Latest / The Red Solo Traveler Podcast / You Walk Downtown Pittsburgh for the Architecture. A Hospital Fills the Steel Tower.

Transcript

You Walk Downtown Pittsburgh for the Architecture. A Hospital Fills the Steel Tower. · The Red Solo Traveler Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Imagine you are standing right in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: You look up and it suddenly hits you, right? This
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: entire golden triangle is, well, essentially made of other people's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: discarded letterhead.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love that description.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Red Solo Traveler podcast. Today, we're taking
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a very specific walk. And to really understand the path
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: we are walking, you have to start with the names.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: The names that built the city.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Mellon.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Frick. Gulf. The Fed. U.S.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Steel. It was a really powerful image because, you know,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: it frames the entire skyline, not just as architecture, but
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: as this massive corporate ledger.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, precisely. The companies moved, but the stone stayed. A
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: hospital put its letters on the crown. Yeah. Just let
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: that sit for a second.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: That's quite a thought.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Right. The mill built it, but the hospital crowns it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And I want to be clear right up front, we
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: aren't doing a rebirth speech today.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: This isn't about some miraculous urban revival. We are simply
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: taking a two-hour, roughly two-mile walk past the old stationary
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of a city that changed tenants.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: And the logistics of how you actually take this walk
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: set the tone perfectly, I think. You are booking Walk
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: the Burra's Best of the Burr Tour for 11 in
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the morning.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, so where do we start?
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: You start at 1049 Penn Avenue. Right on the convention
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: center side of the street.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: And you are looking for a white bike in the window, right?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: That's your beacon.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So you park a block off, you go inside, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you sign the, you know, totally ordinary liability waiver at
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the counter. But it urges the atmosphere of that waiting
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: room that really grounds you.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. It smells heavily of coffee and damp jackets.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Yes. It feels very lived in.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to your guide, Brian. Now, Brian is
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: a former history teacher who lived and worked in southern
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: New England. Okay. And what happens is, instead of jumping
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: into this rigid, rehearsed script.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Right, like a robot.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Instead of that, there is this immediate stark of
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: hometown gossip for the first 10 minutes.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But the crucial thing about Brian, I think, is that
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: he is the company on this walk, not the plot itself.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Right, like he simply makes the buildings talk in order.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: He gives you the sequence, but he deliberately leaves room
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: for you to actually look at what's in front of you.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: And that restraint is the mark Of a truly great guide.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: It's an intimate group, too. It's just two of you
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and Brian.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: You step out onto Penn Avenue, rain or shine, and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: he starts pointing at architectural cornices with the same intensity
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: some people reserve for, you know, pointing out famous ballplayers.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And just to establish the boundaries for everyone listening today,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: this is a two-hour, roughly two-mile walk, and it ends
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: at Market Square.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's the route.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Which means we need to move from this abstract concept
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of corporate letterhead to the most colossal, literal example of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: it on the city skyline.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: The big one.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So you take a turn from 7th to Grant,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and suddenly the street just seems to have a weather
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: system of its own. You are standing at the base
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of the U.S. Steel Tower.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: The absolute tallest thing in Pittsburgh. It is 64 stories,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: 841 feet tall, and was dedicated in 1971. Wow. And
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the building as footprint is actually a massive triangle.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this, because the engineering here is absolutely wild.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: First of all, Why a triangle?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Well, it mirrors the geography. Downtown Pittsburgh itself is a
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: triangle pinched between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. Oh, I see. Yeah.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: So the footprint of the building echoes the footprint of
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the city. But the exterior is what really commands your attention. Right.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Because when you stand at the base and look at
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the 18 exterior columns, they look like they've been left
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: out in the rain on purpose. Right.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Because they have been.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Like they've been completely neglected.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: They have been left out on purpose. They are made
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: of corten steel, weathering steel.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And this is where I need you to explain the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: mechanics here. How does a building that is actively rusting
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: not just collapse on itself after 50 years?
