History of Art and Architecture University of Pittsburgh

Spring Term 2004 (04-2) Mon/Wed2:30--3:45 p.m., Frick 204

Professor Franklin Toker HA&A1010; CRN 39679

Syllabus, Research Topics, Resource Guide, and Writing Hints

for

Approaches to Art History: The Builders of Pittsburgh

The different versions of HA&A1010 have grown in popularity in recent years because of their designation as "capstone" courses in which students pull their skills together as they head to graduation. This undergraduate research seminar, with W-credit, has been crafted specifically for Architectural Studies majors. It will investigate never-resolved problems in the architecture and urbanism of Pittsburgh. You will learn much about the city, of course, but the real subject here is how to conduct research--and encapsulate it in elegant writing. Each of you will be working on a specific research topic, and the class material will focus almost as much on good research/writing techniques as on the physical history of Pittsburgh. With some luck and hard work, we could finish the term with a printed limited-edition book called The Builders of Pittsburgh, in the manner of the book Planning the Pitt Campus: Dreams and Schemes Never Realized, which came out of a seminar I ran in 1993.

Grading in the seminar will be based on participation, including occasional assignments, but above all on your written report, including rewrites, and on seminar oral presentations. As always, this seminar rigorously follows the University's and the Department's policies on on academic integrity.

A note on the composition of this guide: it starts with a schematic syllabus of class meetings--schematic, because there will only be about a dozen "lectures" in the seminar: all the rest will be workshops or sessions devoted to hearing you present your materials. Following that, I list the proposed research topics for the seminar (awaiting your choices and changes!), then a research guide that is divided into three parts: online materials, hardcopy materials that are published, and hardcopy materials in archival or clippings form. The guide ends with some writing hints we can all profit from.

Much of the new material in this guide was compiled by Tawnya Zemka, who will also be serving as a resource co-ordinator for the class. I very much thank Tawnya for what she's already done and will do: we're extremely lucky to have her participation.

For on-going inquiries, Tawnya Zemka's email is twny522@cs.com; my email is ftoker@pitt.edu, telephone 412.648.2419. My office (Frick 233) is on the balcony of the Frick Fine Arts Library reading room: student meeting hours are Mondays 9 to 11 a.m., and by appointment. I look forward to meeting you, and at a certain point a meeting will be mandatory.

Have a great term and a great experience in the world of research and writing!

--Frank Toker

SYLLABUS:

To this tentative list of class meetings should be added two or three van fieldtrips to be determined together: one a general introduction to the city; the second a specific survey of the new projects that are transforming Pittsburgh; and a possible third that would look by request at particular problems the seminar is working on:

Mon 5 Jan 04: case studies from home: the Frick Fine Arts and Carnegie Museum buildings

Wed 7 Jan: resources online and at Carnegie Library

Assignment for Monday 12th: propose one new research topic to the list now compiled

Read for next week: Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait, Introduction and "The Making of Pittsburgh" (pp. 1-17) and familiarize yourself with the history of Pittsburgh via Baldwin's, Pittsburgh: The Story of A City, 1750-1865; Vexler's Pittsburgh: A Chronological and Documentary History, 1682-1976; or Lorant's Pittsburgh, The Story of An American City. Optional reading: Buck, Planting of Civilization, on the beginnings of Western Pennsylvania, pp. 1-114; Tunnard and Reed, American Skyline on early American cities, pp. 29-74; Reps, Making of Urban America on the laying out of Pittsburgh, pp. 204-206.

Mon 12 Jan: Eight critical moments for Pittsburgh; the formation of the land and waters; Native American life here

Wed 14 Jan: 1780s: urban beginnings: Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny

Research topic must be chosen by today.

Read for next week: Pittsburgh, "The Golden Triangle" on its early buildings; "The South Side" and "The North Side" (pp. 131-186); "Penn Avenue and the Railroad Suburbs," "Fifth Avenue and the Streetcar Suburbs" (pp. 187-262).

Recommended: Baldwin on Pittsburgh up to the Civil War. Tunnard & Reed, American Skyline on 19th-century American cities, pp. 77-108.

Also, familiarize yourselves with the main architectural styles of Pittsburgh, see Pittsburgh index, p. 336--337 and the illustrations cited there.

[Mon 19 Jan: no class: Martin Luther King Jr. Day]

Wed 21 Jan: 1850s: the railroad and early Pittsburgh industry

Read for next week: Pittsburgh: "Around Pittsburgh, the Three Rivers and Inland," pp. 263-320; Tunnard and Reed on industrial cities, pp. 111-175; Lubove's Pittsburgh: descriptions of industrial Pittsburgh, pp. 8-29.

