Following the destruction of the second courthouse, Allegheny County Commissioners decided to hold a competition to design a replacement. The winner of the competition was Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson and construction of the buildings was begun by the Norcross Brothers, Richardson's construction firm of choice, in 1884. The excavation and foundation of the site was contracted to Booth and Flinn. The jail portion of the complex was completed in 1886, the year of Richardson's death and the entire court house was finished in 1886 by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Richardson's successor firm. The total cost of the project up to that time was over two and a quarter million dollars.
A prison is connected to the courthouse via the "Bridge of Sighs". The design was based on the Bridge of Sighs in Venice.
Having Richardson's education at the École des Beaux-Arts proved fruitful. This is a highly planned and organized facility, in addition to being pleasing to the eye. Though lacking the ornamentation of the similar civic buildings abroad, this building achieves stature without excess. The courtyard is a pleasant feature, while not an innovation, it is consistent with baronial castle architecture in Scotland. Indeed, Richardson's aim may have been to build a castle in the center of Pittsburgh...