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Well, because it is designed to rust only to a
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: certain point. The steel oxidizes, and that layer of rust
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: essentially creates its own dark, dense protective coat.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Wait, so the rust protects it from rusting?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah. Once that layer forms, it seals the metal underneath.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: It just stops eating itself.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: That is so cool. U.S.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Steel literally wanted you to see their product at work.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: There is no paint. There is no apology. It is
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: just raw rust that knows exactly when to quit.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: And the innovation doesn't stop at the surface either. Those
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: 18 exterior columns are completely hollow, which honestly brings me
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to my absolute favorite detail of this entire walk.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: The liquid.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Yes. They are filled with a liquid mixture. It's water, antifreeze,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and rust inhibitor. We're talking about something on the order
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: of 400,000 gallons of liquid inside the bones of this building.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It acts as a massive, building-sized radiator.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So it's essentially like the liquid cooling system you would
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: find in a high-end gaming computer, but scaled up to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: a 64-story skyscraper.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: That is a perfect analogy. The idea is thermal convection.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: If the building ever burns... The intense heat transfers into
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: the liquid inside those hollow columns. As the liquid heats up,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: it rises, pulling the heat away from the fire and
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: circulating cooler water back down.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: That is brilliant.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: It was the very first tower built that way. And
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: that liquid system gives the building a four-hour fire rating.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: If you put your hand near that steel, you can
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: physically feel how cold it stays.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Wow. But let's bring this back to the letterhead theme
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: for a second. Because the identity of this massive, indestructible
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: monument has shifted in a way that feels almost poetic.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, radically shifted.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: So from 1988 until early 2002, it actually went by
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: the name USX Tower.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Eventually, the old US Steel name came back. But here's
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the catch. Today, US Steel is just a tenant. They
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: do not own the building anymore.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: They're just renting space in the colossal monument they built
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to themselves.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And what's fascinating here is the ultimate irony of
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: who actually dominates that skyline now. The largest tenant in
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: that building today is UPMC.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Right. And in 2008, UPMC put their own massive letters
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: up on the crown of the building. So the steel
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: mill built a 64-story billboard to show off its indestructible product.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: But a hospital is the one currently renting the skyline.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: You know, I have to push back on this a
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: little bit. Is a hospital putting its name on the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: crown of a city just the modern 21st century equivalent
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: of an industrialist showing off his wealth?
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: That's a really good point.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's still massive capital, just in a completely
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: different sector.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: That's a very sharp way to look at it. The
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: industry changes, but the impulse to put your name at
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: the absolute highest point in the city remains exactly the same.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: And Brian, your guide, notes this transition without even rolling
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: his eyes. He doesn't have to force the narrative. The
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: building does the talking.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So you leave the shadow of that rusting steel giant.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: You walk past the quiet lawns of Steel Plaza and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Mellon Green, and you drop down from the towering heights
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of 1970s weathering steel back into the heavy, grounded 19th
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: century granite doing quiet civic duty below.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you move from Ross Street to Fifth, and the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: entire atmosphere changes. You are suddenly standing in front of H.H.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Richardson's masterpiece.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: The Allegheny County Courthouse.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Finished in 1888, And the old jail finished
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: in 1886.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: And Richardson actually died in 1886. And on his way out,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: he made this promise to his doctor. He said this
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh pile would be the one.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: The one building that would define his legacy.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Yes. And when you stand there on the pavement and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: just look at the sheer weight of it, you immediately
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: understand him.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: The stone is incredibly heavy. It is grounded in a
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: way that modern glass and steel architecture simply is not.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: And one of the most striking features you see from
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: the street is the Bridge of Sighs.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Right. It's a direct architectural copy of the one in Venice, right?
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: It's suspended over the street, connecting the courthouse to the jail. Yeah.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: And do you know why it's called that?
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Remind me.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: The original in Venice got its name because prisoners would
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: sigh as they caught their final glimpse of the beautiful
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: city before being taken down into the dungeons.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Richardson built his bridge so Pittsburgh prisoners would cross it
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: after their sentencing. getting one final elevated look down at
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: the street and the free world before entering the jail.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Though on this particular walking tour, you only look at
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: it from the sidewalk at the corner of Forbes and Ross.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Brian keeps you firmly on the sidewalk.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Right. No going inside the jail today.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And honestly, just looking up at that heavy granite archway
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: is enough to feel the weight of what it represents.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Now, a crucial piece of timeline context here. These are
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: the oldest buildings on this specific two-hour walk. But they
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: are not the oldest buildings in the city of Pittsburgh.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Right. If you are looking for the absolute first stone,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: where are you going?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: You would have to go to the Fort Pitt Blockhouse
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: at the Point, which dates all the way back to 1764.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, so quite a bit older.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that is a different morning. That is a
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: completely different river light. This tour is strictly the downtown loop.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Which makes me want to ask you about this contrast.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: You have Richardson's heavy permanent granite from 1888, and it
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: is still in there doing continuous county business today. The
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: purpose hasn't changed at all.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: No, it hasn't.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: How does that feel compared to the sort of corporate
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: musical chairs we just talked about with the glass and
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: steel towers next door?
