Holidays

I have always wanted to go downtown for photographs, especially this time of year. Just recently, I finally got my chance! What you see here is the beautiful, cheer-soaked neogothic glass walls of Pittsburgh's PPG Plaza decorated for the Christmas season. In the center sits an enormous Christmas tree, positioned in the center of an ice skating rink, lights strung all about in celebration of this, the most wondrous time of the year. The air was so cold, the sky that wintry gray it tends to be during a Pennsylvania winter, and yet there were dozens of people skating 'round the giant tree, having the time of their lives. The PPG Complex itself is one of Pittsburgh's defining features; you would be hard-pressed to find a structure like it anywhere else on Earth. The complex consists of six buildings within a 5.5 acre area, all centered around One PPG Place, a 40-story spike of steel and glass to serve as home to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass company. To give a sense of just how much glass was used here, the main building alone is adorned with 19,750 sheets of reflective plate glass! Every year, PPG sets up this Christmas scene, and gives Pittsburghers a place to commune while the snow falls. Now, if only I knew how to skate, I'd have joined in on the fun!