The commercial skyscrapers of Pittsburgh industrialists and financiers, 1885-1932

Early twentieth century Pittsburgh was one of the most important cities in America---an industrial powerhouse, environmentally ravaged by massive industrialization, yet home to some of the country's wealthiest men and most important companies. Glass, iron and steel produced in Pittsburgh was used in the creation of better-known skyscrapers in New York and Chicago, yet the city's own high-rise buildings have received little attention by scholars, This work desires to understand the physical structures as well as larger planning issues in Pittsburgh, and, consequently, the role industrialists played in shaping the city. The interconnections between industry, banking and railroads forged in Pittsburgh a web of relationships which intimately linked industrialists and financiers to one another, resulting in a rather non-competitive building environment. The exception: Henry Clay Frick's obsessive and aggressive building program, meant in part to combat the image and popularity of his chief antagonist and former partner Andrew Carnegie.The earliest high-rise builders chose locations for very personal reasons, to be near their business concerns. However, landmark buildings like Henry Hobson Richardson's Courthouse as well as natural and man-made barriers dictated where and when construction occurred within the downtown. The financial district of Fourth Avenue and the municipal structures on Grant Street drew important construction, while the Point and riverfront districts suffered from flooding and industrialization. The economic prosperity brought about by industrialization resulted in a building boom during the first decade of the twentieth century. On every level, the industrialists manipulated and dictated the urban planning and eventual zoning of Pittsburgh. Only after World War II would corporate interests supplanted the role individual industrialists played in construction of skyscrapers within the city.