Offices, Old and New - Part I

In October 1980, I first walked through the revolving front doors of the Oliver Building on Smithfield Street in downtown Pittsburgh. I was on my way to a job interview with the law firm of Kirkpatrick, Lockhart, Johnson & Hutchison ("KLJ&H"). At the time, KLJ&H was the third largest law firm in Pittsburgh behind Reed Smith Shaw & McClay (1st) and Buchanan Ingersoll (2nd).

KLJ&H was then home to about 70 attorneys and they occupied three floors of the building -- the 15th, 16th and 17th floors. The Oliver Building is a great old office building witha wonderful marble and brass first floor lobby, and the firm has made the building its

home since it was founded in 1946.

My interview went very well that day, and I was offered a summer associate position (for the summer of 1981). I received offers from

several other firms as well that fall, but after some thought, I decided to accept the offer from KLJ&H. That summer, I spent three great months with the firm and, in the fall of 1981, I was fortunate to receive an offer of full time employment. This time, I did not have to think long about the offer. I accepted quickly, and began working with the firm, as a full-fledged associate attorney, on August 24, 1982.

It has now been more than 27 years since I began practicing as an attorney with KLJ&H. The firm has gone through a number of changes in the past 27 years. In the fall of 1981, the firm took its first step in the direction of growing

outside the city of Pittsburgh. It merged with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hill Christopher & Phillips. Since that time, the firm has merged with many other existing law firms and has also started offices "from scratch" in a number of cities. Today, the firm is known as K&L Gates and has offices in 37 different cities in the US, Europe, the Far East and the Middle East.

As for the Pittsburgh office, the attorneys now number more than 230 and we occupy 12 floors of the Oliver Building. And we are about to embark upon a rather significant change. We are making a move -- a physical move -- to another office building one block away. Plans for this move began about two years ago, and now it will soon be upon us -- in mid-March.

And so we will soon say good-bye to a building and a set of offices that has been our law firm home for many years. It is a bit of a shock to realize that, over these past 27 years, I have spent roughly 30% of my life in the Oliver Building. I will truly be sad to make this move.

Attached here are some photos of my current office. It sits in a northwest corner on the 23rd floor of the Oliver Building. When I sit at my desk, I have a view up the Allegheny River immediately to my right. This is a wonderfully large and sunny space, and I have been very comfortable here. I will miss it. In a future entry here, I will offer a tour of our new building and my new office. So, stay tuned . . . .

The Story of an Errant Earring

My twin sister, Lisa, and I both got our ears pierced when we were 16 years old. And ever since that time, we have enjoyed gifting each other with earrings. And so, when I travel, I am always on the lookout for interesting earrings -- for myself and also as potential gifts for others, including my sister.

Several months ago, when I was in Venice, I purchased a beautiful pair of Murano glass earrings for Lisa. And I gave them to her when she visited the week-end before Christmas. She liked them a lot, and she put them on the very next day. They looked great.

Later that morning, however, tragedy struck. We were in the kitchen cooking together, and I noticed that one of Lisa's earrings had fallen off! We immediately started looking around the kitchen. We looked all over the floor. We looked on the counters. We looked in the sink. We found nothing. Later, Lisa retraced her steps to the bedroom and looked all over the floor there, and in her suitcase. Nothing. It was gone! How could it just disappear? Lisa was was really upset. For the rest of the week-end, I found myself repeatedly pausing to search for the missing earring. Lisa was doing it too. But it never showed up.

Lisa traveled home on Sunday but, come Monday morning, I was still thinking about the missing earring. Where could it have gone? I worried maybe it had fallen into the trash, or down the disposal. I emailed Lisa and asked her to tell me absolutely every room she was in on Saturday morning. I was going to make another, really thorough search. This time, she mentioned an area of the house that she had not mentioned before. She had been on the back porch to get something stored there. This gave me someplace new to look.

When I got home that night, I made a beeline for the back porch. It was dark out, but I put on the overhead light and started looking around. I focused on the deck -- which is made of wood planking. And there it was! It was stuck in the gap between two of the wood planks. It was actually wedged there. Wow. I found it! I was so thrilled, I called Lisa right away.

