Father Pitt

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City View Apartments (Washington Plaza)

This massive slab on the Lower Hill, built in 1964, was designed by I. M. Pei—one of his earlier large works. It was meant as a typically idealistic International-style city-in-a-tower, with shops on the ground floor, recreational opportunities for the residents, and basically no reason ever to leave the premises. Pei might not be too happy about the recent renovations: the interior has been redesigned, and the stark white color has been changed to greyish industrial brown, which is all right if you like that sort of thing.

The building was called “Washington Plaza” for most of its life, but was renamed “City View” last year. Right now, however, it still carries the words “Washington Plaza” and the big trademark W on the west end of the building.

Old Pa Pitt must admit that he has never been a great fan of Pei’s work, but the architectural world at large loves him: his firm designed the John Hancock Tower in Boston, a building most famous for the multiple ways it has attempted to kill innocent Bostonians, but also one given multiple awards by the architecture industry. “Form follows function” is apparently not what architects really believe.

Camera: Kodak EasyShare 1485 IS.

January 22, 2015
The Building of Pittsburgh

A whole issue of the Architectural Record in 1911 is devoted to “The Building of Pittsburgh.” It is a treasury of information on many of the splendid buildings still standing here, as well as a few that have vanished.

January 20, 2015
Coronado Apartments

The Spanish inspiration is unusual for a Pittsburgh building, but this one has all the Moorish elements to make it properly Iberian—tiled roof, series of small arches, geometric mosaics. It faces a triangular park at the intersection of Centre, Aiken, and Liberty Avenues—a place that could have been one of Pittsburgh’s most splendid urban spaces, if Baum Boulevard on the other side had not developed as a row of car dealers.

Camera: Kodak EasyShare 1485 IS.

January 20, 2015
First United Methodist Church

Camera: Kodak EasyShare 1485 IS.

Technically in Bloomfield, this church sits on the corner where Bloomfield, Shadyside, and Friendship come together. The architects, Weary & Kramer, were a firm from Akron that specialized in heavy Romanesque and Gothic. This church is obviously inspired by H. H. Richardson’s designs, especially his courthouse and his Trinity Church in Boston.

According to the Architectural Record, this congregation used to be called Christ’s Methodist Church.

Camera: Canon PowerShot S45.

January 19, 2015
Oakland

Part of the medical and university district in Oakland.

Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

January 18, 2015
The Castle, Wilmerding

This splendid palace, officially the Westinghouse Air Brake Company General Office Building, presides benevolently over the pleasant company town of Wilmerding. The architect of the main part was Frederick Osterling, one of the great names in Pittsburgh architecture; the section at the left end was added later.

As a kind commenter notes, this is a bit of a white elephant for the little borough: it needs restoration work, but its out-of-the-way location makes it hard to sell. For a while it was operated as a museum of things Westinghouse, but the small nonprofit group that owned it could not afford the major renovations necessary to keep it open. One plan that has been fermenting for some time is to turn it into a boutique hotel.

Camera: Olympus E-20n.

Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

This is the building as it looked in about 1905, before the addition.

January 12, 2015
Westinghouse Memorial High School, Wilmerding

This Art Deco school occupies a prime location right on the town square—or town quarter-circle—in Wilmerding. After Wilmerding joined other municipalities to send its children to East Allegheny High School, this became an elementary school; then it was abandoned and sold. Old Pa Pitt hopes the new owners understand that they possess one of western Pennsylvania’s better Art Deco buildings, one that deserves careful preservation.

Camera: Olympus E-20n.

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January 12, 2015
Second Empire House in Lawrenceville

In addition to its architectural interest, this house on Penn Avenue is notable because it stands on the site of the cottage where Stephen Foster was born.

Camera: Olympus E-20n.

January 11, 2015
Snow in the Woods

With bonus deer tracks.

Camera (all pictures above): Olympus E-20n.

Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.Camera: Olympus E-20n.

January 10, 2015
Sphinx in the Snow

The Emil Winter mausoleum, a bit of Cecil B. De Mille Egyptian fantasy in the Allegheny Cemetery, was designed by John Russell Pope, architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives in Washington. It is almost an exact duplicate of the Woolworth mausoleum in Woodlawn, the Bronx, which means that—believe it or not—there are two of these things in the world. The sphinx guardians are probably its most striking feature.

Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.

January 7, 2015