Designed by the huge international firm Hellmuth, Obata, & Kassabaum, this nest of octagons was one of many landmark skyscrapers that popped up like mushrooms in the boom of the 1980s.
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One Oxford Centre from First Avenue
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Old Church in the West End
Now a sports bar, so it has been converted to a different religion.
An update: This was St. George’s Episcopal Church, built some time in the 1890s or very early 1900s.
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House Building
This substantial early skyscraper right at the end of the Smithfield Street Bridge was designed by James T. Steen. It was begun in 1902 and was completed by 1905. It is now known as Four Smithfield Street.
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Demmler Bros. Building
Demmler Brothers was founded in 1861, and the company (now in Cuddy) is still in business today. The ghost of its name is just barely visible on the front of its old headquarters at 100 Ross Street, and on the back of the building we can see layers of ghost signs advertising enameled ware, refrigerators, and stoves.
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PNC Firstside Center
PNC Firstside Center occupies a whole block of First Avenue east of Grant Street. Above, an architecturally correct composite; below, the main First Avenue entrance. The architects were L. D. Astorino Companies, who also designed the Trimont skyscraper apartments on Mount Washington.
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H. Daub Building, West End
No one has to ask when this distinguished Victorian commercial building was constructed. There was a brief time about fifteen years ago when the West End looked like the next trendy artsy neighborhood—for example, you can just barely make out that this building briefly housed a Steinway piano dealer. It seems that the neighborhood was too far out of the way for the arts community to take firm roots. The neighborhood is still pleasant, but much of the business district is deserted.
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St. Augustine, Lawrenceville
Above, one of the towers of St. Augustine’s in Lower Lawrenceville. Below, a view down 36th Street from Penn Avenue, with the startling forms of St. Augustine’s illuminated by a shaft of sunlight. These pictures were taken in 1999, back when the neighborhood was forgotten and practically invisible to most outsiders.
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Alcoa Building (North Shore), 1999
Two abstract views of the newer Alcoa Building on the North Shore at the end of the Seventh Street Bridge. The one above was taken with a Lubitel TLR; the one below was taken with an Imperial plastic “toy” TLR.
Obviously old Pa Pitt is still rummaging through his large library of old pictures.
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Tower of East Liberty Presbyterian Church
This picture was taken in 1999 with a Smena 8M, a plastic Russian all-manual 35-millimeter camera that was cheaply made but surprisingly capable.
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St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery
A winter view of St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, featuring a fine silhouette of a tree. Below, more church and less tree.
