The bank for the little mining town of Imperial occupied a building that accomplished its architectural mission perfectly. It was small, but it gave the impression of being respectable and substantial—a place where your money would be safe.
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Alley in Lawrenceville
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. Garden Way, looking eastward toward Children’s Hospital.
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Storefront on Potomac Avenue, Dormont
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. A beautiful storefront with veiny marble and a large panel of stained glass spanning the whole width. Note the properly inset entrance, so that the door does not fly open into passing pedestrians’ faces—a requirement we have forgotten.
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The Yards at Three Crossings, Strip
Kodak EasyShare Z981. This large apartment development between Railroad Street and the Allegheny opened in 2016. WTW Architects were the architects of record, and this is a good example of the type of patchwork-quilt architecture that has been fashionable in the last decade or two. On the one hand old Pa Pitt thinks these buildings are much more interesting than the plain brick boxes that were fashionable after the Second World War. On the other hand, bricks last, whereas Father Pitt fears some of these other materials will begin to look a bit scraggly in about fifteen years.
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South Side Slopes and Oakland
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. Rooftops of houses on the South Side Slopes, with Oakland and its usual cranes in the background.
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Craig Street Branch of the Pittsburgh National Bank, Oakland
Built in 1961–1962, this branch bank conveys the impression of being low and flat. It seems much shorter than it is; our brains don’t process how huge those concrete beams are, but note the height of the people in front. The deliberate lowness is an interesting choice, because the firm that designed it was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, whose other famous works include the Sears Tower, which was the tallest building in the world for two decades; One World Trade Center, the current tallest building in the Western Hemisphere; and the Burj Khalifa, which so far has not been surpassed.
James D. Van Trump described the building in The Stones of Pittsburgh: “Two great concrete beams cantilevered from slender piers support a concrete roof of great span. A bold and stark essay in pure construction.” The roof extends dramatically from the building to shelter a small parking lot in the rear.
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Houses on Goettmann Street, Troy Hill
Composite of three photographs from the Kodak EasyShare Z981. Modest frame houses with spectacular views across the Allegheny.
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By the Montour Railroad in Imperial
The Imperial station on the Montour Railroad has become, with much remodeling, the Findlay Township Activity Center, which residents can rent for (you probably guessed already) activities. A neat little red caboose sits beside the old railroad bed, which is now the Montour Trail.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. -
Apartment Buildings on Voelkel Avenue, Dormont
On the southeast side of Voelkel Avenue in Dormont are three eye-catching apartment buildings. Since patterned brickwork was a favorite trick of Charles R. Geisler, the most prolific designer of apartment buildings in Dormont and Mount Lebanon, old Pa Pitt suspects he was responsible (but of course would be happy to be contradicted by someone with real information). The building above has kept its original art glass in the stairwell, but the front windows of the apartments have been replaced with modern picture windows.
This one has a different configuration of apartment windows, possibly more like the original. It has lost its art glass in the stairwell, however.
The entrance to the D’Alo, on the corner of Voelkel and Potomac Avenues.
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. Across the street are two smaller apartment buildings with a similar riot of patterned brick. We suspect Geisler has struck again.
