The Three Rivers Arts Festival opened yesterday. Here we see the artist’s market behind the fountain at Gateway Center.
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Artist’s Market
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Fort Pitt Bridge
The double-decker Fort Pitt Bridge over the Monongahela enters downtown Pittsburgh from the Fort Pitt Tunnels, giving first-time visitors a shockingly spectacular introduction to the skyline as they arrive from the airport. The bridge itself matches the Fort Duquesne Bridge over the Allegheny, framing the Point with bright yellow arches.
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View from Point Park
Seeing downtown Pittsburgh from Point State Park, you might be forgiven for supposing that Pittsburgh had not existed before World War II. Not a single prewar building is visible; the “Renaissance” seems thorough and complete. The entire Point, once a seedy warehouse district, was redeveloped after the war, with a big chunk left open for Point State Park, and the rest covered with modernist towers.
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Granite Building in Black and White
Seeing the Granite Building in black and white (taken with a Zenit camera with a 28-mm Vivitar lens) brings out the variety of textures and ornaments. In the background is the Keenan Building.
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More of Gateway Center
Taken with a Zenit-B camera, which is a Soviet-era SLR, and a Vivitar 28-mm lens, which is of course not Soviet, this picture from Equitable Plaza shows Gateway Center as the perfect modernist ideal. No wonder it got so much attention.
Gateway Center is just across the street from the Gateway Center subway station.
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Reflections at Gateway Center
In the late afternoon, the declining sun plays with the shining surface of Three Gateway Center. Below, this modernist fountain is one of Gateway Center’s chief attractions.
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Rainbows in the Point Fountain
The colossal central jet wasn’t jetting, but there was plenty of spray to make rainbows at the Point Fountain yesterday.
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To the Ballgame via River
On a spring or summer evening, a favorite Pittsburgh pastime is to ride a streetcar or drive to Station Square, and then take a boat to the baseball game. The short trip actually takes us on all three rivers. Above, the Majestic, flagship of the Gateway Clipper fleet, chugs under the Fort Pitt Bridge on its way to PNC Park; below, the little Countess and the Princess make the same trip.
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Fifth Avenue Place
This 1980s postmodernist skyscraper replaced the beloved Jenkins Arcade. The bottom floors of the tower are also a shopping arcade, and a rather pleasant one, but old-timers will tell you it’s just not the same.
Fifth Avenue Place is across a rather complicated intersection from the Gateway Center subway station.
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Porter Aluminum Building
Another aluminum company built another aluminum skyscraper that, like the Alcoa Building behind it, bears a more than passing resemblance to a stack of television sets. Here we see it from Mellon Green.
The Porter Aluminum Building (now the FHL Bank Building) is half a block up Grant Street from the Grant Street exit of the Steel Plaza subway station.