George S. Orth was the architect of this school, one of the first large institutional buildings in the Oakland district. It was built in 1894, and it still serves its original institution.
The style is a sort of Flemish Renaissance filtered through Americanized Rundbogenstil. The horizontal stripes in the brickwork are such an instantly distinctive feature that they have been imitated in the school’s modern additions.
The unusual lot demanded an unusual configuration of this double duplex, which is broad and shallow. It would have been more attractive with the original details, notably the roof (which would have been tile or slate), but it still holds down its corner with dignity.
Now the BNY Client Service Center, after some intermediate years as the BNY Mellon Client Service Center. The picture is made from three photographs at different exposures, so that we can see a bit of the interior through the windows.
Built in 1913, this house is a minor landmark of early modernism in Pittsburgh. Kiehnel & Elliott were the architects, and Richard Kiehnel had a thoroughly German architectural education. He applied the latest Jugendstil ideas of decoration, with a little Prairie Style thrown in, to the forms that were popular in Pittsburgh—like the standard three-storey Renaissance palace that is the basis of this house. The combination was a winner: clients got something that looked bracingly up to date, but didn’t make their neighbors hate them.
The image above comes to us courtesy of the amazingly thorough Brookline Connection site. It shows Princess Avenue in Beechview at the intersection with Westfield Street, and the houses in the picture all still stand today. We’ll look at three of them (we’ve already seen the duplex at far right), beginning with the biggest and most elaborate.
Here is a center-hall house that must have been well above the usual budget for Beechview houses. We notice the diamond panes in the upper sashes of the upstairs windows—a style we noticed elsewhere in Beechview and had reason to think might be associated with the architect W. Ward Williams. The house is now divided into apartments, but retains many of its characteristic details.
This gambrel-roofed cottage has had its porch filled in to make a sunroom, which the photograph shows us had already happened by 1916. A photo of the house still under construction represented Beechwood, the original name of Beechview, in an ad for the plan in the Gazette for May 7, 1905.
By the way, do you notice how the advertisement dwells on the paved streets? Take a look at the 1916 photograph again.
The Brookline Connection site once again comes through with a better version of the same picture:
A gable-fronted foursquare house. Except for the replacement of its original porch rail with a more durable brick one, it has hardly changed at all.
A view with a long lens from about three-quarters of a mile away.
This Renaissance palace, built in 1919 for coal baron Ira Bixler, was designed by Alden & Harlow.
It could use a lick of paint—which is odd on an otherwise beautifully maintained building—but this elaborate metal awning still makes a sight worth stopping to admire on Oliver Avenue.
More Schenley Farms houses in the snow (many with bonus icicles), beginning with this 1909 house, designed by Vrydaugh & Wolfe.
We have not yet found an architect for this lavish Tudor house, built in 1906.
Another one whose architect we don’t know yet, also built in 1906.
A free interpretation of Colonial by Alden & Harlow, built in 1921.
Designed by Louis Stevens and built in 1911.
Designed by Benno Janssen and built in 1912.
Designed by Simpson & Schmeltz and built in 1909.
Designed by Rutan & Russell and built in 1909.
Designed by C. E. Mueller and built in 1908.
Designed by Simpson & Isles and built in 1914.
