Mellon Institute of Industrial Research

Mellon Institute
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Pittsburgh Landmark – PHLF
Coordinates	40°26′46.04″N 79°57′03.72″W / 40.4461222°N 79.9510333°W / 40.4461222; -79.9510333
Area	Schenley Farms Historic District
Built	1937
Architect	Benno Janssen
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Part of	Schenley Farms Historic District (ID83002213[1])
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	July 22, 1983
Designated PHLF	2003[2]

The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research was a research institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that became part of Carnegie Mellon University. It was founded in 1913 by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon as part of the University of Pittsburgh, and was originally located in Allen Hall. After becoming an independent research center and moving to a new building on Fifth Avenue in 1937, the Mellon Institute merged with the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1967 to form Carnegie Mellon University. While it ceased to exist as a distinct institution, the landmark building bearing its name remains located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Bellefield Avenue in Oakland, the city's university district. It is sited adjacent to The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and the University of Pittsburgh's Bellefield Hall and is across Bellefield Avenue from two other local landmarks: the University of Pittsburgh's Heinz Memorial Chapel and the Cathedral of Learning.

Designed by architect Benno Janssen (1874–1964), the Mellon Institute building has neo-classical architecture and elegant construction, with its signature monolithic limestone columns (the largest monolithic columns in the world).^[3] Andrew Mellon, who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury, specified to Janssen a building with a monumental ionic colonnade similar to the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. The proportions of the Mellon Institute's street facades are nearly those of the long lateral facade of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The Mellon Institute building was completed and dedicated posthumously to the Mellon brothers in May 1937.

The Mellon Institute building houses the Office of the Dean for Carnegie Mellon University's Mellon College of Science, as well as the administrative offices and research laboratories for the Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Chemistry. From 1986 until 2006, it also housed the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.