Mon 26 Jan: 1870s: consolidation of industry

instructor will pass out scavenger hunt on Pittsburgh's built environment, due 2 February

[Wed 28 Jan: no class]

Read for next week: Pittsburgh: "The Golden Triangle" and "Oakland" for their Beaux-Arts buildings (pp. 19--78 and 79--130, respectively).

Mon 2 Feb: 1880s: beginning of the "cosmetic tradition" in Pittsburgh architecture; First Golden Age before World War I

Scavenger hunt results due in class

Wed 4 Feb: Two attempts to limit sprawl: the 1980s and 1990s

Read for next week: Pittsburgh, "The Golden Triangle" for postwar buildings. Recommended reading: Roy Lubove, Twentieth Century Pittsburgh, chapters 6 and 7.

Recommended reading: Lubove, Twentieth Century Pittsburgh, chapters 1--5 details the successes and frustrations of the professional planners from around 1915 to 1945. Also Recommended: Jonathan Barnett, "Designing Downtown Pittsburgh," Architectural Record (January 1982):90-107 on public efforts to shape the renewed growth of the downtown. Robert McLean, Countdown to Renaissance II, observes the same process from the point of view of a real-estate broker.

Mon 9 Feb: 1940s: planning and ecological reforms

Wed 11 Feb: 1980s: Second Golden Age before industrial collapse

Mon 16 and Wed 18 Feb: 2000+: planning initiatives today

Mon 23 Feb: first half-round of reports

[Wed 25 Feb: no class]

Mon 1 Mar: second half-round of reports

Wed 3 Mar: research workshop

[Mon 8 Mar and Wed 10 Mar: no classes: Spring Break]

Mon 15 Mar: research reports

Wed 17 Mar: research reports

Mon 22 Mar: research reports

Wed 24 Mar: research reports

Mon 29 Mar: research reports

Wed 31 Mar: research reports

Mon 5 Apr: research reports

Wed 7 Apr: research reports

Mon 12 Apr: research reports

Wed 14 Apr: Presentation of the seminar book

RESEARCH TOPICS

(1) The Master Builder (500,000 B.P to today): the physical topography of Pittsburgh. How its hills and rivers keep defining the built environment.

(2) The urbanists: (18th century to today): who were George Woods and Thomas Vickroy, the surveyers of downtown Pittsburgh? Who was David Redick, the planner of Allegheny City? Who were their predecessors and those who followed them? What were their urban models and what were their intentions in laying out the city as they did? This topic can be extended right to today, or, just a portion can be taken as a case-study.

(3) The cartographers: this topic could combine or replace parts of both topics 1 and 2. Something of huge value that has never been done would be an overlay of the early maps on the street plans today. One sees hills and valleys on the early maps that clearly affected the later city, but the connection is only approximate. That holds true right through the 19th century: where, exactly, are Mary Schenley's huge land-holdings on today's maps? Where was her famous house, "Pic-Nic" located in the Stanton Heights neighborhoods. Where are the gullies of 2-mile run, 4-mile run, 7-mile run, 9-mile run in the city today?

(4) The builders themselves (1800 to today): we owe the current layout of Pittsburgh and its surrounding environment to several hundred largely nameless people and companies who actually put up the structures we live and work in. A very few names (William Flinn, the Booth-Flinn company, Turner, Jendoco, Navarro, Eichlay) emerge from what is the essential in the study of the built environment in any town: who are/were our builders? Alina Keebler, in her study of the "Holly Houses" has isolated just one builder of the thousands who have worked here. Can research in other cities help our understanding here? The Builder and Builders' Exchange Bulletin are essential for our comprehension of how builders think and work. Topic would include interviews and research at The Pittsburgh Builders' Exchange at 2270 Noblestown Road (but also now on Boulevard of the Allies, near Duquesne?).

(5) Manual laborers and the building trades (1800 to today): There are, apparently, 23 building trades unions in Pittsburgh today. What common tradition binds these literal builders of Pittsburgh together? Edward Meeks of the Renaissance III 2000 association might be one good lead for the situation today, and there is probably a union council that could give an overview. Need to understand pattern books, plasterers like Mordechai Van Horne, marbleworkers in Allegheny West mansions, training and craft techniques. Best case-study of craftmanship in Pittsburgh: John Singer mansion in Wilkinsburg. Also good: Rhodes mansion in Allegheny West. Was Pittsburgh in any way the national leader in construction or craft techniques, e.g. aluminum (Bloomcraft), wrought-iron, ceramic tiles?

