Father Pitt

Tag: Theater District

  • August Wilson African American Cultural Center

    August Wilson Cultural Center

    Old Pa Pitt nursed a secret grudge against this building for years, for the very petty reason that it replaced the old Aldine Theatre, which he had hoped to see restored as part of the revival of the theater district downtown. But on its own merits, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a striking building that makes the most of its triangular site, and certainly no Pittsburgher better deserves the naming rights to the first theater to meet our eyes on Liberty Avenue. San Francisco’s Allison Grace Williams was the lead architect, and she made the building into a kind of announcement for the Cultural District: here, it tells us, you are entering a place where great things are happening.

  • 901 and 903 Liberty Avenue

    901 and 903 Liberty Avenue

    Two fine commercial buildings on Liberty Avenue. The large windows on the second, third, and fourth floors of No. 903 suggest workshops, which generally had the largest possible windows to take advantage of natural light.

    Every once in a while old Pa Pitt slips in a picture taken with a cheap phone. This is one of them; he mentions it to point out that, within their limitations (this one demands bright light for acceptably sharp pictures), even cheap phone cameras can produce good pictures. The camera you have with you is always better than the one in the camera bag at home.

  • Penn Avenue Downtown

    Penn Avenue downtown in the theater district. Above, looking west from Seventh Street; Theater Square (designed by Michael Graves), with the Greer Cabaret Theater and the Public Theater, is on the right, and Heinz Hall is on the left at the end of the block. Two Gateway Center looms at the end of the street. Below, from Sixth Street, with the Phipps-McElveen Building and the old Horne’s department store on the right, and Two Gateway Center looming closer.