Repeating Patterns
Repeating Patterns
Have we always topped our most important structures with spires or towers that reach for the sky? I finally decided to capture a photo I’ve been wanting to get for years. I had to park my car and walk to a spot where I could photograph this because it wasn’t one I could get through my windshield while driving. I usually don’t take the time, but for this one, on this beautiful autumn day in Pittsburgh, I decided to take the time to get the domes of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church on the South Side with the spire-tipped buildings of downtown Pittsburgh in the background. Old and new, religious and secular, A handful of buildings along the river and a church with onion-shaped domes in gold and patina and several three-bar crosses, it’s one of the things that looks like home to me, important to the people who live here. Below is the full view, including the high-school football field and the homes surrounding.
The church, the city and the high school football field.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Friendship Friday on Create With Joy
Streets of North Side, Pittsburgh
Galveston Street, North Side, Pittsburgh
Part of the “Mexican War Streets”, this neighborhood is a Pittsburgh original, once the destination for the city’s most wealthy, then in the way city neighborhoods often decline and rise again, a good bit of it fell to ruins but is now being revived, as the buildings themselves just waited for their time to come around again.
Galveston Street, North Side, Pittsburgh, another view
This neighborhood is one of the oldest in Pittsburgh, and was at one time a separate municipality from Pittsburgh named Allegheny, laid out in 1788 and incorporated in 1828, featuring orderly brick streets and a mix of Victorian-era row houses, middle-class family homes and stately mansions softened by street trees.
Originally, lots and homes were awarded to Revolutionary War veterans. As the century wore on, this sophisticated and attractive urban metropolis became the first home to Pittsburgh’s millionaire industrialists. After the Mexican War, General William Robinson subdivided his plot of land and named all the streets after battles in the Mexican War, attracting even more wealthy homeowners; this photo is a section of the Mexican War Streets, sections of which are on the National Record of Historic Places.
West North Avenue, North Side, Pittsburgh
Along with many other industries that found a home along the Allegheny River near the Point in Pittsburgh, the original H. J. Heinz factory built its home in Allegheny and employed generations of people in creating the “Heinz 57” varieties of pickled vegetables, relishes and chutneys, and many other condiments.
And who grew up in Allegheny City, or North Side? Mary Cassatt, Gertrude Stein, Martha Graham, Kate Harrington, George Washington Harris, John Pitcairn and Art Rooney, to name a few. And who else lived there? Mary Roberts Rinehart, Henry Phipps, H.J. Heinz, Andrew Carnegie, Henry O Tanner, Colonel James Anderson, William Thaw, Jr., Lois Weber and William Penn Snyder. And, of course, Andrew Carnegie built a library here. It must have been a hotbed of creative talent in those early days to have nurtured the likes of those people and attracted so many others. And lots of money.
It merged with the City of Pittsburgh in 1907 but maintained its small-town feel until “urban renewal” in the 1960s took out the original town center and replaced it with a mall and hotel, another portion was removed for highways and overpasses, and “old” sections of neighborhoods were removed because they were “old” and replaced with “new” multi-story modern style brick buildings, removing just enough of various neighborhoods to destroy their cohesion. The mansions of Millionaire’s Row on Ridge Avenue were largely incorporated into Community College of Allegheny County.
But you’ve got to call it the “Nor’side” now, even if it is becoming quite gentrified.
You can see more photos of the North Side, or “Allegheny City”, in this archive.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Primary and Secondary Colors
Lights in Primary and Secondary Colors.
The traffic lights add red and green to the blue and yellow and orange of the lights in the Greyhound station in downtown Pittsburgh; the dusk adds purple to the building. All colors are present.
I took this with my smartphone, hence the extreme proportions of the building, and the crosshatches made by the lights. Usually I am frustrated by these compositional failings with my camera, but this time they were welcome.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Monongahela Fog
Monongahela Fog
It could have been a scene from a century ago at the J&L Steel plant along the Monongahela River, but it’s just a foggy October morning.
