| Highland Building | |
| Location: | 121 S. Highland Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates: | 40.46°N -79.9247°W |
| Built: | 1909 |
| Architect: | Burnham, D.H., Co. |
| Architecture: | Chicago |
| Added: | September 06, 1991 |
| Refnum: | 91001123 |
The Highland Building is a thirteen-story building which is located in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Construction on the building was completed in 1909, with Daniel Burnham being the principal designer.[1] [2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
Henry Clay Frick originally commissioned the building.[1] Following the Chicago school of architecture style, the building features a granite base and terracotta exterior.[1]
Beginning sometime around the 1960s, the building gradually fell into disrepair coinciding with the decline of East Liberty. A classical ornament on the roof was replaced with substandard material, allowing water to enter the basement. Over time, the interior essentially was destroyed.[1]
The Highland Building subsequently experienced twenty years of complete dormancy during the latter part of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. With assistance from the state of Pennsylvania and the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, a new renovation effort was launched in 2012 to restore the exterior and reconstruct the interior of the Highland Building, attach it to the adjacent three-story Wallace Building and convert the entire complex into one hundred and twenty-seven apartments. The project, now completed, is described as, "Walnut on Highland" and is mostly leased. Recently, the last of the retail space in the Wallace Building was filled by a Mexican Restaurant.[3] [4]