(6) The landholders, realtors, and building speculators (18th, 19th and early 20th century): Robert Jucha's study of the formation of Shadyside (a 1979 article in The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, followed by a Ph.D. dissertation of 1981, at Carnegie Library) is almost the only work that shows how vital a role was played by real-estate investors, even on a modest scale. We have the names of Franklin Nicola in the development of Schenley Farms and of Stevenson in the creation of Mount Lebanon, but vast work remains to be done here. It would be useful to include the great landowners of the past, such as Jacob Negley and his son-in-law Thomas Mellon in the East End; Mary Croghan Schenley and her huge holdings in Stanton Heights, Oakland (especially the early mansions and later subdivisions), and the "Millionaire Rows" of Allegheny, Point Breeze, and Squirrel Hill. Knowingly or not, these were the first "developers" in city history. Should include case-studies of the platting of Regent Square, Oakland, Wilkinsburg, Bloomfield, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill (Watkins family projects; dismemberment of Murdoch Farms), or wherever pertinent. Overbrook and Brookline were developed in the same fashion. (This topic could lend itself to more than one case-study, if they were different enough.) Need to find the minutes of City Council, which record when the city "accepted" the plans devised by speculators.

(7) Franklin Nicola, Schenley Farms, and the invention of Oakland: we know the bare bones of the story of Franklin Nicola and how he developed Schenley Farms. Did he run the overall development of Oakland (did anybody?) Whether there was or was not a general manager of the Oakland vision, we need to sketch out how it proceded, and what role different characters played.

(8) How other neighborhoods governed themselves, planned themselves, and grew (Civil War to today): role of local councils, business associations (Squirrel Hill and South Side two naturals), Troy Hill.

(9) The Entrepreneurs and their industrial architecture (particularly Civil War to World War I): Incredibly, there has never been a study of what Pittsburgh contributed to industrial architecture. O'Hara's glass works, Jones & Laughlin, Carnegie, Westinghouse, Heinz: it was these industrialists who laid down the basic living and working configuration for Pittsburgh from the Civil War until well past World War II. On what basis did they make their decisions? Case-studies (perhaps of Westinghouse's Air-Brake works at Wilmerding, Robert Cummings's pioneering reinforced-concrete Taylor-Wilson Manufacturing Company plant in McKees Rocks, the cavernous Pittsburgh & Lake Erie steam locomotive repair shop in McKees Rocks, Homestead, Vandergrift, and Aliquippa) would study housing as well as industrial installations.

(10) Engineers: Benjamin Henry Latrobe, John Roebling, Samuel Driescher (fabulous untouched collection of original drawings at CMU), George Washington Ferris, Alexander Holley, Robert A. Cummings (see above), George Richardson: Pittsburgh has not lacked for talented engineers, but what have they in common? What is the engineering ethos of Pittsburgh? This study will get many answers by investigating our most important remaining factories, which, even if anonymous in authorship, tell us much about the engineering culture of past times.

(11) Architects: Janssen, Alden & Harlow, H.H. Richardson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hornbostel, etc. This would NOT repeat earlier specialized literature but create something new: a comprehensive portrait of the architects of Pittsburgh (local and out-of-towners) from Latrobe to Viñoly. Frick, Carnegie, and CMU have the Pittsburgh Architectural Club exhibitions from around 1902 to 1917 that shows what the local culture was in architecture. Compare that with other cities. The CMU architectural archive conveniently lists local AIA prize-winners from 1977 to today, which gives a picture of local taste in architecture. How do we compare with other cities?

(12) Landscape architects: these are the unsung heroes of the physical environment, because nobody is exactly sure what they do. Charles A. Birnbaum's Pioneers of American Landscape Design (Hillman has volume II: where is volume I?) cites at least Ralph Griswald, Director of Pittsburgh's Parks, and the firm of Innocenti and Wiebel, which from 1935 to 1952 carried out the design of Frick Park. Edward Muller of UPittsburgh's History Department, wrote one (or two?) studies of Fredrick Law Olmsted Jr. in Pittsburgh. We have at least one masterpiece here: William Falconer's design for Schenley Park. The CMU architectural archive has extensive materials on the making of Schenley Park, and E.M. Bigelow, the father of Pittsburgh's parks, was very conscious of landscape design in his boulevard projects. Barry Hannegan of McKeesport has been studying all aspects of the question, and so would be an excellent resource. So too is Meg Cheever, President of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. This is a chance to make a particularly notable contribution to the city through its physical history.

