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DELIRIOUS PITTSBURGH: From Market to Expo
The first in a three-part lecture series.
Tuesday, July 7
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Liberty Magic
811 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(Next door to Harris Theater on Liberty Avenue in Downtown.)
$25 per person
This program is limited to 50 participants.
Click here to purchase a ticket.
Motor Square Garden is hidden in plain sight. A beloved landmark for its romantic dome and ornate brickwork, it has hosted a changing spectrum of commerce and events through the decades since it was built, 126 years ago. Yet its architectural meaning, so apparent in its distinctive appearance, is often overlooked. The building has important predecessors in market halls locally and further afield, even as its artful details refer specifically to ancient and Renaissance models. Thanks to architects Peabody & Stearns, it also has ties to Chicago’s epoch-making 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, whose connections to Pittsburgh continue to inspire new scholarship.
What’s the best way to build a market hall in a burgeoning industrial city? And what is that dome supposed to mean anyway? This lecture is part of the series “Delirious Pittsburgh”— because the best buildings give us wild-eyed excitement when described with rich architectural context and lively attention to artistic detail.
About the presenter: Charles Rosenblum is a journalist, critic, and scholar writing about architecture, art and other aspects of visual culture. As an academic, he taught history and theory of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and other institutions in Western Pennsylvania for twenty years. As a writer, his work has appeared regularly in publications including Pittsburgh City Paper, Next Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Quarterly, earning numerous awards. He has written for national outlets including Architectural Record, Architects’ Newspaper, Preservation, and Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly. He has also been a regular contributor to books and publications of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Charles earned his Ph.D. in Architectural History from the University of Virginia writing about the architecture of Henry Hornbostel.
