Another gray, rainy day in Pittsburgh. It was a beautiful week until yesterday when the rains came. After I did my weekly tutoring stint, postponed from Friday because of the G 20, I went downtown for a walking tour. Fortunately, it was mostly indoors with only short walks between buildings. Downtown Pittsburgh is being restored and reclaimed for residential use. The first building we went to is called Piatt Place. Originally built in 1995 (?) as a Lazarus Department Store, it was empty for years. We were taken to the seventh floor, the uppermost of three floors of apartments newly built on top of the original building, which will house office and retail.

We looked at both the smallest and largest apartments. The view from the largest apartment was unusual; you could see the tops of several nearby churches. I took only a few pictures as I was being rained on.

Looking through the bars around the terrace of the million dollar plus condo, unfortunately the only things in focus, you can see a person lying in the indentation in the church wall, trying to take shelter from the rain.

From Piatt Place we went to Market Square Place and Market at Fifth, rentals this time. We finished with some of the new retail that's come to Market Square. It was interesting and I hope lots of people will make downtown Pittsburgh their home and dispel the ghost town feeling you get nights and weekends now.

The sun just came out–I think I'll go for a walk.