Some Last Looks at Autumn: In the City, 2009

We know autumn is stunning on the hills and along the trails; a walk in the autumn woods can wash my soul clean as new. But that exciting splash of color among square and stolid buildings, hiding in the shadows of narrow streets but touched but the afternoon sun—now that is a welcome sight, and just as likely to cleanse the soul of the press of people and work on city streets. These yellow trees, some hybrid magnolia, I believe, having seen them bloom in spring, are planted in a curving line in a sculpture court at the corner of Sixth and Penn Avenues in downtown Pittsburgh.

Here people actually get to enjoy sitting under lemon-colored trees, near a granite sculpture of an eye. Just before I took this photo, several people who had been sitting there got up and boarded a bus. Darn! They looked great under the trees.

I may like this one the best since the impact of the trees on the urban landscape is clear.

And here’s one more, not as dramatic in color, but both the trees and the sculpture help to break up the vertical lines and rectangles in Mellon Square Park, a little farther uptown.