ppg2

PPG...part two (new March 7, 2010)

My love affair with a building continues

For a while now I've taken pictures of the PPG-One tower, usually from a distance,

and from every vantage point I can manage. I have an album here dedicated to

that...HERE

and here is one of those pictures to show its location in downtown Pittsburgh.

The fountain at the Point is in the foreground and the tower is flanked in the distance on its right by the Oxford Center and

on its left by the Mellon Tower. But in all my pictures in that first album, you can't really tell there is a whole complex of

PPG buildings, 6 of them in fact, covering 5 1/2 acres. So on Sunday, March 6th, Carl, Joey and I drove downtown for

the express purpose of parking near them (which is easy to do on a Sunday) and walking around, taking pictures.

Up close, admittedly, you don't get the splendid effect of the 40-story main tower's pinnacles, a post-modernist version

of the Victoria Tower of London's Houses of Parliament. But...as I already have plenty of photos which show that aspect,

it was time to get up close and personal with a camera. This was a spur-of-the-moment idea on my part due to the

endless blue sky and temperatures in the 40's after the snowiest February on record...ever...in Pittsburgh. This is

PAGE ONE of our March 6, 2010 walkabout in part of downtown Pittsburgh. Link to rest at bottom of this page.

We parked under that walkway between two of the buildings and walked out into PPG Place, which is the central plaza

surrounded by these glass structures. There are 19,750 sections of glass all around you, all of them reflecting each other

so that you see not only the building before you, but its fellows. I found the reflections to be one of my favorite parts.

Like this.

And this. The white building with the mast is the Highmark Building.

Looking straight up PPG-One. The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company has had Pittsburgh as its headquarters

since 1895. It's often used in movies set in the city and, for instance, in 1999 was Dr. Claw's headquarters

in Inspector Gadget.

The sun crowns the top of one of the lower sections. There is white aluminum framing around

each of the reflective glass panels. There are those who say the place reminds them of Superman's

Fortress of Solitude.

Looking across the plaza from an open arcaded side of PPG-One. In the center is an ice rink which is over 2000 square feet larger than

the famous one at New York's Rockefeller Center. In warmer weather, the ice is replaced by 140 water jets you can walk among and

280 underground lights.

In the center of the plaza is a marble obelisk, surrounded by the rink. At Christmas, it's covered by a Christmas tree.

Toward the base of the obelisk is an division with large black balls, which has earned the thing the

dubious title of "Tomb of the Unknown Bowler."

Grandson Joey, 10, in the plaza taking his own photographs.

And this is me deliberately getting my own reflection in the base of PPG-One. You may notice the blob

of red at the right edge of the photo. That is...

A very, VERY Pittsburgh dinosaur, the ketchupaceratops. Heinz, of course, since that company is Pittsburgh-based.

Everything, even the dinosaurs, reflect in the glass.

Joey at the end of the arcade.

How did that go? Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear?

Eating area at the far end of the arcade.

I was quite taken with the appearance of the reflection in this side building across the street from the plaza.

It looked almost like some Danish castle.

A bit of Carl, rather whited-out by the sun, by PPG-One.