Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania’ Category
Koppers building roof tour
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and your humble narrator purchased tickets for one of Mark Houser’s ‘Antique Skyscraper’ tours, recently. Houser is a journalist, author, and public speaker whose interests revolve around skyscrapers and the people who built them. A Pittsburgh native, he offers scheduled tours and in person presentations on the subject.
The meet-up location for Mr. Houser’s tour was at the Koppers Building on Pittsburgh’s seventh avenue.
Koppers is a chemical company which is ‘an integrated global producer of carbon compounds, chemicals, and treated wood products for the aluminum, railroad, specialty chemical, utility, rubber, steel, residential lumber, and agriculture industries’ according to their Wikipedia page.
You can boil that down to creosote and anti corrosion coatings, essentially, which they manufacture from the waste materials and byproducts of the coke and coal industry. Anybody who had to endure one of my tour speeches at Newtown Creek about manufactured gas has been exposed to the knowledge that the coal to gas manufacturing process produced about 300 economically viable byproducts, and that petroleum manufacturing spawns off about 3,000+ valuable byproducts. Such material is the feedstock for a business sector that Koppers is a part of.
Pictured above is the ornate lobby of the Koppers building, which opened in 1929. Mr. Houser, and his daughter who was helping manage the group, loaded us all into elevators and we headed to the pinnacle of the building – and its roof deck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The massive U.S. Steel building dominates the shot above, with the gleaming BNY Mellon building rising up in the distance. The Koppers Tower is 34 stories, and some 475 feet in height, and Art Deco in stylings. The roof deck itself is an L shaped space, which offers an interesting point of view over the city of Pittsburgh.
A humble narrator got busy with the camera, as I don’t see this sort of point of view very often. My scuttling around normally occurs on the ground and around the edges of man’s habitat, like a cockroach.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot looks down on Pittsburgh’s Strip District, found along the Allegheny River. I’ve walked over the closest bridge with the marina at its anchorage several times, the 31st street bridge. The railroad bridge behind it was seen up close in a series of posts about the Millvale waterfront trail. I haven’t walked over the most distant bridge, and I’m not even sure that it has a walkway either.
As a note, I like posts like this one where I can pull together a bunch of decidedly ‘ground level’ explorations into an ‘overview.’ It makes it seem like I have some sort of plan. I don’t.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also overlooking the Allegheny River, and the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges are in focus. Behind them, you can see the PNC Sportsball stadium on the left of the shot, where the Pittsburgh Pirates live. You can also develop an appreciation for the peculiar ‘corduroy terrain’ of Pittsburgh with its steep hills and valleys in the shot above, should you desire it.
As is always the case with shooting photos while being part of a tour group, it’s a ‘run and gun’ situation. I was firing off shots as quick as I could see them, but I had to hurry, as Mr. Houser had several more buildings to show us and our time on the roof was extremely limited.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Special notice was paid to the Union (or Penn) station building, which used to be the central node of the Pennsylvania Railroad, here in its hometown. At the time of its construction, this structure was considered a skyscraper, as Mr. Houser pointed out. Check out this post, which saw me focusing in on the amazing terracotta dome which the building sports at street level.
To the right is an urban high speed arterial road called Bigelow Blvd., in the center you’ll notice the RR tracks that lead into the Amtrak station and which carry Norfolk Southern’s freight traffic through the area. To the left is the Strip District.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We piled into the elevators and the group was gathered back up in the lobby of the Koppers building. I couldn’t help but try for some detail shots of the lobby on the way out, with all of its art deco stylings.
This time piece in particular caught my eye.
Back tomorrow with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Suit and a tie zoning
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself in Downtown Pittsburgh, awaiting the commencement of a tour which promised access to the roofs of ‘Four Antique Skyscrapers.’ We were a bit early, as is my habit, and were cooling our heels while taking advantage of a puddle of shade in a plaza space which adjoins the 64 story U.S. Steel building.
The U.S. Steel building was constructed using a novel formula for its exposed structural steel – dubbed ‘Cor-ten’ – which forms a protective layer of oxidation, sealing the metal away from atmospheric corrosion, although that self forming prophylactic layer is itself rust.
The company which built the tower is a shadow of its former self and I’m told that they only maintain a couple of floors worth of occupancy within. The illuminated logo which adorns its crown nowadays belongs to the ‘UPMC’ outfit, a healthcare behemoth in the greater Pittsburgh region that operates hundreds of regional hospitals, medical buildings, and clinics – not just in the city but across multiple states – and it employs at least 100,000 medical professionals directly.
