Pittsburgh March '06: Sunshine, Skyscrapers & Streetscapes

[Evergrey]

The weather was spectacular and I snapped a few pics.

PPG Place plays a starring role in this collection

Overlooking the "South Side"

yeah, that's cool stuff

E. Ohio St.... the largest commercial district on the North Side...

"Anytown, USA"

It's a good workout

South Side goodness

[TheGerbil]

Lovely pics as usual. I especially like the ones of the old jail, and the shot of PPG Place with the sun glinting off the top.

Looking at the pics of thr jail, I am very happy that they didn't rebuild the tower as was once considered. The idea was to make it taller so the jail would stand out more amongst its tall neighbors. But the new, bigger tower would have looked comical and out of place I think.

[Evergrey]

I just think it's unfortunate... that the Frick Tower... which was built around 1902 or so... was built right in front of the Courthouse... blocking the view of the architectural marvel from almost all angles.

I think the Frick Tower is a beautiful example of skyscraper architecture... I just wish they wouldn't have placed it there. If you look at a downtown PGH photo from a 100 years ago... you can see how strange it looked.

[TheGerbil]

Yeah, I think that was what sparked the idea of putting a taller tower on the jail.

[PghUSA]

^^interesting point, my recollection was that Frick wanted to dwarf the old Carnegie Steel building next door on the west side of Grant St., it's been torn down for the Kaufmann's annex. Since Frick and Carnegie had a falling out it was a point of ego for Frick, also it was a cherry on top to be higher then the seat of the people across Grant as well.

Never knew about the effort to raise the tower, would have been cool though even if it would have looked out of place. . . for a built up city like Pittsburgh having that sort of proximity to the towers could be celebrated .

Oh great pics by the way!