Henry Hornbostel

Henry Hornbostel
Henry Hornbostel, 1915
Born	1867 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	1961 (aged 93–94)
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Architect
Practice	Raymond & Hornbostel; Wood, Palmer & Hornbostel; Palmer & Hornbostel; Palmer, Hornbostel & Jones; Henry Hornbostel

Henry Hornbostel (August 15, 1867 – December 13, 1961) was an American architect and educator. Hornbostel designed more than 225 buildings, bridges, and monuments in the United States. Twenty-two of his designs are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Oakland City Hall in Oakland, California and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum and University Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About

The son of Edward Hornbostel, a stockbroker, and Johanna Cassebeer, Hornbostel was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He trained in architecture at Columbia University (BA 1891) and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1893–7). Hornbostel distinguished himself as a superb draftsman and renderer, earning in Paris the name, “l’homme perspectif.” He was a partner, over his career, in the New York firms of Howell, Stokes & Hornbostel; Wood, Palmer & Hornbostel; Palmer & Hornbostel; and Palmer, Hornbostel & Jones. He also practiced independently from a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania office.

Hornbostel first earned distinction for his work with the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in New York City, assisting engineers in the design of bridges. Between 1903 and 1917 he was responsible for the architecture of the Queensborough, Manhattan, Pelham Park and Hell Gate bridges—spans for both automobiles and trains. His masterpiece, the Penn Central Hell Gate viaduct (1917), is one of the most beautiful railway bridges in the world.

In 1903 Palmer & Hornbostel won a competition for the design of a new campus for Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology (later Carnegie Mellon University). Their brilliant Beaux-Arts scheme created an ordered, axial sequence of buildings despite the hilly topography. Hornbostel convinced Andrew Carnegie, his patron, to hire him as a professor in a new school of design at the university, allowing him the time and latitude to perfect his design over decades. The result is one of America’s most distinctive classical campuses, on a par with Columbia and the University of Virginia. He was active in the Pittsburgh area, and influenced many buildings there in the early 20th century.

Buildings

Nearly half of his works (110) were in Pittsburgh, an industrial boomtown in the early twentieth century, where in 1904 he won the campus design competition for Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Technical Schools (today's Carnegie Mellon University). He also helped to establish Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture that same year. He also designed many of the original buildings of Emory University in Atlanta.

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  Rodef Shalom Temple from Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 
  Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial in Pittsburgh
• 
  Chapter House of St. Anthony Hall, Columbia University, New York City
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  Pittsburgh City-County Building, Henry Hornbostel, designer; Edward B. Lee, architect, with Palmer, Hornbostel & Jones
• 
  Hamerschlag Hall at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
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  Thaw Hall at the University of Pittsburgh
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  Williamsburg Bridge, New York City
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  New York State Education Department Building, Albany, New York
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  Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts, Pittsburgh
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  Congregation B'nai Israel (Urban League of Pittsburgh Charter School), Henry Hornbostel, with William S. Fraser, Philip Friedman, and Alexander Sharove
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  Hamburg Hall (U.S. Bureau of Mines), Carnegie Mellon Heinz College, Pittsburgh, PA
• 
  Schenley Apartments. Henry Hornbostel, with Rutan & Russell
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  Carnegie Mellon University, the original campus (Carnegie Institute of Technology; Carnegie Technical Schools), Palmer & Hornbostel, Henry Hornbostel
• 
  Smithfield Congregational (United) Church (currently Smithfield United Church of Christ), located at 620 Smithfield Street in Downtown Pittsburgh
• 
  Habersham Memorial Hall, Atlanta, Georgia

Among his many landmarks are:

• Rodef Shalom Temple, Pittsburgh (1904)
• Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial, Pittsburgh (1907)
• The Harding Memorial, the tomb of President Warren Harding
• Pittsburgh City-County Building, (1915–1917, with Edward B. Lee)
• At his alma mater, St. Anthony Hall fraternity, New York (Building #96000484 listed as "Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter" [1].

Hornbostel is also noted for his work on the Queensboro Bridge (1909), and the Hell Gate Bridge (1916) done jointly with Gustav Lindenthal. In 1917, Hornbostel co-authored an urban planning proposal for the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, titled Johnstown: A City Practicable.

References

• Kidney, Walter C. (2002). Henry Hornbostel: An Architect's Master Touch. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation & Roberts Rinehart Publishers. ISBN 1-57098-398-4.

External links

• Henry Hornbostel Collection, Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Archives
• Henry Hornbostel archival card catalog. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.