UPMC stands for ‘University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’ and they’re one of the local ‘800 pound gorillas’ here in the Paris of Appalachia.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
UPMC is a non profit, but at the same time it’s a major land owner that doesn’t pay taxes, so it often finds itself at odds with local politicians who are desperate to find new funds to spend on this or that ‘issue of the day.’ Regardless – 800 pound gorillas get to do what they want, whenever they want.
It was a very warm afternoon as the day led into evening. Downtown Pittsburgh has not recovered from the shock of COVID, I’d mention, which kicked off several real estate crises for the owners of now vacant buildings. Street level retail is largely annihilated hereabouts, due to lack of foot traffic and higher than average rents, and the area has developed a largely undesirable reputation in the last few years due to the presence of a homeless population – and the low level criminals who prey upon them – who have taken up occupancy in the area.
Personally, I find the street level threat fairly low. Aggressive panhandling, amalgamations of ‘scary’ people, and along the edges of the downtown section you’ll find their encampments. By NYC standards, not too much to worry about, but it seems to scare the hell out of the locals. There’s a lot of drug addiction hereabouts – opioids, heroin – that sort of thing. Most of the addicts fall into what I’d describe as the ‘sick dog’ type – and it’s hard not to feel some basic empathy for them until they try to pick your pockets.
Of course, they’re junkies, which means they’d boil you down and sell the elements left over for $5 if it led to their next fix. Never delude yourself about who and what a junkie is and what they’re capable of. Logic doesn’t apply with them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our skyscraper tour was about to begin, so we made our way over to the meetup point, in a nearby office tower. I had affixed the new telephoto lens to the camera, and was playing around with it as we walked. There’s alleys here in Pittsburgh, narrow paths just wide enough for the garbage trucks and emergency vehicles to use. They don’t call them alleys, I should mention, but when you encounter a street that has the word ‘way’ attached to it – that’s an alley.
Pictured above, and zoomed in on, is ‘Strawberry Way,’ which has been converted over to pedestrian and bike only access. The pavement is decoratively painted, with some attention to whimsy.
Back tomorrow with shots from up high, at your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
So, the sun rose again
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found a humble narrator waking up at 5 in the morning and then driving over to the West End Overlook Park, in Pittsburgh’s Eliot section, for sunrise. A new lens has been acquired, one which finally replaces my old Sigma 18-300mm Superzoom that was a ‘go-to’ on my older camera. The Sigma was a ‘crop sensor’ lens, so adapting it onto my current ‘full frame’ setup never was a good idea as I was throwing away a third of the image by doing so.
The new glass I’ve acquired is from Canon, and it’s a 24-240mm superzoom. Nothing better for testing a lens than mounting the camera onto the tripod and doing a sunrise session, I seldom say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is very much a ‘daylight’ and ‘outdoors’ lens, with a fairly narrow maximum aperture, but I was impressed by the results it produced. It’s heavy, but with this new device in my bag, I can leave several other lenses at home and go out with ‘bare minimum kit.’
Pictured is a CSX freight train rounding a bend along the Monongahela River on Pittsburgh’s south side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shots in todays post were all captured in about an hour or so, and they were selected not to necessarily display the growing illumination of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, rather they just kind of fit in with what I was trying to do here – discerning the failings and strengths of the glass before my return window closed on it.
If a lens sucks, I send it back.
That’s Allegheny General Hospital in the shot above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking downward at West End Bridge’s approach ramps just as the morning light reached them.
Just like my old Sigma lens, this new one operates best with a narrow aperture – I like f8 for this kind of shooting. It’s a variable aperture zoom, f4 at the wide side and f6.3 at the telephoto side.
At some point I decided to pop the camera off of the tripod, activate the lens’ image stabilizer technology, and then shoot handheld for a while. It behaved like a champ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long telephoto lenses are pretty expensive when you get to the high end, especially the ones you’ll see sports and bird photographers brandishing. I didn’t need anything like that, as I don’t regularly shoot those sorts of things. Instead, being able to quickly dial between wide angle and long telephoto was what I’ve been missing in recent months.
This one looks down the Monongahela River, and that’s the Fort Pitt Bridge at bottom right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wide open at 24mm, you can see the range that the zoom lens offers when comparing it with the 240mm shot which preceded it. This is a bit wider than human vision, but was more or less the scene I was looking at.
Back tomorrow with something different, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
It’s called Picklesburgh
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Missed out on this party last year, due to a certain series of events, but every summer here in Pittsburgh there’s a festival called ‘Picklesburgh.’