A spectacularly foggy morning, the type that only autumn provides. This is a bend in the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, the bit of a bridge you see is the Birmingham Bridge from the South Side Flats to the Boulevard of the Allies in the Lower Hill/Uptown/South Oakland. The steam rises from a concrete plant on Second Avenue, on the river’s edge, where the J&L Plant once stood; in the distance you see the first of the buildings in Oakland leading to Carlow University, Chatham University, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. In this fog, this could have been taken decades ago, representing the smog from the mills. The mills are gone, the air and the rivers are relatively clean, but the colleges, the neighborhoods, the essence of Pittsburgh is still there in the rolling fog of an October morning.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Pittsburgh Autumn Bridge
Pittsburgh Autumn Bridge
Well, I was stuck in traffic on a lovely autumn day, so I took a photo through the windshield. But it’s typical Pittsburgh, a suspension bridge, a steep hill covered with trees and peppered with houses, a few churches in various denominations mixed in, incredible clouds and a lovely blue above, plus you know there’s a river in there somewhere. Pittsburgh is a lovely city but on a day like yesterday it’s breathtaking.
I wish my travels had allowed me to safely take a few other photos, but you can’t just stop in the middle of traffic, let the camera focus and click a few times without some difficulty in traffic flow. I passed no fewer than five major universities and an international teaching hospital, probably a dozen or more national historic sites and the headweaters of the Ohio River, to name a few things, plus dozens of distinct neighborhoods.
I just wonder who got up there and painted the dinosaurs on the rigging.
It’s the 10th Street Bridge that connects downtown Pittsburgh with the South Side.
Monongahela Fog
Monongahela Fog
It could have been a scene from a century ago at the J&L Steel plant along the Monongahela River, but it’s just a foggy October morning.
A spectacularly foggy morning, the type that only autumn provides. This is a bend in the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, the bit of a bridge you see is the Birmingham Bridge from the South Side Flats to the Boulevard of the Allies in the Lower Hill/Uptown/South Oakland. The steam rises from a concrete plant on Second Avenue, on the river’s edge, where the J&L Plant once stood; in the distance you see the first of the buildings in Oakland leading to Carlow University, Chatham University, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. In this fog, this could have been taken decades ago, representing the smog from the mills. The mills are gone, the air and the rivers are relatively clean, but the colleges, the neighborhoods, the essence of Pittsburgh is still there in the rolling fog of an October morning.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
City Fountain on a Hot Night: 2010
Dancing in the Fountain
Families chase each other through the dancing waters of the fountain in PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh on a hot night in the city. Changing colored lights illuminate the obelisk in the center as the water jets put on a show of their own.
For a print or other reproduction of any photo, please visit “Purchasing” for more information.
Hello From Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh.
Someone let me loose on a lovely sunny warm spring day in Pittsburgh with my camera. I really just wandered one area, Mt. Washington, from where you can see to the end of the world. i will actually use a number of these for a design project I’m working on. I couldn’t get a good photo of the point so above is one from last year on just about exactly this date. Below is a “tiled mosaic” of some of the photos I took today.
Pittsburgh at New Year’s
Pittsburgh at New Year’s, 2008
It’s snowing and I’m not going to First Night, but I thought I’d post two of the photos I took of Pittsburgh, viewed from Mt. Washington, taken on New Year’s Eve a few years ago.
Pittsburgh at Night
I don’t know why it’s always captivated me, but Pittsburgh at night, the modest buildings lit just right, bridges decorated with lights, all reflected on one river or another, has always been one of my favorite scenes. I took this series of photos and created a panorama on Monday night about 9:15, so many of the office buildings weren’t as well lit as they would have been earlier in the evening, but I never pass up a chance to stop on Mt. Washington to photograph the city.
This view is of “First Side”, along the Monongahela River right before it reaches the point; off to the right a little past center is the Smithfield Street Bridge, then in the darkness over the river is one bridge after another—Panhandle, Liberty, 10th Street, Birmingham, Hot Metal, then the bend where J&L Steel used to fire the night sky with an orange glow.
But even before that bend in the river, this little cluster of buildings coming to a point where a great river is born is all of downtown Pittsburgh.
Mission Street, Pittsburgh
Mission Street, Pittsburgh
The rain stopped and the sun came out. Narrow and curving, clinging to the side of a steep hill, and dominated by a church with a dome, that’s Pittsburgh.
