I had dinner at the restaurant Talia Cucina & Rosticerra this evening. Talia is located at the corner of 6th and William Penn Place on the first floor of the Regional Enterprise Building, which used to the Alcoa headquarters.
The following photo and history of the Alcoa building is from Darren Toth’s Instagram account @Yinztergram. Darren was kind enough to meet me for coffee last year to talk Pittsburgh history when I was working on a historic designation. I have really enjoyed following Darren’s posts of fascinating photos of Pittsburgh people and places accompanied by some unique local facts.
While I knew the Alcoa building was made with aluminum and the US Steel Building was made with steel, I had never heard about the the beams filled with saltwater.
This building received a historic landmark plaque from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 2004. More information about the history of the Regional Enterprise Tower is available on the Pittsburgh Art Places website here.
In addition to local history, he occasionally posts some wonderful photos of Pittsburgh today. I am glad he posted about the blind runner from the Pittsburgh Marathon as I found that to be the most inspiring thing of the day. There were so many great things to share from the race, bust as a first time runner I was too afraid that I would fall if I tried to take a photo while running.
May is Preservation Month
The National Trust for Historic Preservation celebrates historic preservation successes each May. I have been posting about a different historic building each day since the beginning of the month. Have a building you would like to learn more about? Know of a history lovers we should follow on Instagram? Leave a comment below.