(13) Patrons of architecture (Gilded Age to World War II): Mellons (Thomas, A.W., R.B., R.K.), Fricks (Henry and Helen), Phipps, Carnegie, Kaufmann, Hillman, Scaife, the Heinzes (H.J. II and Theresa) etc. This is an outmoded concept today, but this tiny group of people had enormous impact on the built environment of the city. Think of Frick and what seems to have been his vision for Grant Street around 1904--and how close he came to realizing it. What was his planning rationale? Did he have one?

(14) Professional planners: E. M. Bigelow (Barry Hannegan has started to analyze his system of parks and boulevards), Frederick Bigger (often credited with the Pittsburgh Renaissance), and their contemporary successors. (Links with themes of planning consultants in Pittsburgh and institutional planning in the city).

(15) Planning consultants in Pittsburgh: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.; Robert Moses; recent involvement of outside consultants in the Fifth and Forbes district. Jonathan Barnett and planners up to today could be added. Possible amalgamation with topic 14.

(16) Institutional planning: This will look at the planning infrastructure of the region: Allegheny Conference on Community Development (1943), Pittsburgh's Department of City Planning (1940s?) and the various Citizens' Committees on City Improvement that date from the 1910s, the Urban Renewal Agency (1940s), RIDC, other associations. Define their history, their current functions, and future prospects.

(17) Financial planning: who funded the Pittsburgh Renaissance? Role of insurance companies like Equitable. The Murphy administration has been particularly activist (financing of Heinz Field, PNC Park, subsidizing Mellon Arena, the new Lawrence Convention Center, the new Lazarus and Lord & Taylor department stores).

(18) The Pittsburgh Renaissance: This would review what was accomplished, and what was left undone; personalities like Park Martin, the ACCD, Mayor David Lawrence, Richard King Mellon; legal framework for what was accomplished; John Robin and professional planning; successes and failures of planning at The Point, The Hill (particularly the Civic Arena district), East Liberty, East Hills, Oakland, and Allegheny Center. There are great resources in the scrapbooks of the rare book room at Carnegie.

(19) Masters of transportation (18th century river navigation; 19th-century canals, railroads, street railways, air pioneers, MAGLEV and proposed rapid-transit systems, rails-to-trails): No city can function any better than its transportation systems, and hilly- and gully-prone Pittsburgh is more dependent on them than most. A few names have surfaced: William Millar, who shaped PAT; Christopher Lyman Magee, the trolly lord; Callery, the trolly developer of Highland Park; road-builders like E. M. Bigelow (in-town) and Babcock (suburban)--but this story may in large part be one of anonymous contributions, though of the highest importance. Still, roads, bridges, and transit systems don't just happen: they are instances of planning at work. (The Winter 2003-04 issue of Western Pennsylvania History carried a fascinating article on the score of automobile brands once manufactured here: that, surely, had a powerful effect on road-building.) Among the most powerful transportation effects today is the rails-to-trails movement, which is profoundly changing how we see and get around the city. Why can Pittsburgh not take advantage of its rivers, again, as people-movers?

(20) Masters of infrastructure: we know what roads look like, but who actually builds them after a planner has drawn them on paper? who builds sewers, water systems, bridges, and electrifies our streets? who puts in the gas mains? The City Photographer recorded all this work: an unparalleled opportunity to write something entirely new.

(21) The preservationists (since 1960s): Arthur Ziegler, the late James Van Trump, and the pioneering Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation; a case study of the Mexican War Streets, Manchester; Main Street program on the South Side; partial successes on East Ohio Street and Deutschtown; limited success in Lawrenceville and the Hill.

(22) Commercial developers (since 1940s, especially Renaissance II): William Zeckendorf (Webb & Knapp: see his autobiography for reference to Pittsburgh), Eddie Lewis and Oxford Development, Damien Sofer, Robert McLean and the guided development of Renaissance II (PPG Place, Oxford Center, Fifth Avenue Place, Mellon Bank One, Dominion Tower).

(23) Brownfields conversion: recent histories of the South Oakland research park (the old J&L Eliza Furnace), The Waterfront, South Side Works, McKeesport (the old National Tube works), E. Pittsburgh (Westinghouse Electric), fate of J&L's Hazelwood Coke works.

(24) Riverside planning (1980s till today): Pittsburgh famously forgot that it had rivers until the 1980s. About a dozen buildings now address the rivers (Carnegie Science, Heinz Field, PNC Park, ALCOA, CAPA, Convention Center), and the Riverfront Task Force is studying the issue, but we lack the cohesion of other cities. Where should we be?

