Design
The building was designed by Henry Hornbostel and opened in 1917. Its main hall is surrounded by gilded classical columns 47 feet high, supporting a vaulted ceiling of Gustavino terra cotta tile. Architectural sculpture on the building was created by Charles Keck.
Although massive in its own right, it is just the main structure in a complex of city/county service buildings in the neighboring blocks. The city/county annex is a block east of the structure "behind" it on Ross Street and it is also very large. The Allegheny County Courthouse and offices border the structure to the north. Up until the 1960s, the corrections department had its offices to the northeast of the structure. On the seventh floor of the building is a massive mural completed in 1940 entitled "Justice" by award winning artist Harry Scheuch.
Read more about this topic: Pittsburgh City-County Building
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)