The Granite Building was once the headquarters of the German National Bank, and this sign is still legible on the back of it (along with remains of other generations of painted signs). Father Pitt has altered the perspective and contrast to make the old lettering as plain as possible; below is what you actually see today.
EQT Plaza reflected in the K & L Gates Center, and the Keenan Building and the Clark Building reflected in Two PNC Plaza.
Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.
For decades this clock, on the Kaufmann’s department store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street, marked the busiest corner of Pittsburgh’s retail district. “Under the clock” was the designated meeting-place downtown, and Kaufmann’s premier restaurant was called the Tic-Toc in its honor.
The Kaufmann’s building (like everything else) is being redeveloped as condominium apartments, and the clock is featured prominently in the advertising art.
These unusual grotesque caryatid pilasters are seldom noticed by visitors admiring the famous Dollar Bank lions, but they add to the impression of Victorian exuberance in the Dollar Bank’s façade.
A splendid lion roars over the entrance to the Keystone Bank Building on Fourth Avenue.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
The distinctive pinnacles of PPG Place are reflected in more PPG Place across the street.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3
The Union National Bank Building of 1906 is one of the most splendid of the Fourth Avenue bank towers. It was designed by the prolific and tasteful MacClure and Spahr. As “The Carlyle,” it is now a luxury condo tower.
Old Pa Pitt often tells young photographers that there’s no such thing as correct exposure. He likes to make dogmatic pronouncements like that and watch their reactions. But this is what he means. These two pictures of the skyline at night are taken at quite different exposures (two whole stops apart, in fact). The one above is the kind of exposure you will usually see in a night shot of a city skyline. The one below is much closer to the way the skyline actually appears to the eye of the observer. Which is correct? Neither, of course. It is a matter of taste, and of creating the image you, the photographer, wish to create.
Two PNC Plaza (with the PNC logo at the top) and Three PNC Plaza (center, with the notch cut out of it), as seen from Liberty Avenue.
The old Kossman Building was given a dark makeover for its new identity as “Town Place,” so that it looks a little less like a dated relic of the International Style and a little more like a cool new International Style revival. In fact, old Pa Pitt thinks that, in black, it looks like a Mies van der Rohe building wearing a hat.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A540.
