Posts Tagged ‘Downtown Pittsburgh’
Benedum-Trees Building roof tour
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in posts all week long – Our Lady of the Pentacle and I purchased tickets for and attended one of Mark Houser’s ‘Antique Skyscraper’ tours. Houser is a journalist, author, and public speaker whose interests revolve around skyscrapers and the people who built them. A Pittsburgh native, Houser offers scheduled architectural tours, and in person presentations in his areas of expertise. Speaking as someone who’s hosted a walking tour or two over the years, I was impressed by his easy demeanor and command of the material.
It’s harder than it looks, guiding tours.
The last destination was the Benedum-Trees building, found in Downtown Pittsburgh. This corridor used to be (as Houser described it) the Wall Street of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Built in 1905, on Pittsburgh’s Fourth Avenue – by a female(!) real estate developer named Caroline Jones Machesney – this 19 story tall building was sold to two oil drilling magnates – Joe Trees, and Michael Late Benedum, in 1913. It seems that Machesny opposed Women’s suffrage, and contributed heavily towards opponents of that effort to allow full citizenship for women in the United States, which is probably why you’ve never heard of her – as Mr. Houser opined.
Mr. Houser wrote a profile of the place, and Machesny, for pittsburghmagazine.com which he contributes to regularly. It also hosts a photo of the building’s modern day owners, and a rooftop deck which Houser brought our group to, as the final stop on his antique skyscrapers tour.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Commanding views of ‘PPG Plaza,’ which is architect Philip Johnson’s somewhat sterile and anti-human Neo-Gothic design, are available from up top at the Benedum-Trees building. A vast and castellated mirror series of mirror boxes, PPG place is somewhat off putting to me. It relegates street level life to a series of cardboard cut outs, and denies any sort of organic interaction in favor of clean lines and a worshipful treatment of the building’s materials rather than the recognizing the people within the thing nor the teeming masses without.
That’s my opinion on the esthetic, by the way, and like butt-holes – everyone’s got one.
I moved along the fenced in deck, waving the camera about and recording the scenes. Run and gun, as I always say in such circumstances.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks towards the Allegheny River, with the 31 story and 1988 vintage Highmark building – aka Fifth Avenue Place – in focus. As a point of trivia, WWE Wrestler Kurt Angle’s construction worker father David was killed in an accident at this site in 1984.
The area surrounding these points of view are what I refer to as the ‘ceremonial center’ of the city, with the nearby ‘market square’ and ‘PPG plaza’ hosting events and serving as a gathering place for people during municipal occurrences. An ice rink is set up in PPG Plaza during the winter, and the most recent ‘Picklesburgh’ promotion was set up here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tour was winding down, and we were directed towards the elevators to disburse. We thanked Mr. Houser for sharing his expertise and decided to grab dinner, locally, afterwards. We visited an outpost of Primanti Brothers, and each quaffed one of their ridiculously excessive sandwiches, along with a glass of cold beer. If you’re visiting Pittsburgh, you’ve got to eat at Primanti’s, in the same way that you have to go to Katz’s if you’re in NYC. It’s a thing.
We left the car at HQ, so it was a cab ride back to HQ in nearby Dormont for us.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I shot all of these ‘high above’ photos using the new 24-240mm lens which I’ve recently acquired, and this set of views were its official ‘try out’ mission. I’m keeping the thing.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
Frick Building roof tour
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, Our Lady of the Pentacle and your humble narrator had purchased tickets for, and attended, one of Mark Houser’s ‘Antique Skyscraper’ tours. After visiting the Koppers Building, the next stop on the tour was the Frick Building.
Frickin Frick, that mother fricker, he was a fricker of the friskiest order.
Not a fan of Frick, me. Sorry, this rant gets long…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This guy… the term ‘Robber Baron’ was pretty much coined to describe Frick, and his business tactics. I’ve written a lot about the so called ‘Captains of Industry’ phase of history, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the past and have betrayed my personal ennui towards these monstrous creatures.
Due to all of my history work on Newtown Creek, back in NYC, Emperor Palpatine of the Galactic Empire John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Trust have occupied a lot of my attentions over the years. Modern thought has been kind to old John D.’s reputation, but those who were alive at the same time as him considered Rockefeller to be the Devil incarnate. Their impression of him survives in Mr. Potter from the ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ film, and in comic book villains like Lex Luthor. There was no George Bailey nor a Superman to oppose him, and his fortune allowed him to pick and choose Senators and Presidents.
