{"nrhp_refnum":"80003406","name":"Buhl Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"204 5th Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.44113164500004,"lon":-80.00179058199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-01-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story steel-framed office building at the south side of Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle, one block north of Market Square. It was completed in October 1913.","why_significant":"The building is presented as representative of the commercial architectural display of its era and as an unusual Italianate example by architects Janssen & Abbott, notable for polychrome terra cotta that remains in good condition. It is also linked to merchant Henry Buhl Jr. and the Buhl Foundation, and it is argued to be a key defining feature of the Market Square area.","narrative":"Completed in October 1913 on Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, the six-story Buhl Building was designed by Benno Janssen and Franklin Abbott. Its steel frame is clad on three sides in blue and white terra cotta arranged in piers and panels, imitating Italian Renaissance sgraffito work, with a heavy bracketed cornice above. Each window bay holds a large window flanked by two smaller ones, and the windows pivot inward and upward. Its polychrome terra cotta is unusual among the architects' works and remains largely in good condition. The building was originally called the Bash Building before Henry Buhl Jr., a leading merchant whose Boggs and Buhl store operated on Federal Street in Allegheny, purchased it during construction and renamed it. It is also regarded as a defining element of the Market Square area, whose surroundings the building helps preserve.","period_of_significance":"1900-1913","architect_builder":"Janssen & Abbot, Architects","architectural_style":"Edwardian; Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.574979-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003406.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003406/d42273e090-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003406/d42273e090-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania_(8482574559).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania_(8482574559).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"13000249","name":"Fourth Avenue Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/fourth-avenue-historic-district-boundary-increase-13000249/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997722","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buhl_Building_(Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4986309"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/buhl-building-80003406/"}