Tag: Relief

  • Roof Ornaments, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial

    Above, the distinctive grotesque eruption at the pinnacle of the pyramid roof. Below, the alternating eagles and torches of the cornice.

  • Green Tree, Land of the Pharaohs

    In Pittsburgh, the Egyptian style is almost always associated with the death business, so it is no surprise to learn that this little building was a monument dealer before it became Green Tree’s oddest office building. The fact that it sits directly across the road from the entrance to Chartiers Cemetery is another clue. It is right on the border of Green Tree, at the edge of a little neighborhood called Rook, which once had a station on the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, and still has a large freight yard belonging to the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway.

  • Engine Company No. 28, Shadyside

    A large classical firehouse with its front on Filbert Street and a long, well-designed side on Elmer Street.

    The Filbert Street front.

    Arms of the city of Pittsburgh, on the left side of the front.

    Arms of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on the right side of the front.

    The Elmer Street side looks like an Italian Renaissance palace.

  • The Lionhead, Shadyside

    Twin lion heads guard the entrances to the Lionhead, an apartment building in Shadyside.

  • Decorations on the Parkvale Building, Oakland

    The richly decorated Parkvale Building on Forbes Avenue is currently under renovation, so we can hope that these splendid reliefs will continue to delight future generations of Pittsburghers.

  • The Iroquois

    The Iroquois Building

    The Iroquois Building, which takes up a whole block of Forbes Avenue, was designed by Frederick Osterling, Pittsburgh’s most consistently flamboyant architect. Osterling designed in a variety of styles: he had his own ornate version of Richardsonian Romanesque, and his last large commission was the Flemish-Gothic Union Trust Building. Here, as in the Arrott Building downtown, he adapts Beaux-Arts classicism to his own flashier sensibilities. The building was finished in 1903.

    This clock sits in front of the central light well—a typically ornate Osterling detail.

    A naked brick front would never do for Osterling; it must be constantly varied in shape and texture. These grotesque reliefs help.

  • Terra-Cotta Ornaments on the Maul Building

    Terra-cotta ornament, Maul Building

    The splendid terra-cotta facing of the Maul Building is covered with ornaments that may have been standard catalogue items, but nevertheless show considerable artistic talent.

  • Terra-Cotta Trim

    Decorative trim on the Schiller Glocke Gesang und Turn Verein (map), a German singing club (now apartments) built in 1897.

  • Reliefs on the P&LE Terminal

    We seldom look up as we pass the station on the Smithfield Street Bridge, but at the top of the building, directly over the main entrance, is this lively locomotive relief.

  • Peter and Paul

    Reliefs over the entrance to St. Bernard’s in Mount Lebanon. You can recognize Peter instantly by his keys, and Paul by his bald head, the sword that beheaded him, and the scroll on which he is scribbling a letter to some faraway congregation.