Burke Building

A survivor as hardy as the Blockhouse next to Fort Pitt (AL6), the Burke Building must have always been one of the most handsome buildings downtown. Built of cream-toned sandstone—luxurious for an office building—its Greek Revival design is taut and well proportioned. This five-bay, three-story pedimented structure, with its striking Doric-columned entrance, survived the onslaught of late-nineteenth-century revivals, escaped the ravages of the Great Fire of 1845 by not more than half a block, and, finally, has emerged as a surprisingly strong outbuilding to the PPG Place complex that engulfed it in the 1980s. In the 1990s, it was restored using renewable resources as the headquarters of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which has since moved to 800 Waterfront Drive, thus opening a new chapter in the Burke Building's long history.