Say what you might about old John D., but you have to respect his rise, and how he single-handedly built the American petroleum industry into the modern day behemoth that it is. He was ruthless, severe… and the king of lassez-faire capitalism. If anyone could return from the dead in the name of pure malice and a desire to control all mankind – it would be John D. Rockefeller.
Henry Clay Frick, on the other hand, was a money man who got his start in financing the manufacture of Coke for the steel industry. His coke business led to him partnering up with Andrew Carnegie, and then into the steel business, which made him fabulously wealthy in an era before income taxes.
The gentleman’s fishing club he was a leading member of had dammed a waterway to create a stocked fishing lake, for Frick and his Millionaire buddies. Their earthen dam and a lack of care towards its upkeep pretty much caused the Johnstown Flood of 1889, which killed more than 2,000 people.
Frick’s absolute antipathy towards negotiating with Steel Worker Unions, and Organized Labor in general, reached its height at the Homestead Pump House on July 6th in 1892, when he sent in 300 armed Pinkerton Detectives to break a strike. When that effort devolved into a battle – which the Pinkertons lost – Frick used his political influence to have Pennsylvania’s Governor send in 4,000 soldiers to defend his prerogatives. An anarchist assassin from NYC later attempted to murder Frick in response, shooting him in the ear (I know, that’s a weird coincidence), and neck, and also stabbed him in the leg. Frick survived, somehow.
After the Homestead strike, Andrew Carnegie’s guilty conscience caused him to sell off his steel interests, and the partnership with Frick, to JP Morgan – whose consolidation of the steel industry eventually formed U.S. Steel. Morgan’s later consolidation of railroads was checked by Rockefeller, but that’s another story.
Frick, as opposed to Carnegie, built a vast and private art collection. He also used his political influence to have business rivals appointed to Ambassadorships in foreign countries, mainly to get them out of his way. The events at Homestead shattered Carnegie and Frick’s partnership at Carnegie Steel, with the two men becoming bitter enemies and rivals for the rest of their lives.
Frick died in a mansion in NYC in 1919, left behind his priceless art collection to museums, and his will disbursed some of his massive property holdings for usage as parkland in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. The Frick Building still stands in Pittsburgh, and its lobby is where this portrait bust was photographed by your humble narrator.
This wasn’t at all a part of Mr. Houser’s narrative, by the way… I just happen to know a lot about Frick, and as stated: not a fan.
Now that all of that is out of my Frickin way…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tour saw us travel up the twenty stories held hostage within the Frick Building’s walls to a rooftop deck. The Frick building was designed by D.H. Burnham, whose team of architects remain famous for their design of Chicago’s ‘White City,’ during the World’s Colombian Exposition in 1893. Burnham was also responsible for several important building projects during that era, and left behind an outsized footprint.
Me? I got busy with the camera, as this sort of bird’s eye view of Downtown is something which I’ve felt a desire to capture, since moving to Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As often stated, I’m fascinated by the parabolas and arcing shapes of highway interchanges. That’s the interchange of ‘Boulevard of the Allies’ and ‘Crosstown Blvd.’ pictured above. The ramps leading to the right of the shot lead to the Liberty Bridge, a crossing over the Monongahela River, and the ones leading left in the shot eventually interchange with I-579.
Robert Moses was involved in the design of this set of structures, believe it or not, in an advisory role to the City of Pittsburgh. Power was thereby brokered right here.
The brick colored buildings behind the highway structure above are the City’s jail, and beneath the ramps is a rather large homeless shelter which recently had a calamitous fire.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the T light rail was spotted moving towards that section of its route where it operates as a subway while I was still on this Frickin roof. The construction work which is renewing the light rail’s trackbed, nearby HQ back in Dormont, is underway and one such as myself cannot wait to have mass transit restored to my life.
Our tour leader indicated that it was time to move on again, and I made sure that I was at the end of the line for the elevators going back down to ground level, to extend my shooting time up here as long as possible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pyramid topped building, at bottom left in the shot above, is the Koppers building described in yesterday’s post, and the U.S. Steel building discussed in Monday’s post is the dark colored structure with the UPMC logo atop it. I’m not entirely sure about the identity of the tan colored one.
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.
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.
Light Rail Hullabaloo
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Transit was one of the deciding factors behind where Our Lady of the Pentacle and I decided to put down roots here in the Pittsburgh metroplex. Yes, we’ve got a car and use the thing frequently, but one such as myself has a distinct preference for being able to leave the automobile in the driveway occasionally.
