Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH
Very interesting, and I may have some more specific thoughts later. One general thought, though--I really wish we could see through a lot of the crappy added facades on some of these buildings, because I suspect at least a few could be restored to something worth saving.
Edit: In fact, I think you have the ISDA building at the corner of Forbes and Wood in red. Once the orange siding was taken off, it turned out that building was a gem.
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It was not a perfect job. I don't regularly walk every square foot of downtown regularly, so in some cases I had to rely on the (now several year old) Google Street View.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evergrey
Wow... I love this building... any story behind it?
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Dunno. The old Pittsburgh maps show it dates back to at least the 1870s. First Side has some of the oldest surviving buildings downtown, so it could be even older than that.
Interestingly, by the 1957 overhead shots, all the other buildings on that side of the block were already demolished. So it's been sitting by its lonesome for some time. Also, the 1910 map shows it having three or four stories, which suggests either there was a typo, or the top floors of the building were cut off for some odd reason at some point. Maybe it used to have a mansard?