Arriving in Pittsburg is quite a sudden and striking experience, as
you are wending your way along the wooded valleys of Pennsylvania then
suddenly you just burst in on Pittsburg without warning. How and why
so? - because Pittsburg in in hilly terrain so hasn't spread
expansively - at least not in the direction we came in, which was from
the North-West. You may know that American cities often have long
wide straight "Boulevards" which are virtually unwalkable - the cities
grew in the age of the automobile and the houses are big and the
suburban spread is huge per population.
Not so the Pittsburg we saw! It's lots of small houses nestled
together clinging to often quite steep hills. A refreshing change.
The downtown could vie for a place alongside the more characterful
European cities - small streets and lots of action tightly packed into
a small space.
Now to out pictures. Architecture in Pittsburg can be very courageous
and daring, from what we saw. So much so that we were left reflecting
on whether restraint and good taste are serious mistakes - that there
is a liberation in unshackled architecture which is to the general
benefit...
That's the central subject of most of the photos here. I haven't had
time to trim them to a manageable size for a web page, so I've linked
each picture separately.
hint - use the browser "back" button to return to this page after
viewing each picture
P1010015.JPG Oh no - what's THAT!!!???
P1010044.JPG Yikes - help! - left by aliens? - a leakage from a computer game ("Quake"?)
P1010018.JPG the mystery only intensifies...
P1010020.JPG Awesome plus apparition...
P1010022.JPG We are not the only ones who
just pressed the highest floor accessible by main elevator...
Explanation - we had just encountered "The Cathedral of Learning" of
the University of Pittsburg.
P1010059.JPG (Downtown) OK - so we like glass...
P1010060.JPG just so long as it's daring -
doesn't matter how it looks - it must "look",
irrespective...
So the people of Pittsburg are emphasising that everyone else has way
further to go before they can start to compete with the Pittsburg
sense of architecture...
P1010069.JPG River and fountain evening
panorama
... the scenery and views are pleasant and moderately spectacular.
Hope you enjoyed this page...
