The Progressive Architecture Of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr

Notes

M Notes Introduction I. See the exhibit catalog, Modem Architecture: International Exhibition (New York: Museum of Modern Art, I932). 2. Penelope Redd, "Scheibler Anticipated Modern Architecture ," Pittsburgh Sunday Sun-Telegraph, September 23, I934· 4:7. 3· John Knox Shear and Robert W. Schmertz, "A Pittsburgh Original," Charette 28 (September I948): 4-5. 4· See Charette 28 (December I948): 3, where Scheibler's sudden discovery is compared to the discovery of John Kane, the great Pittsburgh primitive artist. 5· John Knox Shear, "Pittsburgh Rediscovers an Architect Pioneer," Architectural Record 106 (July I949): 98-Ioo. 6. James D. Van Trump, "Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr.: A Prophet of Modern Architecture in Pittsburgh," Charette 42 (October I962): I I-I5· 7· Montgomery Schuyler, "The Building of Pittsburgh," Architectural Record 30:3 (September I9 I I): 206-82. 8. Quoted in Ian Latham, joseph Maria Olbrich (London: Academy Editions, I98o), p. 40. 9· Wiegfried Wichmann, "The Lily and Iris as European Picture Motifs in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries," World Cultures and Modem Art: The Encounter of 19th and 20th Century European Art and Music with Asia, Africa, Oceania, Afro-and Indo-America (Munich: F. Bruckmann, I972), pp. 108-I2. Many of these motifs had been previously adopted by European impressionists. IO. Peter Selz, "Art Nouveau: Art and Design at the Turn of the Century," Art in a Turbulent Era (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press), p. I2. I I. Aspects of de Babula's work appear also to have been influenced by the Floreale, a progressive Italian movement. I2. Construction I:2I (May 27, I905): I3. The article was reprinted as John T. Comes, "The Pittsburgh Architectural Club Exhibition I905,'' House and Garden 8:2 (August I905): 83-89. Renderings of de Babula's projects were published in Pittsburgh Architectural Club, Catalogue of the Third Exhibition (Pittsburgh: I905). I3. At least two other de Bobula projects may be traceable to designs by Viennese architect Otto Wagner. I4. Gillian H. Belnap, "The Apartment Buildings of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr., with a Catalogue of All His Multiple Residences," Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, I985 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International , I986), p. 2I8. I 5. Scheibler is mentioned briefly in one general history of American architecture and one scholarly essay: John Burchard and Albert Bush-Brown, The Architecture of America: A Social and Cultural History (Boston: Little, Brown, I 96 I), p. 2 33; R. J. Clark, "Stylistic Interplay between Central Europe and America: Architecture and Painting from I86o to I9I4.'' in The Shaping ofArt and Architecture in Nineteenth Century America (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, I972), pp. 7I, 78. Chapter 1. Man and Architect I . An understanding of Scheibler is impoverished by minimal biographical data and by a total lack of personal writings and insights from colleagues. Excepting a published biographical sketch in I908 and the Shear and Schmertz interview in I948, no biographical information was compiled on Scheibler during his lifetime. All else that is known has been assembled from primary sources and the reminiscences of family members and other acquaintances. John Newton Boucher, A Century and a Half of Pittsburgh and Her People (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, I9o8): 4:7; and Shear and Schmertz, "A Pittsburgh Original ," pp. 4-5. 2. Shear and Schmertz, "A Pittsburgh Original," p. 5· 3· The house still stands at 3305 Dawson (formerly Bouquet) Street. Scheibler may also have closely watched the concurrent construction of Henry Hobson I 55 I56 Notes Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail which would have been highly visible from Central High School's hilltop location. 4· Scheibler himself told of his apprenticeship to Moser, and his presence in the office was also noted by Henry Kropff in Tall McKee, "Charette Vignette [Henry Kropff]," Charette 29 (April I949): I5. The associations with the Thalman and the Longfellow, Alden and Harlow offices were reported by Scheibler's brother Will in an interview with James D. Van Trump of uncertain date. 5· Thalman made this claim in an advertisement in the I896 Pittsburgh city directory. 6. Among Scheibler's earliest extant drawings is a series of the classical orders, carefully drawn as if they were an academic exercise. These postdate his apprenticeship period, however. 7· Scheibler shared a downtown Pittsburgh office with architect John L. Beatty in I899, according to the city directory for that year. The exact nature of this arrangement is unclear. During his years in Wilkinsburg he had offices in the First National Bank Building, the Milligan and...