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Mellon Arena was opened in 1961 and was then known as the Civic Arena. It was originally built for the opera but is now used for music and sports. It's dome is made from stainless steel and uses about three thousand tons of steel. It is one of the largest retractable roofs in the world. It opens and closes in only two minutes. It has a floor space of |
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| thirty thousand square feet. It is the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, used for circuses, and concerts. Mellon Bank paid eighteen million dollars for its name in a ten year contract. A huge amount of land was cleared for this gigantic arena and many families still hold a grudge. |
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Falling Waters was one of Architect Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous works. It coasted one hundred sixty-six thousand dollars in 1937 which is about four million dollars nowadays. It was used as a weekend house by E. J. Kaufmann, the owner of the growing Kaufmann department store. His family | |
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the growing Kaufmann department store. His family always vacationed on the river Bull Run. One day they decided to let "the greatest architect of all time" make a house for them. his son E. Kaufmann Jr. was studying under Wright so they had contact with him. | |
| The home was built under over a waterfall and seems ready to fall but is surprisingly solid. It's concrete was laid over and in boulders and has many concrete beams going through them. It has four stories and over two-hundred eighty thousand |
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| square feet of floor space. It is so organic that instead of taking out the boulders they cut it and made a solid wall of rock. Wright used no steel on the whole house. It is now a museum for everyone to visit. in resent years it has gone into renovation. |
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Phipps Conservatory is a garden next to Carnegie Mellon University. It is in Schenly Park and was donated by Henry Phipps himself in 1893. It was built by the architects Lord and Burnham, |
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specialist in green house design and construction. Many new houses were added onto it as recently as last year. It is the home of many plant species from all over the planet. It is surrounded by a pond, a |
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forest, flower gardens, and statues. They even have a recast statue of the god Mercury. They recently changed changed the name to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens because most people don't |
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know what a conservatory is. To get park ownership a representative to go to London to find Mrs. Schenly, the owner of the land. Schenly Park became Pittsburgh's first park and home of Pittsburgh's only conservatory. |
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