The Skinny Building, possibly the world’s narrowest commercial building, has returned to its roots as a lunch counter.
One of the hidden beauties of downtown Pittsburgh: you have to go back behind the Bell Telephone Building on Strawberry Way, a tiny alley, where you will find an unexpectedly elegant arcade. Look up and you discover the ceiling of Guastavino tile in subdued greenish shades—a gem hidden from everyone who refuses to go wandering in back alleys.
The distinctive arched top of the CNG Tower, now known as EQT Plaza, one of old Pa Pitt’s favorite postmodernist buildings in the city.
Now the Smithfield United Church of Christ, and it has had several other names. This lacy spire has an honored place in history as the first structural use of aluminum. (The aluminum point on the Washington Monument was just a lump of aluminum set on top, not a structure.) The architect Henry Hornbostel’s other experiment in this building, the use of decorative concrete panels on the exterior walls, has not held up as well; for years the rest of the building has been shrouded in netting to prevent bits of concrete from raining on pedestrians. Below is a picture Father Pitt took of the tower in 2000, before the shrouds went up.
Now called EQT Plaza, this is one of old Pa Pitt’s favorite Postmodernist buildings from the 1980s “Renaissance II” boom. The architect was William Pederson of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
The octagonal rotunda of the Allegheny County Jail, designed by H. H. Richardson.
An apartment tower that was part of the original Chatham Center complex, designed by William Lescaze with Pittsburgh’s Harry Lefkowitz as the local architect. It opened in 1966.
Four Gateway Center rendered in old-postcard colors for no particular reason.
