Union Trust Building
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The Union Trust Building (435 Grant St., downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), was erected in 1915-16 by the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The Flemish-Gothic structure's original purpose was to serve as a shopping arcade. Known as the Union Arcade, it featured 240 shops and galleries. The mansard roof is adorned with terra cotta dormers and two chapel like mechanical towers. The interior is arranged about a central rotunda, capped by a stained glass dome.
Designed by Frederick J. Osterling, the building was constructed on the site of Pittsburgh's nineteenth century St. Paul's Catholic Cathedral. The Union Trust Company purchased the structure in 1923, renaming it from the Union Arcade to the Union Trust Building, as well as remodeling the first four floors. Its current owner is the Mellon Financial Corporation and shares the title 2 Mellon Center.
The building's unique roof is the result of a restrictive covenant placed on the land by its previous owner, the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The bishop at the time placed the restrictive covenant on the land when Frick purchased it so that, although it would now have commercial purposes, residents would always remember the cathedral once stood there.
