The North Side, Pittsburgh

           It's hard to photograph the neighborhoods on the North Side of Pittsburgh because the streets are so narrow, and the houses are so close together.  There are lots of lush, healthy trees that block the view of the beautiful townhouses, too.

           This is Western Avenue, which like much of the North Side, can be pretty gritty in places.  It also has enormous, lovely old houses, many of which are just waiting to be claimed by some aesthetic dreamer who loves the urban life.  Others, like these, have been lovingly restored.  I think the North Side is the most truly "urban" area of Pittsburgh.  It's got blight.  It's got gentrification.  It's got gorgeous old architecture falling into disrepair.  It's got one of the coolest urban parks in the city, as well as some great cultural institutions: The Andy Warhol Museum, the Mattress Factory (a modern art museum in a line of rowhouses), the National Aviary, the Children's Museum, the Carnegie Science Center, Heinz Field and PNC Park, where the Steelers and Pirates play.

           The North Side is Pittsburgh's Brooklyn.  It's just across the Allegheny River from downtown.  It's got tree-lined avenues with brick and brownstone mansions.  Fortunately, people are seeing the charm in this part of town, and it's experiencing some major renewal.

           My favorite street--perhaps in the whole city--is Beech Avenue.  And though I couldn't get a very good shot of it, my favorite house on that street is the dark stone house in the photo just above.  It's shaded and elaborately sculptured.  It's still stained with the soot of bygone days, when Pittsburgh was the industrial city par excellence...days that nobody misses.

          In fact, maybe it's just a single block of Beech Avenue that I love.  Some of it--as above--is nice but relatively unexceptional.  These brick rowhouses are of the same style that you find in the Lawrenceville and Bloomfield neighborhoods.  In fact, this looks almost exactly like an intersection that I know near Rittenhouse Square in Philly.  Sometimes I think I could give up the acre of grass to live in a neighborhood like this.