(25) Contemporary infill housing: Washington's Landing, Schenley Park townhouses, Crawford Square, Village of Shadyside, current infill housing on the South Side, Sommerset at Frick Park, Joedda Sampson and Eve Picker's "No Wall" specialists in loft conversion, with on-again, off-again plans for putting housing in the old Armstrong Cork factories. Is Pittsburgh ahead or behind of other cities in these initiatives? What is holding up the construction of more?

(26) The sprawlers: a new report from the Brookings Institition says that Pennsylvania has the worst urban sprawl of any state. Pittsburgh has had a 43% expansion in area since the 1980s, which may make us the most rapidly sprawling region in the United States. What is driving this bizarre abuse of our land? What strategies could combat it?

(27) Cranberry township: Like it or hate it, Cranberry Township represents the future of at least one segment of our local built environment. How does it operate? How do its planners try to shape its growth?

(28) What Pittsburgh can learn from other cities:

HARDCOPY RESOURCES--Published or printed works

Nearly all the books cited below are at Frick Library: a (R) means a book on the Frick Library reserve shelf; (FT) means the book or item can be borrowed from Frank Toker.

(FT) Abrams, Janet: "Fabrik of Society: An Architectural and Technological History of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company Town, Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, 1880--1920," unpublished paper for Princeton University, 1985.

Alberts, Robert: The Shaping of the Point. Pittsburgh, 1980. A very important study on how Pittsburgh "got things done" in the old days: architects, landscape architects, engineers, politicians, and financeers working together.

"Allegheny County Survey," unpublished manuscript, 1979-1984, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (almost all now online at www.arch.state.pa.us/default.asp; synopsis in Kidney, Pittsburgh's Landmark Architecture; full copy in Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission).

Architecture of the Sewickley Valley, Pennsylvania ca. 1995.

Aurand, Martin: Scheibler.

(FT) _____: "A Guide to Architectural Research in Pittsburgh and Vicinity," 1991 hardcopy version: now online (see below).

(FT) _____: "A Campus Renewed: A Decade of Building at Carnegie Mellon 1986--1996." Pittsburgh, 1996.

A Legacy in Bricks and Mortar: African-American Landmarks in Allegheny County. Pittsburgh, 1995.

Baldwin, Leland: Pittsburgh: The Story of a City, 1750-1865. Pittsburgh, 1937.

(FT) Barnett, Jonathan: "Designing Downtown Pittsburgh," Architectural Record, January, 1982, p. 90-107. (Important account of triumphs and failures by an important urban planner).

Bayus, Lenore: Beulah Presbyterian Church 1784--1984. Pittsburgh, 1984.

Bodnar, John, Roger Simon, and Michael Weber: Lives of their Own: Blacks, Italians, and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900-1960. Urbana, IL, 1982.

Boucher, John N: (ed.) A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People. 4 vols. New York, 1908. A genealogy and history of 850 leading families.

(FT) Brown, Mark M.: "The Architecture of Steel," Ph.D. dissertation on the design of steelmaking mills; also Frick.

Buck, Solon and Elizabeth: The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, 1939.

Buvinger, Bruce: "The Origin, Development and Persistence of Street Patterns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Pittsburgh, 1972. (A fascinating document: studies the various ways in which streets were laid out.)

Carnegie, Andrew: The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. Boston, 1920.

Couvares, Francis: The Remaking of Pittsburgh: Class and Culture in an Industrializing City, 1877-1919. Albany, 1984.

Demarest, David, Jr: (ed.) From these Hills, From these Valleys: Selected Fiction about Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, 1976.

The encyclopedia of Cleveland history, ed. David D. Van Tassel and John J. Grabowski (Bloomington: Indiana University Press + Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Historical Society, 2d ed., 1996). Hillman Library Reference F499 C657E53 1996

The Encyclopedia of New York City (ed. K.T. Jackson, New York, 1995). In reference room at Frick: F128.3 E75 1995. Both of these encyclopedias are useful as models of entries in a book about a city, also for counterparts to developments in Pittsburgh.

(FT) Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, 1930. (Stress on engineering & infrastructure, naturally).

Fenves, Steven J: "A History of Pittsburgh's Bridges," Pittsburgh Engineer May/June 1989, pp. 14--18, 32--36.

Fleming, George: Pittsburgh: How to See it. Pittsburgh, 1916. (A great view of Pittsburgh at its most prosperous).

