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White Transfer & Storage Company, Dormont
Built in about 1925 (which is when this address starts appearing in the company’s advertisements), this was a warehouse for a prosperous moving company. Like most buildings along this stretch of West Liberty Avenue, it was later adapted to the car-dealing business.
The letter W for White appears in four cartouches on the front of the building.
Even a warehouse entrance ought to impress your customers, and that is what terra cotta is for.
Nikon COOLPIX P100. A car dealer (selling Studebakers) was attached to the left side of the building; it has been replaced by a parking lot.
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Entrance to One Mellon Center (BNY Mellon Center)
In theory there is no reason to take digital pictures in black and white, since they can always be desaturated later. In practice, knowing that the picture will never have any colors in it makes one think more in terms of lines and shadows. Here are two pictures taken with a camera from the Neolithic era of digital cameras, which Father Pitt keeps set to black-and-white mode.
Samsung Digimax V4.
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Wilkinsburg Bank
One of the most imposing-looking banks in the whole Pittsburgh area, this expensive—we had almost said egregiously expensive—Doric pile seems not to be occupied at the moment, but it is in beautiful shape externally. It was still in use as a bank until about six years ago, so it is fully accessible and waiting for the next tenant who needs a building that will knock people’s socks off.
Nikon COOLPIX P100; Olympus E-20N.
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McBride Building
Because it’s impossible to get a picture of the whole building like this without standing very close in Pittsburgh’s narrow streets, the perspective of this picture has been adjusted on two planes to look more natural. You can see the seam if you enlarge the picture to 100%, so go ahead and do that if you’re curious. Built in 1901 for the W. W. McBride Paper Company, this near-skyscraper was designed by Frederick Sauer.1 A few alterations have been made, but the building still stands much as Sauer designed it.
A casual look at the building gives the impression that it has a stone base, but the effect comes from using white face brick for the lower two floors—with inset ridges to imitate cut stone—and Sauer’s favorite buff brick for the rest.
Mitchell’s on the ground floor claims to have been established in 1906, so it has been going since shortly after the building opened.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. By 1923 this was known as the Bowman Building, but W. W. McBride ghost signs are still visible on the northern side.
- Source: Record & Guide, February 27, 1901, p. 136. “Plans are in course of preparation by F. C. Sauer, Hamilton Building, for a seven-story brick warehouse to be erected for W. W. McBride, at Third avenue and Ross street.” ↩︎
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Art Deco Bank in McDonald
A sharp-looking but still respectable bank in a kind of baroque version of Art Deco. It is no longer a bank, but it is kept in fine condition by the current occupants.
Sony Alpha 3000; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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Victorian Survivor on Neville Street, Oakland
As this part of what used to be Bellefield turned into an apartment district, a few old houses remained here and there, turned into apartments. This one suffered less alteration than most, and its splendid curved porch hints at the leisurely exurban atmosphere of Victorian Bellefield.
Kodak EasyShare Z981.
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Penn Water Company Building, Wilkinsburg
J. H. Giesey was the architect of this rich-looking palace for a utility company.1 It was built in 1916, and it has been restored very neatly, although if old Pa Pitt applied his highest standards to the restoration, he would have to admit to not liking either the filled-in windows or the new front door very much.
- Source: American Contractor, October 16, 1915, p. 58. “Office Bldg.: 2 sty. & bas. 50×100. $20M. Wilkinsburg, Pa. Archt. J. H. Giesey, Mellon Bank bldg., Pittsburgh. Owner Penn Water Co., Oliver bldg., Wilkinsburg. Bids in; will soon let contr. Brk.” ↩︎
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Rockwell Hall, Duquesne University
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. Rockwell Hall was not quite finished when it was featured in an Alcoa advertisement as one of the Pittsburgh skyscrapers made possible by aluminum. The restrained modernist classicism of the building has been faithfully maintained, so that it looks just about the same now as it did when it was new.
Advertisement in The Pittsburgh Bicentennial, 1958. Now, who designed the building? Father Pitt asked Google, “Who was the architect of Rockwell Hall at Duquesne University?”—and instantly got a confident answer from artificial intelligence: “The architect of Rockwell Hall at Duquesne University was Newman-Schmidt. The building, also known as the Duquesne University Building, features a student lounge, vending area, and computer labs, and connects to downtown Pittsburgh via a skywalk.”
Newman-Schmidt was a photography company that provided this excellent picture, and the rest of the information comes from the “description” at that page, which our friend with the artificial brain has confidently misinterpreted.
So we asked a human architect, who told us that “the real answer is William York Cocken (probably with others).”
It seems to old Pa Pitt that, if he has to do the research himself anyway, then AI just adds an unnecessary step that can be profitably eliminated.
Mr. Cocken died just a week before the building was dedicated, and yet none of the articles on the dedication mentioned the name of the architect. However, the building was mentioned in his obituaries in all three daily papers (for example, this one in the Press).
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