The Westinghouse Memorial is a bronze and granite monument commemorating George Westinghouse, an engineer and inventor of the railway air brake. The memorial is located at the entrance to the Steven Faloon trail, a part of Schenley Park. The architects for the monument and the surrounding area were Henry Hornbostel and Eric Fisher Wood. Daniel Chester French was the sculptor for the statue and the main panel, and Paul Fjelde designed the side panels. In 2019, the memorial was designated a historic landmark by the city of Pittsburgh.
Funding for the memorial came from more than 50,000 Westinghouse employees, who raised a total of $200,000. It was dedicated on Westinghouse's birthday, October 6, 1930; all local Westinghouse employees were given the day off from work. The ceremony was attended by approximately 12,000 people.
The bronze memorial was originally covered in gold leaf, which was added "so as to permanently give the monument an interesting surface which will be enhanced by the smoky atmosphere of the city." However, the gilding could be easily scratched off with a knife, and consequently the memorial was repeatedly vandalized. It was decided to remove the gold leaf entirely, which was paid for by the Westinghouse Air Brake Company and completed in December 1941. The memorial was restored again in 1984, including repairs to the schoolboy, The Spirit of the American Youth, sculpture.
By 2014, the memorial was again in need of attention. The pond infrastructure failed in 2009 and was no longer able to hold water, and the monument had been damaged by winter weather and vandals. In 2015, a new restoration was launched by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the City of Pittsburgh. The 14-month, $2.7 million project included rebuilding and refilling the pond, replacing pathways, planting new vegetation, and improving stormwater management around the site. The memorial was rededicated on October 6, 2016.
The design of the memorial consists of three double-sided bronze panels depicting the life of George Westinghouse, a statue of a school-age boy facing the panels, and the surrounding landscape including a lily pond, stone pathways, and black granite benches. The memorial shows a strong Beaux-Arts influence, reflecting Hornbostel and Wood's training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, while also incorporating modern elements like the depiction of contemporary people—a student and two industrial workers—in place of classical figures. The three panels are arranged in a semicircle and sit on top of a Norwegian granite base. Each panel is solid bronze. On the central panel, George Westinghouse is depicted at his drafting table in a bas-relief medallion flanked by high-relief figures of a mechanic and an engineer, along with dedicatory text and a granite plaque commemorating the first trial of the Westinghouse air brake. According to the Pittsburgh Press, the models for the two workers were actual Westinghouse employees Thomas Campbell and Anton Kusebauch. The two side panels contain bas-relief images of Westinghouse's engineering accomplishments, including electrification of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, the World's Columbian Exposition electrical system, and the Adams Power Plant at Niagara Falls. Each of the six reliefs is supported by a pair of sculpted turtles and set in a rectangular opening above a granite plaque with descriptive text. The side reliefs were sculpted by Paul Fjelde, while Daniel Chester French was responsible for the figural reliefs including Westinghouse and the two workers.
The rear of the memorial also carries a dedication plaque, which reads:
This memorial unveiled October 6, 1930, in honor of George Westinghouse is an enduring testimonial to the esteem, affection and loyalty of 60,000 employees of the great industrial organizations of which he was the founder. In his later years rightly called "The Greatest Living Engineer", George Westinghouse accomplished much of first importance to mankind through his ingenuity, persistence, courage, integrity and leadership. By the invention of the air brake and of automatic signaling devices, he led the world in the development of appliances for the promotion of speed, safety and economy of transportation. By his early vision of the value the alternating current electric system, he brought about a revolution in the transmission of electric power. His achievements were great, his energy and enthusiasm boundless, and his character beyond reproach; a shining mark for the guidance and encouragement of American youth.
[The Description above has been extracted from text contained in the Wikipedia discussion of the Westinghouse Memorial.]
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What is the total number of stone benches in front of the memorial and surrounding the pond?
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I am a retired employee of the Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC after a rewarding and fulfilling 43-1/2 year engineering career. George Westinghouse is remembered as an engineer, inventor, and businessman, whom I greatly admire.
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