Floyd, Margaret Henderson: Architecture after Richardson: Regionalism before Modernism: Longfellow, Alden, & Harlow in Boston and Pittsburgh. Looks at Gilded Age Pittsburgh.

(FT) Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt (1939): a still-valuable booklet on the early forts and early street patterns of Pittsburgh.

Gay, Vernon and Marilyn Evert: Discovering Pittsburgh's Sculpture. Pittsburgh, 1983.

Hessen, Robert: Steel Titan: The Life of Charles M. Schwab. New York, 1975.

Ingham, John N: The Iron Barons: A Social Analysis of an American Urban Elite, 1874-1965. Westport, CT, 1978.

(FT) Jucha, Robert: "The Anatomy of a Streetcar Suburb: A Development History of Shadyside," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine LXII, (1979), p. 301-319.

_____: Jucha, Robert: "The Anatomy of a Streetcar Suburb: A Development and Architectural History of Pittsburgh's Shadyside District, 1860--1920," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation for George Washington University, 1981, in hardcopy at Carnegie Library and also on microform (possibly could be printed into hardcopy?).

Kelly, J.M: Handbook of Greater Pittsburg. Pittsburgh, 1895.

Kidney, Walter: The Bridges of Pittsburgh

_____: Henry Hornbostel: An Architect's Master Touch.

(R) _____: Pittsburgh's Landmark Architecture

_____ and Arthur Ziegler, Jr.: Allegheny. Pittsburgh, 1975.

(FT) _____: A History of The Pittsburgh Builders Exchange, 1886--1986.

Killikelly, Sarah H: The History of Pittsburgh, Its Rise and Progress. Pittsburgh, 1906.

Klukas, Arnold: "H.H. Richardson's Designs for the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh," American Art Review II/4, (July-August, 1975), p. 64-76.

Long, Haniel: Pittsburgh Memoranda. Pittsburgh, 1935. A poet looks at the city

Lorant, Stefan: Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City. Garden City, NY, 1964 & rev. eds. Excellent pictorially.

(R) Lubove, Roy: Twentieth Century Pittsburgh; 2 vols, before & after the collapse of steel.

_____. Pittsburgh. New York, 1976. (Readings about the city)

(FT) Maps of Pittsburgh: a reprint of the Hopkins 1876 maps of Pittsburgh and Allegheny city is appended to "Pittsburgh Neighborhoods" (see below); also a dozen contemporary maps of the city are included. Furthermore, there is a loose collection of highly detailed new maps of about another twenty Pittsburgh neighboorhoods.

(FT) Marston: Index of HABS/HAER entries on Pittsburgh buildings.

(FT) _____: Survey of Historic Structures in the Strip District.

McFadden, Dennis: "Cicognani Kalla Architects: An Intimate Space for the Most Public Art," Carnegie Magazine November/December 1993: 20--23.

McLean, Robert III: Countdown to Renaissance II: The New Way Corporate America Builds. Pittsburgh, 1984.

Miller, Annie Clark: Chronicle of Families, houses, and estates of Pittsburgh and environs (copy in rare books at Foster, but we could get xerox made from Carnegie). Very helpful on post-Civil War "millionaire" communities.

_____: "Early land marks & names of old Pittsburgh": 61 pp. on old buildings; accessible as computer file.

Miller, Donald: The Architecture of Benno Janssen. Pittsburgh, 1998.

Miller, Donald and Aaron Sheon: Organic vision: the architecture of Peter Berendtson. Pittsburgh, 1980.

Palmer, Robert: Palmer's Pictorial Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, 1905. Excellent photographic collection of industrialists, architects, mansions, etc.

Parton, James: "Pittsburg," Atlantic Monthly XXI, (January, 1868), p. 17-36. Brilliant view of the city just coming out of the Civil War.

Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State (Writers' Program, Work Projects Administration). New York, 1940.

(FT) Pittsburgh neighborhoods (1981; Neighborhoods for Living Center?) listing of all Pittsburgh neighborhoods and their histories. Also in Buhl library on campus.

Planning the Pitt Campus: Dreams and Schemes Never Realized (1993: various buildings proposed for the University of Pittsburgh campus, and particularly the early plans for a Frick Fine Arts Building).

Russell Sage Foundation: The Pittsburgh Survey. 6 vols. New York, 1909-14. (Lives of workers, environmental problems of the city).

