Recently listening to the police scanner, Alex and I heard a call come across the air to summon the fire department to “Allegheny Center Associates” on the North Shore in response to a fire alarm. For those unfamiliar with Pittsburgh, “Allegheny Center Associates” refers to what is known locally as Allegheny Center Mall, a retail space/mall from the 1960’s that has now been turned into office and living space(!) in an effort to revitalize both the facility and the Northside as a whole. The mall’s living spaces have a local reputation for being student living space for both Point Park and Art Institute of Pittsburgh students. What is most interesting about the mall, though, is its conversion from a retail to office/living space and the story behind it.

I don’t know all of the back story, but when you go into the building, what clearly used to be an “anchor store” is now a home loan bank customer service center, and what used to be smaller stores off the main concourse are now mostly telecom companies, one of which was my destination: switch and data. Even the kiosks and platers from the building’s former retail life remain untouched–everything is “dated” in appearance; the building empty and quiet.

The Pittsburgh Business Times printed an article back in 2000 on the building’s transformation from a mall to an office space, and termed the facility a “telecom hotel”. Evidently, (and not surprisingly) the building’s manager has had a hard time finding companies that want to locate in the mall. Instead, they’ve found a eager and willing audience in telecommunications companies. Reasons cited in the article for their interest include the cement architecture of the building and its close proximity to the power grid, both important to companies looking to keep computers cool, protected and running 24/7/365.

What I also find interesting, and not mentioned in the article, is the necessity of fiber optic links to run a telecom company in today’s global age. Conveniently, and perhaps one of its failings as a retail mall, there is a major freeway (I-279) and multiple railroad tracks just south of the mall (map). These imposing rights of way may cut off the mall from the rest of downtown, but they also usually carry fiber optics (freeways and railroads usually being places safe from digging). The mall’s close proximity to the office towers that house Pittsburgh’s (few) large multi-national companies make the mall a more cost-effective, but still convenient place to keep associated communications and IT equipment.

It’d be an ironic turn of fate for something that may have killed the building’s original purpose to be the thing that saves it from the wrecking ball. It also just proves that when you have an asset (especially a tangible one), there is always both an audience and a way to present that asset to that audience, that can turn the asset into a sustainable, revenue generating part of your organization. “It’s all in the presentation…”

…lies this tree! I love this tree and, at least what I’m ascribing to it in terms of how it got that way.

The first interesting aspect of this situation is the equal priority both have been given in access to the right-of-way along the road. In most modern cities or suburbs, I can say with near certainty that this tree would be cut down. Why would a city not do what they have done here? Because the tree’s trunk is growing directly below the wire. The tree will certainly converge back on the wire and ensnare it again, requiring perpetual pruning. Plus, if the tree were to fall either towards or away from the road, it could take the wire with it; the tree forms what is almost a ring around the wire. To a provider of infrastructure, both risks not worth sparing the tree.

Another interesting aspect of this situation is how the tree has adapted to its situation. The tree has grown more “bushy” on both sides of the wire, almost joining again at the top. How often it is pruned, I’m not sure, but this tree seems to have essentially become two trees.

Has the wire or the infrastructure adapted to the presence of the tree? Seemingly no, but maybe when installing this line, the pole to support the wire was put near this tree on purpose. Since the pole lifts the wire up to its highest point (it droops in-between poles), it helps the tree to have the wire higher above it; there’s less chance to have the wire end up resting on the tree.

The tree is also likely spared by the fact that this pole looks to only carry telecom cables. I can’t tell whether the thinner wire second from the top is electrical or not–if so, it would *really* surprise me that this tree was allowed to remain as it is; it’s an easy path to ground. My bet is that there is no electricity on this pole.

An interesting reflection of somebody’s values that you don’t see everyday!

We started the day off with the Toyota Corolla. I was hesitant about its usefulness in off-road environments, but it proved to be up to the challenge. We drove a few hours to just outside Fort MacLeod where we began to see evidence of the Alberta beef industry. None of the places we stopped had actual slaughterhouses on them (it’s hard to tell from the satellite photos), but we did see plenty of feed lots. These raise the cows until they are ready for slaughter–sometimes raising cows on contract for their owners. The smell wasn’t as bad as I would have thought, and some of the cows roamed freely on a plain, as seen in the pictures below. Buffalo were also on some of the lots.

We then stopped at the original slaughterhouse, Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. An interesting place, with a beautiful view of the Alberta plains.

On the way back, we saw a wind farm–a probably good way to make money from your land if you’re a farmer in Alberta. The wind mills were really beautiful, and spinning when we saw them. In the pictures, you can see the control station with a microwave tower for telemetry. In some of the pictures of the plains, you can also see microwave towers. I also noticed some fiber optic markers, but it seems for these long distances over flat terrain, microwave was more common.