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.
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Caryatids on the Dollar Bank Building
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Lion on the Keystone Bank Building
A splendid lion roars over the entrance to the Keystone Bank Building on Fourth Avenue.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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PPG Place Reflected in PPG Place
The distinctive pinnacles of PPG Place are reflected in more PPG Place across the street.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3
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Union National Bank Building
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.
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There’s No Such Thing as Correct Exposure
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.
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Two PNC Plaza and Three PNC Plaza
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.
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Kossman Building (Town Place)
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.
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Victorian Storefront on Market Street
This beautifully restored building on Market Street is one of an identical pair. Note the properly inset entrance. It was once de rigeur for stores to have their entrances inset from the sidewalk like that, so that the door would not smack a passing pedestrian in the face. How did we forget what a good idea that was?
The picture is a composite of three photographs, which was the only way to get the whole façade across a very narrow street.
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The Residences at Market at Fifth
This little building on Graeme Street, a tiny alley between the Diamond (or Market Square) and Fifth Avenue, has probably never looked better since it was new, and possibly not even then. Its little corner of downtown is full of good restaurants and expensive shops now, so it looks like an attractive place to live.
This picture is a composite of two photographs, which is the only way to get the whole building from across an exceedingly narrow street.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A540
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Liberty Avenue at Stanwix Street
If we put some imagination into this picture, we can see Liberty Avenue as it was in the middle 1800s, when it was the center of the wholesale food trade (which later moved out to the Strip). But the old storefronts from that era are dwarfed by the 12-storey Diamond Building at the end of the block, and that in turn is dwarfed by the later skyscrapers behind it.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A540.
