A tiny green caterpillar climbs a mushroom in Frick Park.
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Thirteen Stars, Thirteen Stripes
Those plucky colonials have raised their rebel flag over the blockhouse at Fort Pitt, Britain’s most important Western fort.
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Toad in the Hole
Our most common toad, the American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus), sitting on a rock ledge in Frick Park.
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Black Stones of Fourth Presbyterian in Friendship
Pittsburgh used to be a city of massive black stone buildings, but, since the end of the age of steel, the buildings have been cleaned one by one, revealing the actual color of the stones as they came out of the quarry. Few of the black stone buildings are left. Here is one of them: Fourth Presbyterian in Friendship. Over the years, the stones are gradually losing their sooty coating, revealing what looks like red sandstone underneath. But they are still strikingly black, the way all proper Pittsburgh stones used to be.
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Supermoon
So the astrologers and newspapers call it: a full moon at perigee, so that it looks especially large and bright. These images were taken with a pocket digital camera, which is incapable of dealing with unusual light conditions. But it was what old Pa Pitt had to work with.
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Firstside from Across the Mon
“Firstside” is the row of human-sized buildings along the Monongahela (with their backs on First Avenue). It’s a little taste of pre-skyscraper Pittsburgh. The picture below puts Firstside in context.
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The Point Fountain Again
More pictures of the Point Fountain, because it was a day of inspiring clouds.
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Lobby of the Benedum Center
The lobby of the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, just before a show. Like Heinz Hall just down the street, the Benedum was built as a movie palace, but has been converted to a live theater—Pittsburgh’s largest and busiest. The Pittsburgh Opera, the Civic Light Opera, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and numerous traveling shows all share this magnificent venue.
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The Point Fountain Is Back
After four years of rebuilding, the glorious fountain at the Point is flowing again—now with substantial improvements that make it more accessible for recreation, without changing the simple elegance of the original design.
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Inside the Cathedral of Learning
The Cathedral of Learning, designed by Charles Z. Klauder, is the second-tallest Gothic building in the world (after the Woolworth Building in New York), and by far the most successful adaptation of Gothic style to the skyscraper. Like many of the most memorable feats of architecture in Pittsburgh, it confidently approaches the boundary between genius and madness without ever stepping all the way over that line. The Commons Room, a Perpendicular-style fantasy in stone, is one of the most impressive spaces in a city full of impressive spaces.
