Tag Archives: design

Frank Lloyd Wright Pittsburgh

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Design for a Civic Center at the Point

When I started this preservation month project of writing about a different historic Pittsburgh place every day in May, I thought it would be a fun way to share a little bit more about some of the places I have always known in Pittsburgh and to learn more about the history of theses places. Three weeks into preservation month, I have been amazed at the number of new places and local history that I have learned and the willingness of Pittsburghers to share more information.

Today’s post come from The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page. Pittsburgh history lover and fact finder John Schalcosky has been researching and sharing historic Pittsburgh information on Facebook since 2014. Learn more about this fascinating Facebook page of local facts and how John started the site on Episode #31 of the Marta on the Move podcast.

I reached out to John about preservation month and he suggested I take a look at some of the Facebook photo albums that he has put together. I thought I knew about all of the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in and around Pittsburgh but I had no idea that he had designed a civic center for the point.

Frank Lloyd Wright Pittsburgh

In the 1940s the Allegheny Conference on Community Development set out to rethink the land use of the point, the area that we now call Point State ParkEdgar J. Kaufmann, owner of the Kaufmann department store, was on the board of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development commissioned Frank Lloyd Write to create a design for a civic center at the point.

From the The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook Album on Frank Lloyd Wrights design:

Imagine instead of The Point’s Water Fountain, this incredible building was built in its place! Frank Llyod Wright designed this circular building with it being more than 1,000 feet in diameter and 175 feet tall containing an opera house, sports arena, three movie theaters, and a convention hall all wrapped by a spiraling strip of road. During the course ofWW2, federal and local authorities established three goals for the site: “the creation of a park commemorating the site’s history, improved traffic circulation through the construction of new roads and bridges, and designation of a portion of the site for new office buildings, intended to stimulate private interest in the Golden Triangle”.

Read more about this design and see the other photos of Wright’s design on The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

Read more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Design for a Pittsburgh Civic Center

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Have a building you would like to learn more about? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Links Worth a Look – August 16th

Here are some links/articles/blog posts that are worth a look:

  • Review: Smiling Banana Leaf – FoodBurgh – The blog FoodBurgh has a nice review of The Smiling Banana Leaf in Highland Park. This place has been reccomended by a couple of IheartPGH readers in the past as well. Check out Mike's thoughts on the food and some photos of the place too.
  • Steeltown Anthem Visits CommonWealth Press – Pittsburgh design blog, Steeltown Anthem, visits Commonwealth Press's shop on Carson St. – Lots of great photos of the shop, Pittsburgh t-shirts, posters and more.
  • Relay in Doubt! : Venture Outdoors – Check out the story and the photos of the Venture Outdoors annual 24 hour ride from Washington DC to the point.

Follow IheartPGH on Twitter – we share more links there almost daily!

Links Worth a Look – November 14th

Here are some links/articles/blog posts that are worth a look:

  • 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
  • Steeltown Anthem – This is a new-ish blog that has some great posts about art, architecture and design in Pittsburgh. Thanks to the Pittsburgh Craft Collective for helping us find another great blog.
  • Sixteen Pittsburgh Steelers Bars – Great little blog about a Pittsburgher who currently lives in Brooklyn and is checking out a different NYC area Steelers bar each week.

Follow IheartPGH on Twitter – we share more links there almost daily!