Just before World War I, the firm of Kiehnel and Elliott was challenging Pittsburgh's orthodoxies in public architecture just as architect Frederick G. Scheibler Jr. (see AL105) was challenging housing orthodoxies. Germanborn Richard Kiehnel came to Pittsburgh from Cleveland, but he had worked in Chicago during the early years of the Prairie School. He joined in partnership with Pittsburgher John Elliott in 1906. This simple fire station, with minimalist brick walls set off by exaggerated dark stone cornices, shows the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright. The placement of the windows on the main facade seems almost lifted from Unity Temple, a Chicago masterpiece of which Kiehnel was surely aware.