It was a strange afternoon in Pittsburgh that day. The skies were pretty clear to the west and south, but north of the city a storm was brewing. I was walking down Grandview Avenue when I noticed the light against the buildings from the setting sun was more pronounced as usual due to the sky behind them being so dark.

The sun was right at the edge of the horizon, and the external lights on the buildings had just turned on. For just a couple of minutes, there was this really awesome golden reflection reflecting off the windows of the buildings. At the same time, you could see into the windows of offices with their lights on.

The continuity with the horizon in the background matching up perfectly with the reflection of Mt. Washington and the golden sky in the buildings adds a lot of symmetry composition. A minute after taking this shot, the sun had gone down enough to remove the golden reflections on the windows.

If you look really close you can see bookshelves, desks, lamps, and people inside of the windows of PPG Place. My last full time job was on the 20th floor of PPG Place, and I’ve worked in every single one of these large buildings downtown throughout my 20+ year career as an art director and software developer. I always find it interesting to look at all of the various vantage points I’ve grown accustomed to over the years, from all of the other ones in town.

KEYWORDS

pittsburgh; pennsylvania; 5th; avenue; place; ppg; skylines; cities; buildings; sunset; buildings; architecture; mt; washington;