Early-morning views of the City-County Building and the Grant Building, both designed by Henry Hornbostel, from northward on Grant Street.
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City-County Building and Grant Building
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The Lobbies of the William Penn Hotel
We come in this door and enter the magical world of a great city hotel, a place designed to make us feel as though we are guests of royalty.
The main lobby is a monarch’s reception room. If you are a guest of the hotel, you can arrange to meet your local contacts here and feel as though you have done your business right.
The William Penn was built in two stages, both designed by Benno Janssen, and competent authorities agree that he did a pretty good job of it. “The William Penn Hotel merits classification with the best in hotel buildings,” wrote Alfred Branch Harlow of Alden & Harlow, Janssen’s biggest competitor in the large-public-buildings business. “One’s attention is arrested as the carefully studied mass and detail of this structure presents itself.”
The side that faces William Penn Place was the first half to go up, opening in 1916, and that is where the main lobby is. In 1929, Janssen was brought back for an annex that doubled the size of the hotel, giving it a Grant Street face as well, so that it now covers a whole city block. If we enter from Grant Street, we find ourselves in a smaller but still rich lobby.
Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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Top of the Union Trust Building
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First English Evangelical Lutheran Church
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS. Andrew Peebles, who also designed St. Peter’s on the North Side, designed this church, which was quite large when it was built but looks like a toy next to the skyscrapers of Grant Street. Built in 1887, it is now the oldest building on the street.
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Union Trust Building
A few details of the Union Trust Building, designed by Pierre A. Liesch when he was working for Frederick Osterling—at least according to Liesch; the building is usually just credited to Osterling.
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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Base of the U. S. Steel Tower
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Old County Jail
Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR. The octagonal rotunda of the Allegheny County Jail, designed by H. H. Richardson.
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At the Top of the Union Trust Building
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. Urban legend says that these structures are chapels where the privileged can repent of their sins, but in fact they house the elevator mechanics and other rooftop necessities.
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Courthouse Lion
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. Of all the hundreds of lions on buildings downtown, the Romanesque lions that guard the county courthouse are the most distinctive. They used to be at street level, but the lowering of the Hump, the awkward hill that used to make navigating downtown even more difficult than it is now, left them stranded far above pedestrians’ heads.
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Entrance to One Mellon Center (BNY Mellon Center)
In theory there is no reason to take digital pictures in black and white, since they can always be desaturated later. In practice, knowing that the picture will never have any colors in it makes one think more in terms of lines and shadows. Here are two pictures taken with a camera from the Neolithic era of digital cameras, which Father Pitt keeps set to black-and-white mode.
Samsung Digimax V4.
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