The Liberty Bank Building is located in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Designed by Frederick Osterling it was built to house the Liberty National Bank which survived into the Great Depression. The building became a less desirable business address with the general decline in East Liberty’s commercial appeal around the mid-20th century. When the building’s roof and mechanical systems began to fail in the early 1980s it was abandoned and reverted to City ownership for non-payment of taxes.
Eve purchased it from the city in 2003 to redevelop it with a mind to addressing the startup workplace market. By then the building had deteriorated badly, with uncontrolled leaks from the roof that penetrated every floor of the building; broken windows on all sides of the building and pigeon infestation. The leaks destroyed plaster on ceilings and walls, and rotted wood floors, wood trim, and surviving window components.
In 2017 the building is again being repositioned as a full-building co-working shared office space, the flagship of The Beauty Shoppe. Converting the Liberty Bank Building to a coworking building completes the next phase of this building’s storied history – from an historic bank building dating pre-1900 into an innovative hub of activity.
Images courtesy of The Beauty Shoppe and no wall productions, inc.