The Pittsburgh Regional Transit people, aka the ‘PRT,’ operate a light rail service – called ‘The T’ – on the skeletal remains of Pittsburgh’s once far flung trolley system. The residential section we settled in enjoys this service and I ride it often, especially so on days when I’m taking the camera out for a walk. It frees me up to partake in a pint of beer or two after the walk is over, and allows egress to the core of the city without having to worry about parking or getting back to where I parked after scuttling about for miles and miles. I like it, and think it’s neat.
As mentioned a month or two ago, there’s a series of maintenance projects that PRT is performing this summer on the T service which has introduced a fairly random series of steps into riding the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Under normal circumstance, one boards the service at a dedicated stop in my town (Dormont, which is technically a ‘Borough’). The light rail unit moves along a set of tracks with a variety of conditions – street running, dedicated and separated from vehicle traffic rights of way, underground subway style tunnels, and then back to an elevated right of way track at the terminal end nearby the stadiums on Pittsburgh’s north side. This trip is normally about 25-30 minutes long.
The phase of work that PRT has begun involves the subway section of the service, which lurks beneath the office buildings and towers of the downtown section. The light rail thereby diverts to a normally shuttered facility in the downtown area called ‘Penn Station.’
Said facility is across the street from the former HQ of the actual Pennsylvania Rail Road, a magnificent building which has been converted over to luxury residential usage. At Penn Station, T riders are encouraged to debark the rail units.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The street which Penn Station is found on is the approach to one of several ‘Busway’ corridors that snake through the Pittsburgh metro, and there’s a series of switches and tracks back there where the T can ‘turn around.’ There’s also what seems like a bus depot, but this isn’t a public byway so I can’t really say. They don’t actually turn around the T’s, I’d mention, the operator simply switches from the controls at one side of the unit to the other for the reverse trip.
There seems to be an intellectual tug of war going on with the people who care about public transit here in southwestern PA, between investing in and expanding the bus system or doubling down on the T. Advocacy arguments in favor of one or the other both have validity and solid reasoning, to my ear. There’s also a social justice factor which has to be added to the argument, as Pittsburgh’s ‘communities of color’ are largely supported by the bus network, rather than the limited corridors of the T which run through mostly suburban areas.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I think rail is the cooler choice (especially so if you’re suffering from a disability), but it doesn’t mean that it’s the best fiscal or political decision for municipal investment. The buses offer a much greater range and versatility as far as servicing the more far flung sections of Pittsburgh, for instance, and provide reach into communities which are experiencing economic hard times and providing a pipeline of access to the employment possibilities of downtown, and the stadium area with all of its service sector jobs. It’s also fairly easy and relatively cheap to increase bus saturation, as opposed to rail.
The light rail, on the other hand, is far more reliable than the buses – but the upfront costs of acquiring land, building the tracks, and populating the rails with passenger units is frightening. Saying that, there’s parts of Pittsburgh that the T doesn’t touch by design, which is somewhat baffling. The Oakland section with its multitudes of college students, for instance, would benefit massively from T service. So too would areas with functional but unused tracks like Allentown and the South Side Slopes.
There’s also ‘hot’ real estate zones like Lawrenceville which are entirely dependent on buses instead of rail, which is goofy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At any rate… my drill right now involves riding the T from home to Penn Station, debarking the train and crossing a street to catch a rail shuttle bus. The shuttle bus subsequently stops at the two stations which have been isolated due to the reconstruction work (they’re replacing the concrete plinths which the actual rails are anchored into) that is underway.
The bus snakes through downtown Pittsburgh, whereupon it drops you off at another rail station at the end of the T’s Subway section, and then you board another T unit to complete the journey. I didn’t ’stopwatch’ the trip, but in estimation it took about 25 minutes longer for me to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’ than it normally had.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shuttle bus carries you to another station, whereupon you ride an escalator down to the platform level and board another train set. This unit accomplishes the final two stops on the service, including the terminal stop on the north shore of the Allegheny River nearby Acrisure Stadium. Personally, I found the entire thing quite interesting, but I’m a known transit nerd, ‘out and proud.’
Things are about to get even more interesting for me at the end of May, when the concrete plinth replacement project rises up out of the tunnels beneath downtown and begins nibbling up the dedicated right of way and street running sections of the service closer to home. That’s meant to take about three months, according to the PRT, which will be followed by a long timeline project that’s meant to rehabilitate the bridge which the T uses to cross the Monongahela River. That should be a pretty interesting situation to take shots of.
The PRT’s plan is to run buses on the route during the construction, which lends some weight to the argument offered by proponents of doubling down on road vehicle oriented transit in the area. This, of course, risks increasing vehicle congestion and air pollution.
It’s going to be interesting to see which side wins out, in the end.
Back tomorrow.
“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 