Bridges
Entering the arch.
I got stuck in traffic on a sunny day, taken on a detour of about three miles over the course of an hour, so I took pictures.
Pittsburgh’s 16th Street Bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places and is an interesting structure, unlike other single through-arch bridges, this one is a double arch, and the arches are lower, with stone pillars holding metal sculptures at each end. It’s painted yellow like so many of our bridges.
I really wanted to get this shot without the car in front of me—impossible because of the slowly moving line of traffic—but when I looked at the photos I found I liked the car where it was.
Look Up! The Peaks of the City, 2009
US Steel Tower and Presbyterian Church on Strawberry Way
Pittsburgh has a mix of tall and short, gothic and modern, stone and steel in its skyline, and on a perfectly clear autumn day even minor details are enhanced by shadows. I typically enjoy photos of the contrast of gothic archictectural influence from the mid industrial age when buildings could have no undecorated spot with the streamlined ultra modern influence from the height of the steel era.
Stylistic Contrast
Look up and see the gargoyles staring down at you!
Gingerbread and Gargoyles
Sometimes a convergence of details comes together and simply provides a nice varied view.
Ornate
Old Church Roofs and Towers
Medieval Battlements
Two views of the same church, actually seen from the back on Oliver Avenue.
And, finally, just an interesting facade.
Nice Facade
Perspective on a Mural, 2009
“Yesterday’s Tomorrow”, looking up
I just love to look at this mural in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, and I think it’s because unlike most others it’s not really figurative and it has an intentionally limited color palette. It does represent a city scene, but it could just as easily be a collection of shapes. It’s entitled “Yesterday’s Tomorrow” and was designed and painted by Brian Holderman. The mural can be seen at 900 Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh. For reference, here’s a distance shot, below.
“Yesterday’s Tomorrow”
Pittsburgh at Night, 2011
Pittsburgh at Night
I don’t know why it’s always captivated me, but Pittsburgh at night, the modest buildings lit just right, bridges decorated with lights, all reflected on one river or another, has always been one of my favorite scenes. I took this series of photos and created a panorama on Monday night about 9:15, so many of the office buildings weren’t as well lit as they would have been earlier in the evening, but I never pass up a chance to stop on Mt. Washington to photograph the city.
This view is of “First Side”, along the Monongahela River right before it reaches the point; off to the right a little past center is the Smithfield Street Bridge, then in the darkness over the river is one bridge after another—Panhandle, Liberty, 10th Street, Birmingham, Hot Metal, then the bend where J&L Steel used to fire the night sky with an orange glow.
But even before that bend in the river, this little cluster of buildings coming to a point where a great river is born is all of downtown Pittsburgh. See other photos I’ve taken of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Autumn Bridge, 2010
Pittsburgh Autumn Bridge
Well, I was stuck in traffic on a lovely autumn day, so I took a photo through the windshield. But it’s typical Pittsburgh, a suspension bridge, a steep hill covered with trees and peppered with houses, a few churches in various denominations mixed in, incredible clouds and a lovely blue above, plus you know there’s a river in there somewhere. Pittsburgh is a lovely city but on a day like yesterday it’s breathtaking.
I wish my travels had allowed me to safely take a few other photos, but you can’t just stop in the middle of traffic, let the camera focus and click a few times without some difficulty in traffic flow. I passed no fewer than five major universities and an international teaching hospital, probably a dozen or more national historic sites and the headweaters of the Ohio River, to name a few things, plus dozens of distinct neighborhoods.
I just wonder who got up there and painted the dinosaurs on the rigging.
It’s the 10th Street Bridge that connects downtown Pittsburgh with the South Side.
Morning Fog
Foggy Morning
Another foggy morning, this time on Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh, the sun shining right down Grandview Avenue.
Monongahela Fog
Monongahela Fog
A spectacularly foggy morning, the type that only autumn provides. This is a bend in the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, the bit of a bridge you see is the Birmingham Bridge from the South Side Flats to the Boulevard of the Allies in the Lower Hill/Uptown/South Oakland. The steam rises from a concrete plant on Second Avenue, on the river’s edge, where the J&L Plant once stood; in the distance you see the first of the buildings in Oakland leading to Carlow University, Chatham University, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. In this fog, this could have been taken decades ago, representing the smog from the mills. The mills are gone, the air and the rivers are relatively clean, but the colleges, the neighborhoods, the essence of Pittsburgh is still there in the rolling fog of an October morning.
