Frick Building

Pittsburgh, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The Frick Building, completed in 1902 in downtown Pittsburgh, is a 330-foot office tower designed by Daniel H. Burnham of D.H. Burnham & Company and built by industrialist Henry Clay Frick. When it opened on March 15, 1902, it was the city's tallest structure, originally featuring twenty stories (later credited as twenty-one after landscape changes lowered surrounding ground level in 1912). Frick deliberately sited the tower next to a building owned by his former business partner Andrew Carnegie, a rival, intending it to overshadow his neighbor's property. The top floor, reserved for the Union Club of Pittsburgh, contained Frick's personal office and a remarkable shower on the nineteenth floor—reportedly the highest shower yet constructed at the time, a feat made possible by the building's advanced engineering. The interiors showcase period craftsmanship: a stained-glass window by John LaFarge titled "Fortune and Her Wheel" adorns the lobby, bronze sentinel lions by sculptor Alexander Proctor flank the entrance, and a portrait bust by Malvina Hoffman commemorates Frick himself. The building remains a distinctive Pittsburgh landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architect

D. H. Burnham & Company

Built: 1902
Type: skyscraper, office building
Heritage: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark, National Register of Historic Places listed place
Place: Pittsburgh, United States

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Location

40.43917, -79.99750