If you could bring back one demolished Pittsburgh landmark, which would you pick? (Washington: home, construction)

[osirus226]

This arcade you speak of sounds pretty awesome! Wish I was around in those days.

I don't know if you'd really call it a landmark, but I miss Kennywood's laser loop! I was still pretty young when it was taken out and never got the chance to ride it but always wished I had the courage to.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by osirus226

This arcade you speak of sounds pretty awesome! Wish I was around in those days.

I don't know if you'd really call it a landmark, but I miss Kennywood's laser loop! I was still pretty young when it was taken out and never got the chance to ride it but always wished I had the courage to.

My friends called it "The Vomit Comet."

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by gallacus

I, personally, have always had a fascination with the Wabash Terminal Building:



From an article in the Post Gazette:

The old Wabash Terminal being demolished for a Gateway Center office building. A flatiron train station built in 1904, the Wabash was part of New Yorker Jay Gould's attempt to build a transcontinental railroad empire. On the night of March 22, 1946, the terminal and its maze of sheds and overpasses burned in a fire near The Point. David Lawrence, the new mayor, watched happily from the roof of the nearby Pittsburgh Press building. The fire made it easier for the city to acquire the building and the land from the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad. The Wabash building and the nearby Wabash Bridge came down in the early 1950s.

Difficult to say for sure from this vantage point but it might have been better to have kept the Wabash Terminal building rather than have the rather dull Gateway Center complex. That fire does sound unusually convenient for Mayor Lawrence.

City Planning is interesting but not something I'd like to actually do. Its history seems to be strewn with flops. As one "anti-planner" put it, cities are dynamic while planning takes many years and tends to be static in its thinking. I like the PG's statement

What East Liberty illustrates is how sprawling urban renewal projects rarely live up to their promises and how delicate the line is that separates good intentions from unintended consequences.

There are a lot of complex interactions going on in communities and even experts can't take them all into consideration so they simply the problem with sometimes disastrous results.

Leading into the Wabash Terminal was the Wabash Bridge



Maybe it was for the best for the bridge to go as it looks so gaudy.

Winter Garden at Exposition Hall was unfortunately where Point State Park is now.



Portions of it were taken down over the years with it all coming down in 1951.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by osirus226

This arcade you speak of sounds pretty awesome! Wish I was around in those days.

I don't know if you'd really call it a landmark, but I miss Kennywood's laser loop! I was still pretty young when it was taken out and never got the chance to ride it but always wished I had the courage to.

I wish Kennywood kept Turnpike and kept it with gas-powered cars. I believe they made the ride in response to a similar ride in Disneyland. Probably was in keeping with the car and expressway culture of 1950s and 1960s. I was too young to ride it then and haven't been back to Kennywood since.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

I wish Kennywood kept Turnpike and kept it with gas-powered cars. I believe they made the ride in response to a similar ride in Disneyland. Probably was in keeping with the car and expressway culture of 1950s and 1960s. I was too young to ride it then and haven't been back to Kennywood since.

This was my favorite ride back in the late 60's.

[BrianTH]

There is certainly plenty of room in the Equitable Plaza complex for all the same new buildings plus the Wabash Terminal, as long as you took out some of the plaza itself (which would be fine with me).

[Sealtite]

Three Rivers Stadium. It was a perfect football stadium & multipurpose facility, was only 30 years old when it was demolished, and was actually preferred over Heinz field by a lot of Steelers fans. In my opinion, Heinz is somewhat of an eyesore. Maybe I feel that way since it's contrasted with PNC park, which I think is one of the most beautiful structures ever built by human beings.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Sealtite

Three Rivers Stadium. It was a perfect football stadium & multipurpose facility, was only 30 years old when it was demolished, and was actually preferred over Heinz field by a lot of Steelers fans. In my opinion, Heinz is somewhat of an eyesore. Maybe I feel that way since it's contrasted with PNC park, which I think is one of the most beautiful structures ever built by human beings.

If Three Rivers had been built with one of those open-ended designs (and there were such proposals back then) it might have been kept. Heinz is nice for the views of the city, but I agree the rest of it is pretty cheesy. PNC was done properly. Heinz was done pretty much cheap as possible feels like.

[UKyank]

Heinz suffers from the same thing consol energy center does - it's just a cookie cutter stadium, nothing special or unique. It accomplishes what it's designed for but that's it. PNC Park is so cool that just going to the stadium is an experience in itself & half the reason the Pirates attendance isnt epically terrible.
I view both Heinz field & CEC as partial failures in that if you are going to decide to blow public money on sports shrines then at least make them unique enough that they add to the city's architecture & not just structures that are the same as you find in 75% of other cities (with professional sports). It is even more true with CEC then Heinz.

[gallacus]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Heinz suffers from the same thing consol energy center does - it's just a cookie cutter stadium, nothing special or unique. It accomplishes what it's designed for but that's it. PNC Park is so cool that just going to the stadium is an experience in itself & half the reason the Pirates attendance isnt epically terrible.
I view both Heinz field & CEC as partial failures in that if you are going to decide to blow public money on sports shrines then at least make them unique enough that they add to the city's architecture & not just structures that are the same as you find in 75% of other cities (with professional sports). It is even more true with CEC then Heinz.

Not sure why people think this way, but you're definitely not alone in your thinking. I, on the other hand, couldn't disagree more. I do share your fondness for PNC Park, but I think Heinz is a great stadium, far better than 3 rivers, and the Consol Energy Center is, in my opinion, gorgeous. I'm not sure what one could do to improve the CEC, seeing a game there is fantastic, and the integration with the streets around it is superb. What is it that you dislike so much about these stadiums?