Skyscraper Sign falls 400 feet.

[PghUSA]

Tech giant Ariba is moving into their newly purchased eastcoast/midwest HQ from their merger with formerly Pittsburgh based FreeMarkets. Looks like the sign just doesn't want to get up there

B is for boing: Giant letter falls from skyscraper

Friday, February 11, 2005

By Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A seven-foot tall, 300-pound aluminum letter "B" -- part of the new Ariba sign being installed on One FreeMarkets Center in Downtown -- fell from atop the 38-floor building this morning as workers tried to move it from a window washing platform onto the building.

The sign crashed at the Wood Street side of PNC Plaza but no one was injured. Bill Harper, project manager for East Coast Sign Advertising, which is installing the sign, declined to comment on the incident.

[PghUSA]

Update:

The city is now tightening its policies on sign construction and installation:

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_046151129.html

"KDKA TV2, 1020 AM PITTSBURGH

Just a few days after part of a sign fell 38-stories from a downtown skyscraper, Pittsburgh city council is looking into what went wrong and how to keep such accidents from happening again.

"When you do that kind of work, you don't want to put the public in your way." -- Doug Shields, Pittsburgh City Council"

[Death To Johnstown]

They happened to show that particular sign & building during last evening's Pirate telecast on FSP.

[PghUSA]

That's kind of ominous for the season ain't it?

[Death To Johnstown]

Maybe for the team - not PNC Park.

8,800 walk-ups to boost the crowd to 34,000 last night, several thousand walk-ups the night before to boost attendance to a shade or two below 30 grand.

Say what you want about missing Penguins, closet Cub fans, good weather or anything else...

It's the Pirates (12 straight losing seasons +) - in APRIL!

That ballpark's a winner!

[PghUSA]

I heard Jim Leyland wants back in (almost got the Phillies Job over the winter) McClendon I love his antics but the guy just seems in over his head . . . an more entertaining version of Gene Lamont (Gene never got ejected for walking off with first base during a game lol, but Gene did win about the same amount of games).

As far as PNC park goes I have heard it argued that it is the best baseball stadium in the world . . . I happen to agree.

Also you might have seen me on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review board discussing why saying 12 straight losing seasons really isn't accurate. (westinghousetoaster )

In 1997 and 1999 the Pirates went into the final week of the season in a pennant race for the NL Central playoff spot and ended up missing them by only a few games. Yes those were losing seasons (barely) but the Pirates were in contention for the playoffs deep into October--not the impression one gets when you say 12 years of "losing".

12 years of losing records yes, but not 12 lost seasons, 6 and 8 seasons ago the Pirates provided exciting baseball and had the baseball blood pumping around here.