Imagining the Modern explores Pittsburgh's ambitious modern architecture and urban renewal program that made it a gem of American postwar cities, and set the stage for its stature today. In the 1950s and '60s an ambitious program of urban revitalization transformed Pittsburgh and became a model for other American cities. Billed as the Pittsburgh Renaissance, this era of superlatives--the city claimed the tallest aluminum clad building, the world's largest retractable dome, the tallest steel structure--developed through visionary mayors and business leaders, powerful urban planning authorities, and architects and urban designers of international renown, including Frank Lloyd Wright, I.M. Pei, Mies van der Rohe, SOM, and Harrison & Abramovitz. These leaders, civic groups, and architects worked together to reconceive the city through local and federal initiatives that aimed to address the problems that confronted Pittsburgh's postwar development. Initiated as an award-winning exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2014, Imagining the Modern untangles this complicated relationship with modern architecture and planning through a history of Pittsburgh's major sites, protagonists, and voices of intervention. Through original documentation, photographs and drawings, as well as essays, analytical drawings, and interviews with participants, this book provides a nuanced view of this crucial moment in Pittsburgh's evolution. Addressing both positive and negative impacts of the era, Imagining the Modern examines what took place during the city's urban renewal era, what was gained and lost, and what these histories might suggest for the city's future.

More than fifty photographs, drawings, and diagrams accompany a detailed descriptive text to illustrate how the peculiarities of the plan, based on the equilateral triangle, resulted in a house that generates countless vistas, indoors and out, and spatial effects of great charm and intimacy."--BOOK JACKET.

At the forefront of national and international change, Pittsburgh has long been portrayed as a place for innovative architecture. From its origins as a fort built in 1753 at the urging of a twenty-one-year-old George Washington, through its industrial boom, and into contemporary times, when it has become a pioneer for the ideals and philosophy of environmentally friendly architecture, the city has a history of development that exemplifies the transformative nature of America's built environment. With The Buildings of Pittsburgh, we now have a substantive reference book (organized by area, with subsets of geographical entries) that relates the architectural history of this ever-changing city up to the present day. Franklin Toker examines Pittsburgh's architectural transformations from its early architecture following the Federal and Gothic Revival styles, to the city's importation in the mid-nineteenth century of new styles in the Romantic tradition, to industrial Pittsburgh with all its factories and huge institutional buildings, and finally to the city's environmentally conscious renaissance that began in the mid-twentieth century. In doing so, he shows why Pittsburgh has consistently been rated among the top three American cities for buildings by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and how the city once famous for embracing industry and pollution is now preaching the gospel of clean air and "green" architecture.