Father Pitt

Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Mellon Institute at Twilight

    Mellon Institute at twilight

    The colossal columns of the Mellon Institute illuminated from within.

  • Eclectic House on Aylesboro Avenue, Squirrel Hill

    A little bit Georgian with a hint of Gothic, this house is oddly eclectic in its details but harmonizes them well.

  • Carnegie Library, Mount Washington Branch

    One of the little neighborhood libraries designed by Alden & Harlow, this one has a prime location on Grandview Avenue, making it possibly the library with the best view in the world.

  • Another Renaissance Palace in Squirrel Hill

    Gilding the capitals of your Ionic porch columns is a subtle way to tell the world, “I have more money than I know what to do with.” Note the half-round extrusion in the shadows on the right-hand side.

  • Soldiers and Sailors Hall at Night

    Soldiers and Sailors Hall

    Night views of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Oakland.

    From Fifth Avenue

  • Pittsburgh Athletic Association, Oakland

    Fifth Avenue façade

    This grand Renaissance palace by Benno Janssen has a lighting scheme that emphasizes its architectural details.

    South corner
    With cannon silhouette

    In the foreground, the silhouette of one of the cannons on the grounds of Soldiers and Sailors Hall.

    East corner

  • Investment Building

    Top of the Investment Building

    Built in 1927, this Fourth Avenue tower was designed by John M. Donn, a Washington architect known for government buildings who seems not to have done anything else around here. (Update: This is incorrect; Donn also designed the Cathedral Mansions apartments in Shadyside.) The curious ornamental obelisks at the corners of the cap were the inspiration for Philip Johnson’s Tomb of the Unknown Bowler down the street.

    Investment Building
    From a different angle

  • Johnston House, Squirrel Hill

    Johnston house

    Probably built in the 1890s, this grand house on Wightman Street has its very Victorian trim picked out in cheerful colors. Note the thoroughness of the decoration: even the dormers are given little pilasters with Ionic capitals.

    Dormer
    Left dormer
    Oblique view

  • Top of the Keystone Bank Building

    Keystone Bank Building

    The lower floors of this remarkable 1903 bank tower by MacClure and Spahr have been mutilated by modern additions, but from a block away on Forbes Avenue all we can see is the unmutilated top of the building, with its distinctive arched light well.

  • Homewood People’s Bank

    Homewood People’s Bank

    Here is another small bank that gets the architectural message exactly right, as we said a few days ago about the Carnegie National Bank. How could your money not be safe in a bank that looks like this? Imagine, too, how bright and cheerful the banking hall must have been before those tall windows along the side were filled in.

    Cartouche

    Winged chimeras guard the cartouche at the top of the great front arch.

    Capitals
    Homewood People’s Bank

    Addendum: The bank was built in about 1924; the architects were Simons, Britton & English.1

    1. Source: The American Contractor, October 20, 1923: “Bank Bldg.: $80,000. 1 sty. 618 Homewood av. Archt. Simons, Britton & English, Magee bldg. Owner The Homewood People [sic] Bank, W. B. McFall, 618 Homewood av. Brk. & stone. Finishing revised plans & specs.” ↩︎