This is not Father Pitt’s favorite building downtown, but it was one of the last works of a distinguished modern architect: William Lescaze, who died in 1969, the year after One Oliver Plaza was built. The building has had several names since then; it now goes by the name K&L Gates Center. Old Pa Pitt’s friend Dr. Boli has remarked that the names at the tops of the skyscrapers are a good index of who is most ruthlessly exploiting the masses at the moment. K&L Gates is a gigantic law firm.
Old Pa Pitt’s fascination with small apartment buildings is hard to explain, except that—as he has mentioned before—they often gave lesser architects a chance to execute unusual ideas. This building is made of very simple elements, but arranged in an unusual rhythm, the balconies forming strong verticals that are accented by brick projections at the roofline.
The architectural parts of the Sixteenth Street or David McCullough Bridge, built in 1923, were designed by Warren and Wetmore, architects of Grand Central Station in New York. The fact that the bridge does not fall down is attributable to the engineer, H. G. Balcom.
Throughout the year 2022, old Pa Pitt managed to put up at least one new article every day. To celebrate the changing of the years, here are twelve of his favorite pictures from last year, one for each month:
A vase of witch hazel.
Church of the Ascension, Shadyside.
Crocuses in the rain.
Fox squirrel.
Interior of Heinz Chapel.
Mammatus clouds at sunset.
Spotted Lanternfly nymph.
Retreating storm clouds behind the spire of Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside.
Atlas on the Kaufmann’s Clock.
Chimney pots on the South Side.
The skyline of downtown with November leaves.
The colossal columns of the Mellon Institute illuminated from within at twilight.
Another elegant little branch library by Alden & Harlow. Although the branch library moved a short distance away to a larger modern building, this one was fortunately taken over by a mosque and is therefore still loved and kept up.
Every year this cliff face in Banksville grows a beautiful cascade of icicles, and old Pa Pitt has taken pictures of it more than once. Here it is again, and no excuse is necessary.
A matched set of probably doomed apartment buildings at the intersection of Negley Avenue and Rural Street, seen on an appropriately gloomy day. They were built between 1910 and 1923, and although they are mostly utilitarian boxes of apartments, their fronts are distinctive and interesting.
The treatment of the balconies creates a pleasingly complex rhythm, with broad and shallow rounded arches at the top, and slightly peaked Jacobean arches on the two lower floors. The windows in the center may have been stained glass, long since replaced when they were sold either by thieves or by an owner who could not afford to maintain them. The brick quoins add pleasing complexity to the texture.
Some kind of cornice or decorative strip has done missing from the fronts, revealing cheaper red brick behind it that was never meant to be seen.
