Crow tracks in the snow.
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Baywood
This splendid Second-Empire-style mansion in Highland Park was the home of Alexander King, whose family married into the Mellons, adding “King” to the repertory of Mellon middle names. Here we see it from Morningside.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