The name sort of explains what it’s about, and this event is a serious draw that pulls tens of thousands of people to it. There’s pickle themed drinks, pickle eating contests, pickle oriented foods, pickles on sticks… it’s all quite briney.
Our Lady and myself headed over to the event early afternoon on a Friday, as we were informed that the Saturday and Sunday crowds would be overwhelming. Four days long, Picklesburgh is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It all kicked off Downtown, and we started our explore at ‘Market Square’ and then followed the police barriers to PPG Plaza, pictured above. The presence of crowds of people would have probably annoyed the architect of this space – Philip Johnson – so that made me happy inside.
Vendors were set up at tables along the route. The folks under that green and white tent (for instance) were selling all sorts of alcoholic pickle based concoctions including pickle vodka. Our Lady tried a sample of that particular poison, but she did not buy a bottle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was typical weather for this time of year – here in the Paris of Appalachia – hot, and kind of humid. We fell into observation mode as the last thing either Our Lady of the Pentacle or myself wanted to do was get loaded up with brine based foodstuffs in the summer heat. It was something to see, though, I tell’s you.
Good clean fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the time we had reached the titular end of the festival’s footprint, the crowds had become massive and kind of scary.
Scary for me at least, but I’m notoriously phobic about this sort of situation. Mobs of people like this present an extremely dangerous set of circumstances should any little thing excite or scare them, and given my particular point of view and baked in anxieties – it was time to get out of dodge and head over to someplace else, with a bit of breathing room where we wouldn’t be part of a herd.
We headed over to the Monongahela River to cross over to the other side with its relatively empty sidewalks via the Smithfield Street Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We achieved our goal and walked over the Smithfield Street Bridge, and let me tell you this – lords and ladies – it was hot out. Not a cloud in the sky, direct sunlight, hot.
We decided to head over to what’s apparently my favorite brewery, and grab a beer and a giant glass of water.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ahh… industrial zones. You don’t have to worry about crowds in industrial zones, instead your cares devolve to just not getting hit by a truck. Home sweet home for one such as myself.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Shocking coruscations
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My scuttle down the Lauer Way steps in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section was meant to be just a part of my walk, the first third of a fairly long route. As mentioned previously, this was the last day of that crazy heat wave which afflicted most of the country in July. A cold front was scheduled to blast through Pittsburgh, and would bring thunderstorms and terrific amounts of rain, but it wasn’t meant to roll through for several more hours.
Apparently the weather forecast people underestimated its speedy advance, which led a humble narrator into a bit of a pickle..
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described several times, Pittsburgh has quite a dynamic atmosphere. I’ve always known oceanic weather, given my long occupancy in the archipelago of New York Harbor. Large shifts in dew point and temperature are fairly predictable and play put over hours, given the governing effect on weather systems that is caused by the nearby ocean. Here – big fronts of continental plain origin can just blow through suddenly, and you can observe five different kinds of sky in just an afternoon. River and mountain valleys found next door to the flat lands in Ohio are the cause, or so I’m led to believe.
My plan had been to hang around on a rail bridge spanning over a set of Norfolk Southern rail road tracks, and wait around for a train to come. I fitted the correct lens for that job onto the camera and got busy waiting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve shot here before, and it’s a fairly decent spot where you can actually see the signal lights. Said lights can tell you if and where a train is coming from, once you learn how to read their codes.
That sky though… it was turning a bit ominous and the wind had kicked up significantly. Right about when I shot the exposure test image directly above is when I felt the first drops of rain.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An unholy storm broke out suddenly. One found a spot to stand in which there was a bit of tree cover, but once the storm really started whipping around that became a precipitant liability. Within a minute, I was soaked to the skin, except for a patch of my shirt where I was protecting the camera, directly under my chin. My other hand was grasping the umbrella, but the rain was coming down diagonally at the moment that the shot above was gathered so the umbrella wasn’t all that useful.
Sheiste!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The spot I was in was pretty far from anything that could be construed as shelter from the storm, but I used my NYC honed senses to find and occupy a spot between a building wall and a mailbox, and then positioned the umbrella so that it was touching the wall. This kept my torso, and both the camera and the bag, somewhat dry. I whipped out my phone and called for a Lyft ride out, but this was about 5:30 p.m. on a week day so I had quite a wait ahead of me.
Double sheiste!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After getting back to HQ, and by that point the storm had passed and the weather had become unbearably beautiful, I peeled off my soaked clothes and laid out all my possessions to dry. The camera was fine.
Moe the dog was particularly amused by the predicament, and he is pictured above in a moment of his reverie.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 