DELIRIOUS PITTSBURGH: On the Blink!
Favorite Examples of Signs and Illumination on Pittsburgh Architecture
This is the last in a three-part lecture series that considered aspects of Pittsburgh’s historical built environment and what makes it distinctive. This event will include a short reception to celebrate the end of the series and reflect. Join us!
Tuesday, October 27
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Museum of Art Theater
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(Parking: metered street parking is available and in the multi-level parking garage located directly behind the museum.)
$30 per person
Purchase a ticket below. This event is limited to 50 participants.
Pittsburgh’s distinguished skyline has lately become a veritable dumping ground for ill-considered corporate logos with dreadful video screens not far away.
Yet, historically, blending architectural form and illumination, even flashing light, into a corporate identity was an art form for structures such as the Grant Building and the Gulf Tower. When Modernism changed architectural tastes, Westinghouse explored innovation, even as others lost the thread.
Pittsburghers tend to have favorite historic corporate signs, such as for the Clark Bar and Heinz Ketchup, even as others, not to mention any specific law firm, are widely reviled. This lecture explores the fundamental architectural qualities of light-up corporate architecture and signs in Pittsburgh that make the difference between something being pleasing or disastrous.
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.