Ten days later, I saw my sister, and I returned the earring -- along with a package of 200 earring backs!

Books, Books and More Books

Following our tour of the Capital, we proceeded, via underground passageway, to the Library of Congress -- which is located immediately behind the Capital. There is limited access to the research rooms and book collections of the Library, but there are some beautiful common rooms and various exhibit rooms located here. We did not spend much time here, but we enjoyed wandering around the beautiful main hall, and we made it to the observation room above the main reading room.

The central hall of the Library of Congress is a

massive space surrounded by grand staircases leading up to a second level that circles the

ground floor. For the holiday season, there was a huge Christmas tree -- maybe 25 feet tall -- in the center of the main hall. It was decorated with book plates and book marks. It was really nice.

On the second level of the Library, there are two exhibition halls as well as another staircase that leads to an observation room that sits far above the floor of the main reading room. The observation room is constructed almost entirely of 1-2 inch thick glass. We think that was more for sound-proofing than for security. The main reading room below is set up in a circular fashion. The reference desk (circular) is in the center of the room, and it is surrounded by three circular rows of desks. This central core of the room is further surrounded by a series of additional rooms

containing countless book shelves, but these are not the only places where books are housed. In fact, there are at least two other buildings near the Library of Congress where major portions of its collections are housed.

A Visit to Our Seat of Government

On Saturday, January 2, 2010, as part of our visit to my sister's family in Great Falls, Virginia, Katherine and I, along with my sister Lisa and my niece Lauren, made a second trip into Washington, D.C. with the goal of visiting the Capital building. Notwithstanding dozens of visits to Washington, D.C., I have never been to the Capital building.

The first thing you notice as you approach the Capital is the dome in the center of the building, and on top of the dome sits a statue called "Liberty." She is draped in a roman looking gown and an eagle sits atop her head! It was a cold but clear day when we visited, and the dome against the blue sky made for a nice picture.

About two years ago, a new visitor's center was constructed on the basement level of the Capital. We entered the building from the north (behind the mall) and descended down a long outdoor staircase. And then we had to go through a security checkpoint which is not much different from the security screenings at any airport.

Admission to all museums and other national exhibits on the Mall is free, and admission to the Capital is no exception. Also, they run tour groups through the Capital on a regular basis. We were lucky to arrive just a few minutes before the next tour was scheduled to begin. The tour consisted of a 10 minute movie about the history of the building and then a guided tour through the historic rooms of the Capital. Unfortunately, we could not see the current houses of the Senate and Congress because they are not open on week-ends, but what we did see was very interesting.

The primary rooms that we saw were (i) the statue gallery above the crypt, (ii) the original supreme court, (iv) the rotunda, and (v) the original senate chambers.

The statues found within the Capital are spread throughout the building. Each state is permitted to contribute two statues -- which means that there are a total of more than 100 statues located here -- since they have more than just those donated by the states. It is possible for states to swap out one statue for a new one, but that has happened rarely, i.e., only three times. It most recently happened when, in 2005, California contributed a statue of Ronald Reagan and, in doing so, had to accept back one of its original two statues.

About 20 of the statues are housed in the statue gallery which also sits directly above the crypt. Interestingly, there is no one buried in the crypt. It had been the plan of the original architects that George Washington would be buried in the crypt but, at the time of his death, the Capital was not completed and, when the building was completed many years later, George already had been buried at his family home, Mount Vernon. There were some efforts made to cause his body to be moved to the capital, but the Washington family opposed the move, and George Washington's will expressed his wish to be buried at Mount Vernon. Congress ultimately decided to respect his wishes. And so, no one is buried in the crypt and there are no plans that anyone will be buried there.

We next were escorted to the Old Supreme Court Chamber, located in the Senate wing,

at ground level. The Supreme Court occupied this Chamber from 1810 to 1860. It is a surprisingly small, dark room. Many famous cases were argued here, included the Dred Scott case. In the earliest days of the Supreme Court, there were no time limits imposed on the parties who argued cases before the Court. Our guide told us that the longest time taken to argue a case was two days! As time passed, however, the decision was made that time limits should be imposed. Those limits began at several hours a side. Today, each side is only permitted 30 minutes of argument time.