(FT) Schuyler, Montgomery: "The Buildings of Pittsburgh," Architectural Record 30 (September, 1911): pp 204-282 in five parts: "The Terrain and the Rivers," "The Business Quarter and the Commercial Buildings," "A Real Civic Center," "The Modern Auditorium Church," and "The Homes of Pittsburgh." This constitutes a brilliant portrait of the built environment of the city in 1911.

Spencer, Ethel: The Spencers of Amberson Avenue. Edited by Michael Weber and Peter Stearns. Pittsburgh, 1983. Very special account of a single family.

Stotz, Charles: The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania. New York, 1936 (reissued as The Architectural Heritage of Early Western Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh, 1966).

Stryker, Roy and Mel Seidenberg: A Pittsburgh Album, 1758-1958 Pittsburgh, 1959.

Swetnam, George and Helene Smith: A Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, 1976.

(FT) Tannler, Albert: "A List of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Buildings and Architects, 1950--1996" (a highly important guide to the designers of modern architecture in Pittsburgh)

(FT) _____: "Pittsburgh's Landmark Architecture, 1785--1950: A Concise Bibliography". (May or may not be available online from Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.)

(FT) Tarr, Joel: Transportion Innovation and Changing Spatial Patterns in Pittsburgh, 1850-1934. Chicago, 1978.

Thomas, Clarke: They Came to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, 1983. A quick look at immigrants.

(R) Toker, Franklin: Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. 2d ed., Pittsburgh, 1995.

_____: Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House (New York: Knopf/Random House; 2003).

(R) _____: chapter 1 of Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania (with Lu Donnelly, David Brumble; to be published by Oxford University Press in 2005).

_____. "Richardson en concours: The Pittsburgh Courthouse," Carnegie Magazine LI/9, (November, 1977), p. 13-29.

_____: "In the Grand Manner: The P & LE Station in Pittsburgh," Carnegie Magazine LIII/3, (March, 1979), p. 4-21.

_____: "Philip Johnson and PPG: A Date with History," Progressive Architecture LX, (July, 1979), p. 60-61.

_____: "Reversing an Urban Image: New Architecture in Pittsburgh, 1890-1980," in Sister Cities: Pittsburgh and Sheffield. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University, 1986.

_____, and Helen Wilson: The Roots of Architecture in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County: A Guide to Research Sources. Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1979.

Uhl, Lorraine, and ??: The Strip. Pittsburgh, 2003.

Urban Design Associates: The Olden Triangle: A Sequence of Forgotten History. Pittsburgh, 1977.

Urban Design International V/1 (Spring, 1984). Issue devoted to the urban design of Pittsburgh; papers by Jonathan Barnett, David Lewis, Robert Lurcott, and Franklin Toker.

Van Trump, James: An American Palace of Culture: The Carnegie Institute and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, 1970.

(R) _____: Life and Architecture in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, 1983. Contains numerous articles on Pittsburgh buildings.

Van Trump, James and Arthur Ziegler, Jr: Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, 1967.

Vexler, Robert: Pittsburgh: A Chronological and Documentary History, 1682-1976. Dobbs Ferry, NY, 1977.

Wall, Joseph: Andrew Carnegie. New York, 1970.

Warner, A: (ed.) History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. 2 vols. Chicago, 1889.

(Carnegie) Wilmerding and the Westinghouse Air-Brake Company.

(R) Whiffen, Marcus: American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles. (Effective nomenclature system for American buildings; illustrated).

Wilson, Erasmus: Standard History of Pittsburgh. Chicago, 1898.

Works of F.J. Osterling, Architect, Pittsburg. Compiled by J. Franklin Nelson. Pittsburgh, 1904.

Writing Hints on your "Builders of Pittsburgh" Research Papers

Hear how your writing sounds: switch individual words, or linkages of words, until they sound better.

Be accurate to the smallest details

Logical order: overall "point of view"; the general program; specific solution; exterior; interior; other details; later changes to the work; national and local context to the work; zippy ending.

Help reader envision what you are saying: describe the building, locate it clearly; add details on what is no longer standing; add "color"

Argument: begin entry with a clear point of view: this is the biggest church, the richest church, a moved-down-the-hill church etc. "Slant" your entry, don't just start it.

Be sophisticated: broad perspective, say LeCorbusier, not "the well-known French architect LeCorbusier"

Be concise: "he sold it to William Turner", not: "he sold it to a man named Turner"

Color yes, trivia no: drop minor funny details about buildings, especially as they will mean nothing to national audience

Be aware that we're no longer in the 20th century: can't say "turn of the century" for 1901 any more; can't say "mid-century" either. Can say "postwar" only when context well understood.

