MARCH 6, 2010
PITTSBURGH WALKABOUT
PAGE TWO...PPG 2 BEING PAGE ONE
Carl, Joey, and I left PPG Place and drove up across Grant Street, parking along the south side of the City County Building
This building took over from the County Courthouse in 1917, and is faced with smooth grey granite. Being often today in an
artsy-fartsy architectural mode, I took this picture of it from its front steps, looking up at the vaults of its entrance. I just kind
of liked the patterns and curves rather than a more normal frontal view. I got divorced inside this building on my birthday in
1979...a cold and very icy January day.
And on that same January day, my lawyer and I then crossed directly across Grant St. to his downtown office, to which I'd
never been before, and I got engaged to Carl in, um, well, one of these two non-descript beige brick buildings, which cannot
be photographed very artsy-fartsily no matter how one might try, and neither Carl nor I remember which it was. Anyhoo, there's
a lot of lawyer offices in them because they are right across from the City-County building. I walked in the office door and Carl,
who'd been waiting there, stood, took a couple of steps toward me, grinned and said, "Will you marry me?" Our 31st anniversary
will be April 7th.
This is the Oxford Center, built 1982, which I deliberately shot through the tree just because I wanted to. That's one of the
ugly beige buildings to its right. What a magnificent sky I had for a backdrop! I should photoshop ugly beige building out
and then the picture would be much better. Sigh.
I love architectural contrasts and this is the old Courthouse backed by One Mellon Center. Suspicious, eerie steam/smoke rising out of
lower right window adds to sort of creepy old feeling.
Side of old Courthouse. The building fills the entire city block. Henry Hobson Richardson designed it to replace
the yet older Greek revival Courthouse, which burned in 1882. Henry decided to be Romanesque.
More suspicious steam/smoke from same window, from which, doubtlessly, the invisible man jumped sometime in late October
of 1889, leaving his visible shoes entangled in yon tree.
Again, deliberately through a tree just cuz I thought it added to the look of the place.
We walked the block east from Grant between the old and new courthouses to Ross St. This is looking north on
Ross through the Bridge of Sighs, which connects the old courthouse on the left with the old jail on the right. Under
the middle of the arch in the distance is 'my' corner, well, 'Laura's and my' corner...the one with the tall corner of
glass on the right of the street as that is where we stood on and walked from over and over and, well, over during
the filming of Russell Crowe's The Next Three Days in early Oct. '09.
Story of that HERE
The old jail. This was used as the location of the 1984 film Mrs. Soffel, in which Diane Keaton played the titular Mrs. Soffel,
wife of the jail's warden, Peter Soffel (Edward Herrmann). The film is set at the turn of the century (not the most recent turn,
howsomever) and Mrs. Soffel falls in love with Ed Biddle (Mel Gibson) who is in jail with his brother Jack (Matthew Modine)
for murder. She leaves hearth, husband and family to help him escape. It's actually a true story.
And the roof tiles you see here (as well as on the old courthouse) used to be a vivid red-orange, but the terra cotta tiles have worn
to charcoal grey over time.
One of the jail's entrances.
When looking at the above photo, the word 'Pittsburgh' does not necessarily instantly come to mind, does it?
Getting closer to the filming corner. Russell had walked up this sidewalk and was standing up there at the corner waiting
for the light when we first became aware he was there.
Again, a contrast between the jail and one of the Mellon Bank buildings.
The corner closer up. Note the pale peach building in far distance as it figures later. That's the old Union Station.
So Russell crossed here then on across Ross to the right. This was before filming began. We crossed back and forth not across
5th, which is directly in front of me here, but Ross, which is the street to the right. Sometimes, when my leg gave out, I'd sit for
a second on that low wall in front of the bushes. That's the base of One Mellon Center.
This is the crosswalk across Ross we used, with the lower Mellon Bank building on the left, the old jail on the right,
and the red brick building being part of Robert Morris U., which is where we all gathered early that morning.
This is the garage entrance on Ross that Russell ran repeatedly out of, chased by police with guns, as we crossed Ross a little further to the right.
You can see the relationship of this to where we crossed in the 3rd picture above this one.
Today, continuing on down Ross to the other area where we filmed, I took a shot of what will always be to me the Steel Building,
but which of late sports a giant UPMC up top, which I don't really like as it looked better un-logoed. This is the tallest building
in Pittsburgh
Just past the end of One Mellon Center, when you're closer to the Steel Building, you can see both the Koppers Building and the
Gulf Tower. More on them down a bit.
And to your right is the Mellon Arena, home of the Penguins until late this fall when they move across the street to the right.
In the next scene we filmed, we were supposed to be Penguins fans who've just left the Arena and are still all excited and
heading across Ross and down to Grant.
I asked Carl to lean right here as that's exactly where Russell leaned for a while between takes. He smiled when the AD announced
through a speaker that if we extras looked at a camera, we'd end up on the cutting room floor. To the right of the bus stop and across
Ross you can see that entrance where he ran out of earlier.
At the side of One Mellon Center and between it and the Steel Building is a small parklet, Steel Plaza, with a broad
walkway and steps leading down to Grant Street. That's the William Penn hotel across Grant. I spent a LOT of time
standing in this top, open area just to the left of that first plot of dirt. See my account of the day for details of that.
This is immediately to the right of where I was standing and in the dirt area and where the chain is is where the cameras were set so
Russell and Paul Haggis, etc. could check what had just been filmed. Also, the caterers for the actors were on the sidewalk closer
to the cars.
Lo and behold in the dirt area closer to where I stood...the first daffodil sprouts of spring! One hardly
knew how to act in the presence of such vegetative splendor. See last two pictures of next page taken
close to home and you'll see why.
You can hardly tell there are a series of steps going down from this angle, but there are. And I went up 'n down and
up 'n down them more times than I can count!
Looking back up first section of steps. I was on the left going down and Russell and Elizabeth Banks ran across the
flat space at the top and when he reached the top of these steps, he took off his grey jacket, revealing a Pirates' jacket
beneath and hurried down the steps, trying to blend in with us Penguins fans, all of us in black and gold.
To my right off the steps is the little parklet with actual, as I recall vaguely, green grass. This being the heart of a city and warmer, the
snowpack has melted, unlike where I live and it is still firmly entrenched and looks to be so until some time in late August. That is the
old First Lutheran Church beyond mini-stonehenge there.
Looking back up the steps from further down.
Still some snow in the shadier areas.
These trees lining the walk/steps were still green in early October so artificial, orange oak leaves had been stuck in them
as well as scattered on the walk and steps.
Looking at parklet from across Grant, which is brick, by the by. All the buildings here are part of the Mellon Center.
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