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: It is a profound difference in civic intention, really. A
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: courthouse is built for the public trust. That requires permanence.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: The architecture demands that you feel the unwavering weight of
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: the law. Corporate towers, on the other hand, are built
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: for capital, and capital is fluid.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the money moves.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When the money moves, the building is left behind
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: to find a new purpose. The public stone stays true
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: to its meaning. The corporate stone just waits for the
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: next tenant.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: That transition from public wait to private, Gilded Age opulence
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: is perfectly captured in our next stop. You take 5th,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: back to Grant, past the Frick building and the Omni
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: William Penn, and you finally step indoors.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: You enter the Union Trust building at 501 Grant Street.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Built in 1915 and 1916 for Henry Clay Frick opened
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: in 1917 as the Union Arcade. And it is completely
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: clear when you walk in, this was a grand indoor
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: mall decades before anyone regularly used the word mall.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Oh, the architectural details are staggering. The exterior features a
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Flemish Gothic mansard roof.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, hold on. Flemish Gothic mansard roof. If I'm standing
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: on the sidewalk looking up, what am I actually looking at?
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Paint a picture for me.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Fair point.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Okay. So imagine the steep sloping roof of a haunted,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: ornate European chateau.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, got it.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Lots of intricate, lacy stonework, sharply pointed arches, highly decorative
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: dormer windows sticking out of the slopes.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: And then slap that entire castle roof onto the top
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: of a massive commercial building. That is... was what you
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: were looking at.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: That sounds intense.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: It is. It also has these two massive chapel-like towers
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: on top that look like bell towers, but they're actually
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: just highly decorated mechanical rooms hiding the building's guts.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: That is incredible. And when you step inside, the noise
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of the street just completely drops away. You have to
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: stand dead in the middle of the floor and look up.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: You look up until your neck actually starts to complain.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Because you are looking up at a breathtaking stained glass
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: rotunda created by the Rudy brothers. That's the exact same
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: glass shop that H.J. Hines brought to town.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: It is Frick's last indoor idea, and it is a masterpiece.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: It just went through a $ 100 million restoration that wrapped
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: up in 2016.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a massive project.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: They cleaned the stone. They relit that massive dome. It
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: is the perfect indoor pause on the walk. But you
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: don't get to rest for long because then you are
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: back out onto the street for a rapid comparative pass
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: of three Art Deco giants on Grant and 7th.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Three massive towers standing shoulder to shoulder. These buildings are
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: doing the quiet administrative work of the economy. You know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the banking, the corporate management.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: While the loud, fiery steel mills used to do the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: heavy lifting out in the valleys.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Let's sweep through them. First up is the Drury.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Originally opened in 1931 as the Pittsburgh branch of the
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: So the Federal Reserve paid for a fortress. They paid
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: for a vault. But the bank left in 2012. And
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: in 2017, the Drury Plaza Hotel opened in its place.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: And if you look closely at the exterior... The metalwork
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: on the building still reads 4D for the 4th District.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Brian will specifically make you look at this unassuming garage
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: door on the street level. Because that door is exactly
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: how they used to move literal pallets of money in
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: and out of the city.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And I want to know how that conversion actually works.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: How do you turn a Federal Reserve Bank into a hotel?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: You repurpose the most difficult architecture. If you go downstairs
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: in that hotel today... The massive bank vaults with their
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: impossibly thick steel doors have been converted into hotel meeting rooms.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: That is wild to think about. You are sitting in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a corporate seminar on a Tuesday in the exact same
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: footprint where stacks of federal currency used to be locked away.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: It's surreal.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Again, the stone stayed, the tenant changed. Right next door
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to that is the Gulf Tower.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Built in 1932 for Gulf Oil. Heavily backed by melon money.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: The limestone facade absolutely screams oil money. It projects this
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: image of immense, unshakable fossil fuel wealth.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: But then you walk in and the names on the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: elevator say something entirely different. They are filled with smaller firms,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: tech companies, various agencies. Right.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: The landscape shifted.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: It's not a joke. It's just the stark reality of
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the changing economy. The shell is oil, but the guts
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: are totally different.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to the third building in this deco trio.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: The Coppers Building at 436 7th Avenue.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Finished in 1929, again on Andrew W. Mellon Chesdime. It
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: features Indiana limestone, a solid granite base, and a very
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: distinct green copper roof.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: A roof that catches the light and actually goes gold
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: late in the day?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful effect. But beyond the architecture, the Coppers
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Building serves as the ultimate punchline to this entire trio.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Why is that?