Be tenacious in research when the point is important: Shaker Heights was how many years before Schenley Farms, exactly?

Avoid repetition:

Don't repeat your sources in identical words: vary them

Use a thesaurus (most computers have them): use "precinct" instead of "neighborhood" all the time; acclaimed instead of distinguished etc. All computers have them.

Punctuation: commas: neither too few nor too many; colons, semicolons, when to hyphenate.

Time sequences: Shaker Heights had opened ... years earlier.

Plain style: used, not utilized; opened, not initiated

Revise: about four drafts per entry; it's so much easier than the first text!

Rhythm: "good food, good books, good art..."

Sharp images: a scheme to build a new City Hall is a much sharper mental image than a plan to build it...

Hyphenate: a mid-nineteenth century church; a well-read article; but a briefly noted obituary. 1954--1955 takes two hyphens.

Be ironic, not sentimental: Nicola died bankrupt; not "shows what a wonderful country we live in"

Linkage: Link your building to others in the city, state, nation, or world. Oakland Square put up because of cable-car access, opening of Schenley Park etc.

Paragraph breaks: pay attention to these for impact of meaning, or special drama

Position of words within sentence: for greatest impact

Money: be aware of inflation; $300,000 in 1910 would be at least $3 million today, maybe $5 or $6 million: you have to convey money values to your readers.

Title: your title is crucially important: it must point in a certain direction, not be merely bland.

SELECTIVITY: When getting your materials together, avoid parroting useless old materials just because they happen to exist. Ninety percent of what local papers have written about your topic is near garbage ("Old Mansion Reveals Secret," "Is there a Chapel on Top of Union Trust?" etc.): don't copy or repeat such nonsense.

THINK ABOUT AUDIENCE: Ask yourself what each sentence will mean to people in or from Seattle (the reader we are writing for). They won't much care about the local scene, unless what you say is something truly special about the social history of Pittsburgh, or what distinguishes the buildings or districts here. Remember, such buildings or districts or engineers were found in Seattle too: what is the special detail that will make Seattlans want to read about our churches and skyscrapers?

TIME MANAGEMENT: You are required to sift through materials at the Carnegie and Heinz not merely for completeness but for efficiency. Don't waste time on oral interviews when the residents (e.g. clergy at a church, who were transferred here only two years ago) don't know a fraction of what you will find out, using "effective" resources. Using PITTCAT and the Internet is mandatory: don't drive out to Bridgeville to see a book that's in Hillman or Carnegie.

Your focus for the rewrite should be on tone: the final text has to be clipped and professional, not chatty. Avoid "journalese" ("The mansion boasts a staircase of Italian marble") at all costs!

You need also to think about including or excluding detail: some detail is good for "color," but other detail is just trivia. You need to talk about the architect ("Hornbostel was at his best in this kind of public commission") or the architectural style ("The mansion is remarkably subdued for the High Victorian Gothic style of the 1870s"), and possibly also of the patron or the developer ("The lavishness of the church reflects Mellon's instructions to Cram to spare no expense").

Your papers have to have a sense of the comparative: whatever the topic, you need consciously or unconsciously to be comparing this building (architect, developer etc.) in or near Pittsburgh to parallel phenomena elsewhere. Otherwise, how can you declare what is important? All American cities had highways, suburbs, fancy streets like Grant and Beechwood: what was special about what went up here?

Be aware of continuity and audience: a sentence is part of the continuity of a chapter, a chapter part of a book, a book part of a series (in this case). Hence, pay attention to what your reader will already have read, or what s/he is going to read in the other reports.

A small note about quotations. Our "book" will have either footnotes or endnotes: we'll decide later. Remember, though, if you have a great quote you can paraphrase it or also quote it without a footnote. You can do this by an oblique reference: "The critic Montgomery Schyler called it the best new church in the United States, when he passed through Pittsburgh in 1911." Or, "Early reviews stressed the theater's advanced technology. One called it 'the finest modern auditorium in the world'."

People you can turn to: knowledgeable and available people for questions about Pittsburgh architecture, besides those at Carnegie and the Heinz History Center, are:

Martin Aurand, head of CMU's architectural archives, 4th floor of Hunt Library at CMU; tel. 412.268.8165

Albert M. Tannler, Archivist, and Walter Kidney, architectural historian; both at PH&LF (Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation) at Station Square; tel. 412.471.5808; fax 471.1633.

A letter of introduction: each of you can and probably should have one or more letters of introduction from the instructor, personalized, to get you over possible hurdles in your research trips.