Father Pitt

Category: Downtown

Westinghouse Building

Back in the days when Westinghouse was a giant international conglomerate, this was its world headquarters. It was designed by Harrison and Abramovitz, the same architects responsible for the similarly black and steely U. S. Steel building. Here we see it from the immaculately tended landscape of Equitable Plaza.

Old Pa Pitt can’t help thinking that the Westinghouse building looks like two Mies Van der Rohe buildings stacked one on top of the other.

The Westinghouse Building is at the other end of Equitable Plaza from the Gateway Center subway station.

May 7, 2009
Towers in a Park

Towers in a park: the modernist architectural ideal. It almost never worked the way it was supposed to, but the massive effort poured into Gateway Center in Pittsburgh’s first “Renaissance” created a towers-in-a-park development that has actually kept its attractive shine for half a century.

The distinctive chrome coating of the three identical cruciform towers was an afterthought. According to Mr. Franklin Toker, they were designed for brick facing, but stainless steel was substituted at the last minute. Then, because the Korean war made stainless steel scarce, chrome-alloyed steel was what the builders could actually get.

Brick would have been a modernist eyesore; the gleaming chrome creates a constantly shifting landscape of light throughout the day. The other secret of the success of this development is in the landscaping: no expense was spared to make it both pleasant and useful, so that people would want to spend time outside among the towers.

It would be hard to overestimate how pernicious the effect of this beautiful and pleasant complex of towers was on the rest of the city. It was the talk of the architectural world when it went up; everyone pointed to Pittsburgh, where an ugly warehouse district had been replaced by the modernist ideal, as the future of urban planning.

People learn the wrong lessons from success. In this case, the lesson urban planners took from Gateway Center was not that attention to detail matters, and that it is vitally important to create a pleasant environment that people will love; no, the lesson they took from it was that old buildings should be replaced by blocks of towers. Ugly brick slabs went up all over the East End to warehouse the poor. Many of them have since been blown to bits by more enlightened urban planners in favor of real houses that real people like to live in, but the incalculable damage they did to their neighborhoods is only now being reversed.

Gateway Center is just across the street from the Gateway Center subway station.

May 6, 2009
God and Mammon

The spire of Trinity Cathedral is dwarfed by the massive Oliver Building behind it, one of Daniel Burnham’s greatest gifts to Pittsburgh.

Trinity Cathedral is half a block up Sixth Avenue from the Wood Street subway station.

May 6, 2009
Ornaments on Heinz Hall

These ornaments in relief adorn the exterior of Heinz Hall, formerly the Loew’s Penn movie palace, and now home to the Pittsburgh Symphony. The creation of this first-rate concert hall began the long transformation of the decaying theater district into the bustling and lively cultural attraction it is today.

Heinz Hall is a short walk around the corner from the Wood Street subway station.

May 5, 2009
Building the Subway

A big hole in Stanwix Street marks where the new Gateway Center subway station is under construction below. When the new subway line to the North Side opens, this larger station will replace the old Gateway Center subway station, with its squealing underground loop and single platform.

May 5, 2009
Memorial of Oliver Ormsby

The Ormsby family were early settlers in the little town of Pittsburgh, coming here in 1768, when their son Oliver was only about a year old. Oliver spent the rest of his life here, and was buried in Trinity Churchyard with a memorial that shows how much wealth he had accumulated in that time. The inscription reads thus:

ERECTED
To the Memory of
OLIVER ORMSBY
Son of John Ormsby
born at Bedford, Pa. Feb. 23, 1767
removed in 1768 to Pittsburgh where he
resided until the period of his decease
the 28th of July A.D. 1832,
leaving to his afflicted family
(who were prematurely bereaved by an
all wise Providence of a devoted father)
a character of unblemished Purity
a fountain flowing with streams
of the noblest virtues for their instruction.
O best of Parents
Long for thee thy Children’s tears shall flow.
Long shall their bosoms heave with woe.
But thanks to our Almighty Father
we mourn not as those without hope
looking with the eyes of faith
for a reunion of our once happy family
in the regions of bliss,
where the spirits of the dust are perfected
through Christ Jesus our Lord.

May 4, 2009
Trinity Churchyard

Pittsburgh’s earliest settlers are buried downtown in the churchyard of Trinity Cathedral, the Episcopal cathedral of Pittsburgh (or at least the cathedral of some Anglican diocese, though which one may be up in the air right now). Next door is First Presbyterian, another colonial-era congregation, and across the street is the Duquesne Club, forming a perfect triangle of old money.

Trinity Churchyard is half a block up Sixth Avenue from the Wood Street subway station.

May 3, 2009
Tulips at Equitable Plaza

The gardens of Equitable Plaza, part of the modernist Gateway Center development that was the showpiece of Pittsburgh’s first Renaissance, are always perfectly tended, changing with the seasons.

Equitable Plaza is right next to the Gateway Center subway station.

May 2, 2009
Top of the CNG Tower

The top of the CNG tower seen from the Diamond, or “Market Square” as it’s usually called in print. While the rest of the country gripes about slow times, downtown Pittsburgh seems to be in the middle of a building boom, and construction equipment is likely to invade just about any photograph.

April 29, 2009
Subway in Motion

A two-car 47S train rolls into the Steel Plaza subway station in early rush hour.

April 28, 2009