Charles A. Bickel was a prominent architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 practicing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

.

Bickel was born to a well-to-do family of Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

 who sent him to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 for six years to prepare him for a career in architecture. On his return in 1875, he settled in Pittsburgh, apprenticed with an architect there. In 1885 opened his independent practice, at first in partnership with J.P. Brennan, a partnership that was soon dissolved. Bickel's practice at its height averaged $3,000,000 a year in billings and was concentrated in commercial structures. He served for a time as architect to the city of Pittsburgh, and designed and built numerous police precinct houses and the Public Safety offices.

Failing health forced him to retire in 1920, and he turned his practice over to his son.

Selected commissions

Many of Bickel's commercial structure were of fireproof construction.

• Logan-Gregg Hardware Company building, eight storeys.
• Spear & Company, ten storeys
• May Building, twelve storeys
• German National Bank, 313 Sixth Avenue, downtown Pittsburgh, eight storeys, 1890
• Columbia National Bank, ten storeys
• Methodist Book Concern building, eight storeys
• United Presbyterian Book building, eleven storeys
• H. and I Kaufman and I. Kaufman stores
  Kaufmann's
  Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was owned in the early 20th century by Edgar J. Kaufmann, patron of 'Fallingwater' and the Kaufmann's Desert House. In the post-war years the store became a regional chain in the eastern United States, and was last...
  
  , ten and twelve storeys, 1898
• Hartje Building, twelve storeys, and three Hartje storeys
• B. White Building, eight storeys
• Atlantic Financial Building, 1889
• Pittsburgh Terminal Warehouse
• Haines Building, ten storeys
• McKay Building, eight storeys
• Olympia Theatre
• Reymer Brothers Candy Factory
  Reymer Brothers Candy Factory
  The Reymer Brothers Candy Factory in the Bluff neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a building from 1906. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997....
  
   at 1425 Forbes Avenue in the Bluff
  Bluff (Pittsburgh)
  The Bluff or Uptown is a neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the southeast of the city's Central Business District. It is bordered in the north by the Hill District and just a short trip across the Monongahela River is the city's South Side, which is home to a flourishing...
  
   neighborhood of Pittsburgh, 1910
• Concordia Club
  Concordia Club
  The O'Hara Student Center, formerly the Concordia Club, is a three-story, building on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh on O'Hara Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District and the City of...
  
  , 1913
• Second Presbyterian church, Eighth Street
• South Side Market Building
  South Side Market Building
  South Side Market Building is a historic market house at 12th and Bingham Streets in the South Side Flats neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
  
   at 12th and Bingham Streets in the South Side Flats neighborhood of Pittsburgh, 1915
• Methodist Episcopal Church, lincoln Avenue
• German Savings and Trust Company
• Duquesne National Bank
• National Ben Franklin Fire Insurance Company Building
• Westmoreland Club, in Verona, Pennsylvania
• N. Nathan & Brothers Building, Johnstown, Pennsylvania