Larimer

Even though we like the appeal of both neighborhoods, there is something about Larimer that immediatley is more compelling to us than Garfield. Larimer is flat. It’s half abandoned character reminds us of the left over settlements of former gold rush towns we visited in the West. There are associations that for us come with the idea of the desert: capaciousness, openess, harsh, unforgiving, straight forward…There is no hill to hide behind, and no hill to look down into Larimer. It’s own plateau, enclosed by valleys. Topographically Larimer is an open book. Because of this flatness there is something generic about Larimer. This place could be anywhere. We like this imagined flexibility.

In Pittsburgh, says Patrick Horsbrugh, “the topographic form and the consequences thereof, are inescapable. They condition every action, they confine every vista, they expose every prospect.” Walter Kidney observes that in Pittsburgh, “more than in almost any other city, the third dimension is important in the look of things. You cannot go far before you find yourself looking up the side of a hill, or forward into empty space.” Pittsburgh, says photographer Clyde Hare, “stands up and looks you in the face.” And we look back.