{"id":1669,"date":"2013-06-21T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1669"},"modified":"2015-01-08T17:54:33","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T22:54:33","slug":"the-bank-tower-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/06\/21\/the-bank-tower-in-pittsburgh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bank Tower in Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Stairway <\/a>
Stairway in the Peoples Bank Building. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Howard R. Moyer) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Architectural <\/a>
Architectural detail from the Peoples Bank Building. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Anthony Kaminski) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Interior <\/a>
Interior view of The Bank Center. (Post-Gazette photo by Harry Coughanour) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This safe was one of the main attractions of The Bank Center. (Post-Gazette photo by Dale Gleason) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Painting <\/a>
Painting from the closing Bank Center heads to a new home. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Melissa Farlow) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

As developers invest in historic buildings or build new office towers, Downtown Pittsburgh grows more vibrant.<\/p>\n

In the past decade, the city has seen construction of Three PNC Plaza, which includes a Fairmont Hotel, offices, retail and 28 condominiums. Market Square has been revitalized. The Tower at PNC Plaza, a new, 33-story green building, is going up on Wood Street.<\/p>\n

This week, a smaller piece of the real estate puzzle fell into place when Post-Gazette business writer Mark Belko reported that investors from Erie plan to acquire The Bank Tower at Wood Street and Fourth Avenue.<\/p>\n

One of the city\u2019s first skyscrapers, this 16-story structure opened in 1902 as the People\u2019s Savings Bank. Designed by Boston architects Alden and Harlow, the building was part of Pittsburgh\u2019s Wall Street, anchored by Fourth Avenue, Wood Street and Forbes Avenue.<\/p>\n

The Bank Tower abounds with architectural gems. Its exterior is studded with monumental figures carved by John Massey Rhind, who created the sculptures of Andrew Carnegie, Johann Sebastian Bach and William Shakespeare that adorn Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.<\/p>\n

The Bank Tower survived its share of economic downturns plus an effort to make it part of a mall. In 1976, architects and investors joined The Bank Tower with four other historic temples of finance to create The Bank Center. The $10 million arcade, with a main entrance on Wood Street, featured a movie theater, restaurant, cafe and 20 shops. The elegant space included 40-feet-high marble Corinthian columns, a carved marble staircase and a hanging bronze clock.<\/p>\n

The mall declared bankruptcy in 1981 and closed in January 1987. One of the investors, Edward M. Ryan, founder of Ryan Homes, was owed $1.8 million. He bought the property at a sheriff\u2019s sale in 1988. In 1990, he donated it to Point Park University, which renovated 23,000 square feet into a library that students still use today.<\/p>\n

In 1986, The Bank Tower was spun off from the mall when its new owners obtained a separate mortgage. Today, it is an office tower with first-floor retail. It was a favorite of Margaret Henderson Floyd, an architectural historian and author of \u00a0\u201cArchitecture After Richardson,\u201d a landmark text.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe success of Alden & Harlow\u2019s great banks lies in their geometrical and textural manipulation, exploiting sudden contrasts of scale,\u201d Floyd wrote. She also praised, \u201cthe genius of Rhind who, as a virtuoso architectural sculptor, related his work explicitly to its location on each building.\u201d\u00a0The building\u2019s powerful exterior, Floyd wrote, \u201cis matched by a geometrical metal staircase that spirals the full height of the interior with elegant marble railings in the lobby that reflect Alden\u2019s ideas of geometrical form in another powerful passage of design.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As developers invest in historic buildings or build new office towers, Downtown Pittsburgh grows more vibrant.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesThe Bank Tower in Pittsburgh<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[945],"tags":[975,1279,1198,1192,1057,1267,1219,1199],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/tumblr_mopk80CMUM1rr5swxo5_1280.jpg?fit=806%2C1008&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1931,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/03\/27\/where-is-the-worlds-skinniest-building-pittsburgh-has-an-excellent-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1669,"position":0},"title":"Where is the world’s skinniest building? 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