Father Pitt

Category: Downtown

  • Sunset from Schenley Park

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    Storm clouds passing over the city gave us rain and these beautiful views.

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  • Grant Building

    Grant Building
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    Henry Hornbostel’s only real skyscraper was briefly the tallest thing in Pittsburgh when it opened in 1929, before being surpassed two years later by the Gulf Building. It’s famous for the air beacon on top—red until recently, but now green to match the logo of the Huntington Bank—that flashes “Pittsburgh” all night in Morse Code. Behind and to the left, the building with three enormous arches is Hornbostel’s City-County Building.

  • Patterns in the Skyline

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    A jumble of modernist buildings downtown, seen from Point State Park.

  • Point Park

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    The current landscaping scheme creates a broad, open recreational area in the middle, but with plenty of shade around the edges. The central jet of the fountain can reach 150 feet on a good day.

  • “Exit to Street”

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    A geometric composition in the Gateway subway station.

  • Oliver Building

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    One of sixteen buildings designed by the great Beaux-Arts master Daniel Burnham, the Oliver Building, finished in 1910, is typically elegant, and its scale is magnificent. It spans a whole city block. The back of it is a typical tripartite division that allowed large buildings like this to have more windows, more cross-ventilation, and possibly more of those desirable corner offices.

  • Tower at PNC Plaza in Progress

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    The Tower at PNC Plaza, Pittsburgh’s biggest new skyscraper since the 1980s, is still rising. Some of the exterior shell is appearing at lower levels, even though the skeleton hasn’t topped out yet. Here we see it from the Diamond (which is spelled “Market Square” on maps). Earlier pictures are here and here.

  • In the Lobby of Heinz Hall

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    Heinz Hall, the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony, began its life as a 1920s movie palace. Although the decorative scheme was subdued somewhat in the restoration, there is still a strong element of fantasy in the interior.

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  • Sunset from Schenley Park

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  • Gateway Center from the Subway

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    Gateway Center seen from the Gateway subway station.