There's an empowering, exhilarating feeling upon flying around the world to some of its greatest cities, seeing historic, majestic structures, while knowing that, yeah, we've got a few of those here ourselves.
I'm here to tell you, my friends, that I'll stack our Union Trust Building with the best of 'em.
If it isn't the crown jewel of our entire region, let alone just Downtown, I can't imagine what is.
See that image above?
That's the atrium that runs through all 15 floors. That should be all that I'd have to show anyone, though I'm afraid these pics I snapped just yesterday don't come close to doing any of these scenes justice.
It's breathtaking to be in this lobby, which is always open to the public.
It's overwhelming, really.
Opened in 1917, designed by the legendary Frederick J. Osterling, the architect behind our Allegheny County Jail and countless other protected-and-still-standing properties, and funded by the equally legendary steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, it's been a Grant Street icon for a century-plus. But it fell into stomach-turning disrepair a little more than a decade ago, tenants abandoned the place, the struggles spread ... and it wasn't until the Davis Companies bought the place in 2014 -- most unbelievably, at a sherrif's sale, for only $14 million -- that its fortunes flipped.
Two years later, Davis invested $100 million to make it like new, cleaning the exterior stone, dramatically repairing and restoring the signature roof, installing lighting so that it shines by night like nothing else in town, relighting the stained-glass dome atop that 150-foot rotunda, and setting the stage for a wave of successful restaurants.
There's now one of the latter at three of the building's four corners, all visibly bustling on my walks by there. One of them opened just last month.
I could babble on forever about this building, but I'll instead share these three observations:
1. Places like this don't happen in Cranberry or Monroeville or Upper St. Clair or any suburbs. This is why urban cores are unique and essential. They help define who we are historically, whether it's in Pittsburgh or anywhere. You walk in here, you know where you are. To repeat from above, you feel it. You feel Pittsburgh in its purest form.
2. My son Marko loves coming here, and it's only a block away from where we live. He takes his own pictures, does his own drawings, that I'm sure he'll share when he's ready. But that makes me love it all the more.
3. I really should shut up and just show more pics, with cutlines, all from yesterday:
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
View from William Penn Place, technically the rear, though the roof winds all the way around.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
One of four ornate marquees, one on each side of the full city block it encompasses.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
A clock embedded in one of the more visible rotunda terraces.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Even amid all of Downtown's classic lobbies, this stands out, connecting Oliver and Fifth avenues.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
There are no uncool brass elevators in existence. These are fully modernized. The building has 10 total.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
More brass, glass, steel and stone, even on the way out to Fifth. Eye candy in all directions.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Step through the snowflakes for some steak out on Grant. Del Frisco's did a record $10 million in revenue in 2022.
People ask, often in insulting ways, why I speak up for Downtown as I do. This is why. The Union Trust Building isn't a relic. It isn't a memory. It isn't in the past tense in any way. Like so much else that's happening in the Golden Triangle, it's the best it's ever been. And for the simple reason that people care about who we are and what we can be. Present tense and future tense. And embracing a treasure like this ... man, imagine wanting the heart and soul of our region to fail to prove some cultural/political/whatever point, as so many clearly do.
Come visit this. There's four levels of parking right underneath. There are multiple eateries inside, too. Make a whole morning/afternoon of it. You'll appreciate what it means to be a Pittsburgher that much more by the end of that day.
Oh, and here's a quick video about the current experience of the growing business component:
Tap here to read the rest of my Downtown series.
