Father Pitt

Tag: Relief

  • 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.

  • Terra Cotta on the Thompson’s Building

    Two ornaments from the terra-cotta façade of the old Thompson’s Restaurant building on Market Street just off the Diamond.

  • Pigeons and Eagles

    Pigeons and Art Deco eagle reliefs, Mount Lebanon Municipal Building

    Pigeons gather on the Mount Lebanon Municipal Building, happily oblivious to the Art Deco eagles.

    Mount Lebanon Municipal Building

  • Art Deco Masks

    The auditorium of Allegheny High School on the North Side was built in 1936, at the height of the Art Deco era. There are three exits, and the architect’s scheme demanded a relief over each one. So we have Art Deco interpretations of the three masks of the classical theater: Comedy. Tragedy, and Meh.


    Map

  • Art Deco Planter at County Airport

    Two Art Deco planters flank the entrance to the Allegheny County Airport terminal. They bear plaques emblematic of aviation: planes, propellers, and eagles.

  • 311 and 321 First Avenue

    These two buildings are nearly identical, but differ in their decorative details. The cherubs on the pilaster capitals of number 321 are especially notable.