Or, you know, do your best. A typically Pittsburgh sign on Brookline Boulevard.
-
UPMC Mercy Pavilion Under Construction
Just a few blocks away from our first Eye and Ear Hospital, Mercy Hospital is building a “Pavilion” that will specialize in eye patients. Here we see it from across the Mon.
-
St. George’s Church, Allentown
One of our endangered landmarks: it has been closed as a church for six years now, and no one seems to know what else to do with it. A community group wants to preserve it as a community resource, but it takes money to keep up a magnificent church. Allentown seems to be metamorphosing into a trendy neighborhood, but not very quickly into an expensive neighborhood—which is a good thing for the residents, but a bad thing for the prospect of making anything profitable out of this building.
Allentown was a German neighborhood, and this church was designed by a German architect (Herman J. Lang) for a German congregation. The church was finished in 1912. It has its own Wikipedia article, which identifies it as an example of “the German Romanesque architectural style, an American derivative of the Rundbogenstil style.” Father Pitt approves of that description, because he likes to say the word “Rundbogenstil.” We have pillaged most of the rest of our information from that article.
3 responses
-
St. Michael’s Church and Rectory, South Side Slopes
St. Michael’s is one of our earliest grand Romanesque churches, finished in 1861. It was designed for a German congregation by the German-born Charles F. Bartberger, who gave us a number of other distinguished ecclesiastical buildings. (He is often confused with Charles M. Bartberger, his son, who gave us a number of distinguished schools.) It was one of the first churches around here to be made into condominium apartments, so it is now preserved as the Angel’s Arms.
It was a rainy day today, and if you enlarge the picture you can pick out the falling raindrops.
Note the date over this side door.
The rectory, which is attached to the eastern end of the church, was built in 1890 and designed by another distinguished German Pittsburgh architect: Frederick Sauer, who gave us many fine churches and the whimsical Sauer Buildings in Aspinwall. Here he has created a very German Romanesque building that harmonizes well with the older church.
A very German corner dome.
Exceptionally fine carved foliage at the entrance to the rectory.
2 responses
-
Paphiopedilum Transvaal ‘Beechview’
Its parents come from Indonesia, but this paph speaks with a Picksburgh accent. According to its tag in the Orchid Room at Phipps Conservatory, it has won an Award of Merit from the American Orchid Society.
Papihopedilum Transvaal is an old hybrid, first made in 1901, between P. chamberlainianum and P. rothschildianum. Orchid genetics are complex enough that the seedlings from a hybrid are all different, so each one can become a named clone (with the name in single quotes) if someone likes it well enough. Obviously, with AM-AOS after its name, someone would like this one a great deal.
-
The Beverly and the Bayard, Oakland
These two matching apartment buildings on Craig Street were built between 1903 and 1910; although they seem to be known only by their numbers today, on our 1923 map they are marked as “Beverly” and “Bayard.” They once stood at the end of a row of similarly sized apartment buildings, but the others have been replaced by bigger apartment blocks. Those bays must make the front apartments very bright and cheerful on a sunny afternoon.
-
Two Species of Stanhopea in Phipps Conservatory
Stanhopea is a genus of orchids with remarkably complex flowers whose intricate mechanics make the pollinator bees go through an amusement-park ride to get the nectar they want, and incidentally pollinate the flower. The flowers hang down from the bottom of the plant, so in conservatories Stanhopea species are usually grown in hanging baskets. Above: Stanhopea ruckeri.
[Updated update: The tag identified the plant as Stanhopea wardii, but a Wikimedia Commons user identified the photos above as S. ruckeri and renamed the files, which made the pictures disappear from this page. They have been restored under their new file names. The user who changed them was kind enough to correspond with Father Pitt, noting that he had submitted the pictures to a leading orchid taxonomist who is an expert on Stanhopea. Phipps orchid tags are sometimes wrong, since the collection is huge and has been growing since 1892, so old Pa Pitt is inclined to believe the Stanhopea expert. But you should know, if you care, that there is some doubt.]
Below: an unidentified species of Stanhopea (marked “Stanhopea species” on the tag).
-
Arched Window in the B. M. Kramer & Co. Building
The double arch inside a single arch, with a circle to fill in the gap, is characteristic of the style of classically influenced Romanesque the Germans called Rundbogenstil, the round-arch style. It may not be exclusive to the Rundbogenstil, but Father Pitt likes to say the word “Rundbogenstil.” The B. M. Kramer and Co. building on the South Side, built as a beer warehouse, is one of the masterpieces of industrial architecture in Pittsburgh.
-
The Retreating Storm
The spire of Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside, silhouetted against retreating storm clouds at sunset.
