bellefield Bridge and Carnegie Library
    From Greater Pittsburg, 1905.

    A view across the Bellefield Bridge toward the Carnegie Library in Oakland. The bridge is still there, but you can’t see it. The hollow was filled in with the bridge still in place, and the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain sits on top of the buried bridge now.

    This view shows the library building before the enormous expansion in 1907. The two towers were victims of the expansion—but also perhaps victims of some negative criticism. The building in general—designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow—was highly praised, but some critics thought the towers a bit embarrassing. When Alden & Harlow (Longfellow had decided to stay in Boston) designed the new addition, the towers came down.

  • A November View of the Cathedral of Learning

  • The Fairfax, Oakland

    Entrance to the Fairfax

    Designed by Washington (D. C.) architect Philip Morison Jullien, the Fairfax was one of the grandest apartment houses in Pittsburgh when it opened in 1927. It certainly isn’t our biggest apartment building now, but it still makes a strong impression as you walk past on Fifth Avenue.

    The Fairfax
    Arms over the entrance
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
    Kodak Retinette with Kentmere Pan 100 film.

    More pictures of the Fairfax.

  • Neville House, Oakland, in Black and White

    Port cochere of the Neville House apartments

    We saw Neville House in color earlier. These three monochrome pictures were taken with a Kodak Retinette made in the middle 1950s. Above, the exit from the porte cochere under the building. Below, the main entrance, including the porte cochere and the patio in front of it.

    Entrance to Neville House
    Entrance to Neville House
    Kodak Retinette with Kentmere Pan 100 film.

    Thanks to Bodega Film Lab for developing the film and making it worth taking the Retinette out for a walk.

  • South Side Slopes and Oakland

    Rooftops of houses on the South Side Slopes, with the Oakland section of Pittsburgh in the background
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Rooftops of houses on the South Side Slopes, with Oakland and its usual cranes in the background.

  • Craig Street Branch of the Pittsburgh National Bank, Oakland

    Pittsburgh National Bank, Craig Street Branch

    Built in 1961–1962, this branch bank conveys the impression of being low and flat. It seems much shorter than it is; our brains don’t process how huge those concrete beams are, but note the height of the people in front. The deliberate lowness is an interesting choice, because the firm that designed it was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, whose other famous works include the Sears Tower, which was the tallest building in the world for two decades; One World Trade Center, the current tallest building in the Western Hemisphere; and the Burj Khalifa, which so far has not been surpassed.

    Pittsburgh National Bank
    Rear of the bank

    James D. Van Trump described the building in The Stones of Pittsburgh: “Two great concrete beams cantilevered from slender piers support a concrete roof of great span. A bold and stark essay in pure construction.” The roof extends dramatically from the building to shelter a small parking lot in the rear.

    Concrete beam
    PNC Bank