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Because Coppers still prints this exact address as its global headquarters.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Wait, really?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Out of this entire Art Deco sweep, the Copper's
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: building is the incredibly rare exception where the name carved
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: over the front door actually still matches the corporate letterhead
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: operating inside.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: It is the solitary survivor of the group, the one
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: that didn't change its stationery.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: So you leave the historical stone, you leave the Art
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Deco vaults, and you head into the final hour of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the walk, which brings you away from the heavy industry
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and into the cultural district.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Specifically, Penn Avenue. Anchored by Heinz Hall, which originally opened
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: in 1927, as the Lorays Penn Theater, a massive movie palace.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: But by the late 60s, it was slated for demolition,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: until it was saved and converted to its current form
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: in 1971.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: And this leads us to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: dates back to 1984. Now, there is a crucial point
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: here about how Brian the Guide handles this segment. We
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: are discussing this completely matter-of-factly.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there is no triumph speech here.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly. I love that there's no grand sweeping narrative about
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a miraculous urban rebirth. Mid-century Penn Avenue had simply fallen
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: on hard times.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Right. The old businesses weren't viable anymore.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So the trust built an arts district on a street
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: that desperately needed one. Brian walks this stretch without turning
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: it into a fairy tale. The city deliberately changed a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: street's job because the old job wasn't working anymore.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: It is a very pragmatic, very Pittsburgh way of handling
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: urban planning. If the machinery breaks, you retool it. Exactly.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: And that same civic impulse brings you to the finish
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: line of the tour.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Gateway Center and PPG Place. Gateway Center is the 1950s
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: version of that civic impulse. You know, all expansive lawns
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and modernist slabs. But PPG Place is the 1980s version,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: dedicated in 1984, designed by the famous architect Philip Johnson.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: It is a striking, almost overwhelming complex of mirrored glass,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: anchored by the Winter Garden, which is a massive glass
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: hall at the base.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: It looks like a Gothic cathedral made entirely of mirrors.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: But the best part isn't the towering glass. Out on
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the sidewalks around PPG Place, there are these painted dinosaur statues.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, sidewalk art just sitting out there amidst the high-end
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: corporate architecture.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Think about the physical experience of this walk. You spent
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: an hour with Richardson's incredibly serious, heavy 1888 granite. Very serious.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: You looked at bank vaults and solemn steel columns. And
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: then at the very end, seeing a brightly painted stegosaurus
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: reflected in 1980s mirrored glass is this slightly silly contrast.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: But it is also the absolute perfect final joke. You
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: have been walking for two hours. You have been staring
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: up at cornices and crowns the entire time. And a
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: silly dinosaur on the pavement is exactly what you need
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to bring your eyes back down to street level.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: It grounds you. right in time for the tour to
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: officially finish in Market Square.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Which is prime lunch geography. If you ask Brian where
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to eat, he will absolutely have a specific answer for you.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And speaking of other parts of the city, it is
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a different afternoon on Small Man Street in a former
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: ice warehouse bearing a senator's name with a war upstairs.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: So we'll send you to that separate piece to learn more.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: And as we wrap up, it is important to remember
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: what is deliberately excluded from this specific hour.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Big point.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: There is no Point State Park covered here, No Fort
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Pitt Museum, no inclines, no Andy Warhol Museum, no Oakland.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: This loop is strictly the downtown triangle. It is a
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: focused walk past the roster of who paid for the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: skyline and who actually occupies it today.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: This raises an important question about legacy and permanence, I think.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Buildings outlive their creators. That is a fundamental truth of architecture.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they do.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: The Corten steel rusted exactly on purpose, just as the
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: mill promised. The heavy stone names, Mellon, Frick. Gulf, they
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: all stayed carved in the masonry.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: But the original companies left the deeds, the tenants, you know,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: a hospital in the highest crown, a hotel inside a
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: bank vault, shops under frictions, stained glass. They're the ones
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: who define the living city right now.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: The names are the history, but the tenants are the city.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: So keeping that fluid nature of legacy in mind, I
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: want to leave you with a thought to mull over.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: If you were to build a massive, permanent stone and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: steel monument to your own life's work today... Wait, I mean,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: what totally unrelated, completely different future industry do you think
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: might occupy your letterhead 100 years from now?