The Spectator and the Topographical City

by Martin Aurand

Book Overview

The Spectator and the Topographical City examines Pittsburgh's built environment as it relates to the city's unique topography. Martin Aurand explores the conditions present in the natural landscape that led to the creation of architectural forms; man's response to an unruly terrain of hills, hollows, and rivers. From its origins as a frontier fortification to its heyday of industrial expansion; through eras of City Beautiful planning and urban Renaissance...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822962764
• ISBN13: 9780822962762
• Release Date: January 2014
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

New Ways of Seeing Topography

In this book, Mr. Aurand has achieved the surprising: The Spectator and the Topographical City far exceeds the high quality of his book on quirky Pittsburgh architect, Frederick Scheibler (The Progressive Architecture Of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr). Aurand leads the reader/spectator on an engrossing tour of Greater Pittsburgh that is insightful, instructive and unexpectedly affectionate from a non-native Pittsburgher. The topography he reveals is physical, metaphysical and metaphoric. One is immediately impressed with the depth and breadth of the research this work entails. Aurand quotes sources on geology, history, architecture, art, religion, economics and more. This might seem frenetic, except for the skill with which they are used to tell an integrated story. The book establishes and elucidates the spectator/topography relationships in three principal locations: Downtown Pittsburgh, the Turtle Creek Valley and Oakland. Aurand traces how the natural and man-made topographies continuously shaped one another. He takes the reader through these iterations in the (now) downtown triangle as it morphed through centers of the spiritual, military, residential, industrial, religious, governmental and corporate. Appropriate attention is paid to the city's most important architectural landmark, Henry Hobson Richardson's Allegheny County Buildings. The story of the Turtle Creek Valley is typical of many industrial centers in the region. Aurand makes it plain, though, that the tale of this production center for iron, steel, railroad and electrical equipment must be told on a heroic scale. Here he deftly weaves history in terms of men (Carnegie and Westinghouse) and movement (industrialization). This is the setting for some of his most picturesque language, especially in evoking the power the great steel mills. By contrast, Oakland (a section of the city to the east of Downtown) and its surroundings became the locus of cultural and academic institutions, skipping the industrial phase of the other two locations. This account is presented with a concentration on the work of Henry Hornbostel, one of Pittsburgh's most skilled and beloved architects. Here, at two great universities, we learn the topography of large scale architectural design. One can argue that the city's eastern reaches succeeded Downtown as a religious center. In addition to Hornbostel synagogues, it boasts three churches by Ralph Adams Cram, one by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and one by the immediate successors of Richardson. The author makes excellent use of art and photographs. The convenience of illustrations visible from their reference in the text is most welcome. The size of illustrations, especially in the case of topographical diagrams, is somewhat small for ideal clarity. Perhaps that is just the engineer in the reviewer talking. This book will be especially appreciated by those who know something of the history and architecture of Pittsburgh. However, it wou

A View of a City

Mr. Aurand is an architecture librarian (at Carnegie Mellon University) and brings to this analysis of the city of Pittsburgh an understanding of how the growth and development of the city has been influenced by topography of its location. This book is a collection of illustrations (paintings, drawings, photographs) of parts of the city, concentrating on three areas: Downtown's Golden Triangle, the industrial Turtle Creek Valley, and the cultural and university district of Oakland. Pittsburgh has a long and varied history. It began as a transportation center as it is in the upper reaches of the Ohio river which begins at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela. Subsequently Pittsburgh became the quintessential industrial city, and after that a pioneer in the development of a sustainable, green city. Mr. Aurand presents a rather different view of the city as he discusses the development of the city through its topology.