Extreme Downhill, 2010
Mt. Washington Downhill
This street goes down and down and down and curves and bends and why would anyone build a street like this?! After the stop where you see the car’s taillights, the street curves and keeps going down and down and down.
It may have begun as a cow path from the pasture to the home up on the top of Mt. Washington—before the turn of the last century, many people kept livestock in their yards, and cows were regularly put out to pasture for the day in the closest field.
It may also have been a footpath since it goes straight down the hill, unlike a horse trail which would have curved around the hill or had switchbacks. Most horses would have some trouble negotiating a path this steep, and with a cart it would have been impossible.
Streets like this make Pittsburghers pretty fearless drivers.
City Fountain on a Hot Night: 2010
Dancing in the Fountain
Families chase each other through the dancing waters of the fountain in PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh on a hot night in the city. Changing colored lights illuminate the obelisk in the center as the water jets put on a show of their own.
Pittsburgh at Night
Pittsburgh at Night
I don’t know why it’s always captivated me, but Pittsburgh at night, the modest buildings lit just right, bridges decorated with lights, all reflected on one river or another, has always been one of my favorite scenes. I took this series of photos and created a panorama on Monday night about 9:15, so many of the office buildings weren’t as well lit as they would have been earlier in the evening, but I never pass up a chance to stop on Mt. Washington to photograph the city.
This view is of “First Side”, along the Monongahela River right before it reaches the point; off to the right a little past center is the Smithfield Street Bridge, then in the darkness over the river is one bridge after another—Panhandle, Liberty, 10th Street, Birmingham, Hot Metal, then the bend where J&L Steel used to fire the night sky with an orange glow.
But even before that bend in the river, this little cluster of buildings coming to a point where a great river is born is all of downtown Pittsburgh.
The Domes of St. John the Baptist
The Domes of St. John the Baptist
Skylines around Pittsburgh are full of domes topped with three-bar crosses bristling against the sky, but when the evening sun catches the bright gold and copper patina, especially against a bright blue sky, they could nearly stop traffic. These tight city neighborhoods with row houses mixed with small businesses, traffic, congestion don’t seem they’d naturally host the architectural splendor of a five-story church seating 1,000, but back in the day they were the center of culture.
They also still sell pretty good pyrohi and make the best kielbasa in the city.
Pittsburgh Autumn Bridge
Pittsburgh Autumn Bridge
Well, I was stuck in traffic on a lovely autumn day, so I took a photo through the windshield. But it’s typical Pittsburgh, a suspension bridge, a steep hill covered with trees and peppered with houses, incredible clouds and a lovely blue above. Pittsburgh is a lovely city but on a day like yesterday it’s breathtaking.
I wish my travels had allowed me to safely take a few other photos, but you can’t just stop in the middle of traffic, let the camera focus and click a few times without some difficulty in traffic flow. I passed no fewer than five major universities and an international teaching hospital, probably a dozen or more national historic sites and the headweaters of the Ohio River, to name a few things, plus dozens of distinct neighborhoods.
I just wonder who got up there and painted the dinosaurs on the rigging.
It’s the 10th Street Bridge that connects downtown Pittsburgh with the South Side.
Extreme Downhill
Mt. Washington Downhill
This street goes down and down and down and curves and bends and why would anyone build a street like this?!After the stop where you see the car’s taillights, the street curves and keeps going down and down and down.
It may have begun as a cow path from the pasture to the home up on the top of Mt. Washington—before the turn of the last century, many people kept livestock in their yards, and cows were regularly put out to pasture for the day in the closest field.
It may also have been a footpath since it goes straight down the hill, unlike a horse trail which would have curved around the hill or had switchbacks. Most horses would have some trouble negotiating a path this steep, and with a cart it would have been impossible.
Streets like this make Pittsburghers pretty fearless drivers.
Today 