Father Pitt

Category: Squirrel Hill

  • Eclectic Styles on the North Side of Hobart Street, Squirrel Hill

    North side of Hobart Street

    Earlier we looked at the buildings on the south side of Hobart Street in this block and discovered that Spanish Mission and Tudor were the same thing, barring a few tweaks of the ornamentation. The buildings on the north side of the same block are at about the same scale, but they are a more eclectic bunch. Sometimes the individual building is about as eclectic as it can be.

    German Jacobethan Spanish Mission

    Above, for example, you see one in a style old Pa Pitt calls German Jacobethan Spanish Mission.

    Spanish Mission

    This one, on the other hand, is so thoroughly Spanish Mission that residents ought to be required to wear Franciscan tunics.

    Entrance to Hobart Commons
    Spanish Mission apartments
    Eclectic

    The one above is quite eclectic, but it harmonizes its influences seamlessly.

    Tudor

    This modernized Tudor conveys its architectural message with textured and patterned brickwork as well as the usual half-timbering.

  • Tudor or Spanish Mission? In Squirrel Hill, You Can Have Both

    Row of apartment buildings

    Who knew? It turns out that Tudor can be Spanish Mission and vice-versa, as long as you add the right decorative touches, and of course the right names. This row of five apartment buildings on Hobart Street, Squirrel Hill, alternates Tudor and Spanish Mission, as you could guess even without seeing them just by the names of the buildings: Cambridge, Granada, Windsor, Armada, and Wemberley. Yet they are all more or less the same building. Only the decorative details change. Tudor buildings have peaked rooflines; Spanish Mission buildings have curvy rooflines and little tiled awnings. Knowing how to make the same building Tudor or Spanish Mission is a great time-saver for an architect.

    Here are the buildings, left to right:

    Cambridge
    Cambridge
    Granada
    Granada
    Windsor
    Windsor
    Armada
    Armada
    Wemberley
    Wemberley

  • Terra-Cotta Decorations, Carnegie Mellon University

    Polychrome terra cotta

    Henry Hornbostel was one of the first architects to employ polychrome terra cotta. Here are three different patterns from buildings at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University.

    Terra cotta thistles

    Thistles, in tribute to Andrew Carnegie’s Scottish pride.

    More terra cotta

  • Alumni House, Carnegie Mellon University

    A relic from the days when this part of Squirrel Hill was a wealthy exurb full of houses like this. Enlarge the picture and note the fine cornice woodwork along the roofline.

  • The Mall, Carnegie Mellon University

    Many styles of buildings have been put up on the campus since Henry Hornbostel laid out the original plan for Carnegie Tech, but it’s remarkable how much the original Hornbostel plan has been respected. The campus is still built around these broad open green spaces, with the various buildings kept within matching heights and setbacks, even when they are in wildly different styles.

    The Mall, Carnegie Mellon University, looking toward Hammerschlag Hall

  • Berry Hall, Chatham University

    Built in 1895, this is one of several magnificent private houses that have come into the possession of Chatham University without drastic architectural modification. The exterior is in an exceptionally accurate Georgian style that would be right at home in Annapolis or Williamsburg.

  • College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University

    Front of the building

    Built to be an inspiring showcase of the world’s best traditions in art, the College of Fine Arts building was positioned at the top of the Mall, as if the arts might be of some importance even in a technical school.

    Looking up the stairs
    Oblique view

    Niches along the front of the building pay tribute to various architectural and sculptural traditions.

    Corinthian, Doric, Ionic
    Gothic
    Egyptian, Moorish, Indian
    Interior
    Interior
    Through the trees

  • Baker Hall, Carnegie Mellon University

    Baker Hall from the Mall.

    From the beginning, the campus of Carnegie Tech was designed by Palmer and Hornbostel as a warren of interconnected buildings surrounding pleasant green spaces. The older buildings, like Baker Hall, celebrate the engineering and architecture they were designed to teach. Old Pa Pitt particularly loves this stairwell window, which expresses the idea of stairs with a clarity that modernist architects of a later generation would not have been able to match.

    Frew Street side of Baker Hall.

  • Lindsay House, Chatham University

    One of several mansions that have become part of Chatham University, this tasteful Tudor house is comparatively modest against its neighbors the Mellons and the Reas.

    Addendum: We find from the June 1911 issue of The Builder that this was built as the President’s Home for the Pennsylvania College for Women. The architect was Thomas Hannah. Here are two pictures from the magazine:

  • Hamerschlag Hall, Carnegie Mellon University

    Hamerschlag Hall

    Hamerschlag Hall, the centerpiece and symbol of Carnegie Mellon University, was named for the first president of the Carnegie Technical Schools, Arthur Hamerschlag. This was one of the original Carnegie Tech buildings designed by Palmer and Hornbostel, whose campus design has been followed surprisingly faithfully by succeeding generations of architects. It is perfectly positioned for a view down the Mall that captures the Cathedral of Learning, centerpiece and symbol of Pitt, looming in the background.

    With Oakland in the background
    With the Cathedral of Learning
    Through the trees