Father Pitt

Category: Downtown

  • End of the Line for Gateway Center

    A kind reader who signs himself “Matt” had an excellent suggestion:

    Any interest in photographing or featuring the old Gateway Center Station one last time before it closes forever this weekend?

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    It was never a beautiful or impressive space, but of our trio of odd underground stations, Gateway Center was the oddest. It will soon be replaced by a gleaming new station that will doubtless be more convenient and more beautiful. But old Pa Pitt confesses that he was always sneakily proud of the old Gateway Center station when he brought out-of-town visitors downtown. They might come from cities with more expensive or more comprehensive subway systems, but few subway stations are as just plain weird as Gateway Center was.  Notice, for example, the low-level platform, now closed off by a rail, that was built to accommodate the old PCC cars when they still ran the Overbrook route—a feature shared by all three of the underground stations downtown.

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    The weirdest aspect of Gateway Center, of course, was the loop. Visitors riding the subway for the first time were always alarmed to see the station they wanted flashing by on their left, as though the car had somehow just missed it. Then came the long squealy loop that threw everybody to the right-hand side of the car, and finally the car re-emerged into the station, this time with the platform on the right side.

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    We’ll see more pictures of the old Gateway Center station shortly. Meanwhile, the subway ends at Wood  Street until further notice, except for the next few weekends, when it ends at First Avenue.

  • Fort Duquesne Bridge

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    The companion to the Fort Pitt Bridge, the Fort Duquesne Bridge crosses the Allegheny, giving the Point a pair of golden wings. The picture was taken with a Kodak Retinette.

  • Smithfield Street Bridge

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    A view from the sidewalk shows the intricacy of Gustav Lindenthal’s famous Pauli truss. Taken with a Kodak Retinette.

    The Smithfield Street Bridge is just across Carson Street from the Station Square subway station.

  • Crowds in Point Park

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    Weekend crowds throng Point Park in the early-evening sun. Taken with a Kodak Retinette, whose tidy German precision, with a Schneider-Kreuznach lens and Compur-Rapid shutter, makes it a pleasure to take on a walk in the city.

  • Looking Up at the PPG Tower

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    Looking up at Philip Johnson’s PPG Tower, the centerpiece of PPG Place and the de-facto symbol of downtown Pittsburgh, from the Diamond.

  • The Diamond

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    This little corner of the Diamond (the Diamond is called “Market Square” on maps) looks like the Pittsburgh of olden times, before steel-cage construction made skyscrapers sprout everywhere. Taking away the neon and the road signs, it could be a Victorian engraving. Father Pitt begs your forgiveness for the cheap lens on this digital camera, which makes straight lines impossible. (Update: With better software, we have been able to eliminate most of the distortion. For comparison, the original image is reproduced below.)

    The Diamond is a block up Forbes Avenue from the Gateway Center subway station.

  • Fifth Avenue Place from the Diamond

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    Fifth Avenue Place looms over the Diamond (which is spelled “Market Square,” but pronounced “Diamond”). At night, the needle at the top is illuminated from below, so it looks as if the building is about to emit a space probe.

  • Pigeons

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    Downtown Pittsburgh can be as crowded for pigeons as it is for people. This tree bears its strange avian fruit in Mellon Square.

  • Ornamental Ironwork on the William Penn

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    An ornate iron grille on the side of the William Penn Hotel. Even in the most prosaic things, beauty and function can get along happily together. —An update: The architect of the William Penn was Benno Jassen, whose favorite ironwork artist was Samuel Yellin. Although old Pa Pitt has not been able to find any reference to the artist who made them, he believes that these grilles are probably Yellin’s work.

  • Rare Surviving Victorian Lettering

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    The demolition of a building on Forbes Avenue downtown laid bare not only a splendid canvas for some rather unimaginative graffiti, but also half of a painted sign for a Victorian cafe that once occupied this spot. The part that survives is in an extraordinary state of preservation, so we can appreciate the rakish backslant of the bold but ornate letters that spell out “–mmel’s Cafe.”