Our next stop was the Rotunda -- which is perhaps the most impressive of all the rooms in

the Capital. It sits in the space directly beneath the dome. It's primary purpose is to serve as a reception room for official functions. It is also where presidents and other dignitaries have "lain in state" prior to burial. The room is primarily empty of any furniture but along the outside walls there are the obligatory statues -- about a dozen of them. If one of the two statues contributed by a state is the statue of a president, it is the custom that it will have a permanent home in the Rotunda. There are several presidential statues located here including those of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan.

Also along the walls of the Rotunda, just above eye level, are a series of eight massive paintings. Four of them depict scenes that predate the Revolutionary War, and four of them relate to events during and immediately after the Revolutionary War. The most famous of these pictures are (1) the one depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence and

(2) the one showing General Washington resigning his commission, following the conclusion of the War. Above these pictures there is a black and white frieze that runs along the entire circumference of the Rotunda and which contains a pictorial history of the United States from the earliest days of colonial settlement through the early 1800s. The Rotunda is a truly beautiful room.

The last room that we visited at the Capital was the old Senate. The room is basically emp

ty of its original furniture and now houses -- you guessed it -- a lot of statues. This room, in fact, has more statues than any other room in the Capital. Also in this room, on the floor, are bronze plaques that identify the location of the desks of several particularly famous senators - like John Quincy Adams.

All in all, our tour of the Capital was very interesting and informative, and I am very happy that we finally took the time to take it in.

Christmas at the National Botanical Gardens

One of the several sites that we visited during our trip to Washington was the National Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens are located on the Mall just about next door to the Capital.

Each year, during the Christmas season, the Gardens put on display a miniature railroad, and every year the railroad is constructed within a different setting. This year, the setting was inspired by several different fairy tales (e.g., Rapunzel) and children's stories (e.g., Peter Pan)

and several American historical landmarks. Also of note, these small structures were all constructed of natural materials -- for example, using pieces of bark, nuts, and plant stems and leaves.

We got to the Gardens late in the day so we were not able to see much more than the railroad exhibit, but the rest of the building is beautiful, and we did walk through a few additional "rooms"

to get a feel for it. In particular, we saw some beautiful orchids and some festive, holiday-themed topiary.

Ringing in the New Year in Washington, D.C.

To celebrate the beginning of this new year, Katherine and I decided to invite ourselves to visit my sister, Lisa, and her family (Steve, Nick, Lauren and Alex) in Great Falls, Virginia -- which is about 15 miles outside of Washington, D.C. I always enjoy our visits to Washington. Lisa and her family are great fun to be with, and we typically visit some of the great attractions in our nation's capital.

On this trip, we celebrated New Year's Eve with a great dinner at Morton's, at Tyson's Corner. [There are four Morton's restaurants in the D.C. area!] Of course, we all ordered a different cut of steak, and they were all excellent. We (Lisa, Steve and I) also enjoyed a really great Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner.

After dinner, we returned home and played Pictionary (girls vs. boys). The girls won! And then, to finish out the evening, we watched the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration on TV and watched the ball drop at the stroke of midnight. We also toasted in the new year with glasses of Champagne. It was a very nice evening and a great way to begin the new year.

Froebel Among the Ferns

When my father and I recently visited Phipps Conservatory, we were drawn there because of a new glass art exhibit being staged there. It is a Froebel glass exhibit, and it was beautiful and fun. This is the second glass art exhibit that the Conservatory has staged -- the first one being the hugely popular Chihuly glass exhibit of a couple years ago.

The Froebel exhibit has not been as popular, but it is still a great exhibit and wonderfully

compliments the plant environments so beautifully maintained at the Conservatory.The Froebel exhibit consisted of four basic types of pieces. First, Froebel has a series of pieces that consist of tall skinny stick figures that he calls "longfellows." He puts them in various settings doing various things -- like walking through a forest or balancing on balls.

Second, a number of Froebel's pieces are face masks -- many of them in gold or opaque white. Third, the artist has some very large pieces that fill entire rooms or courtyards. They often incorporate very obvious geometric shapes.

Finally, and perhaps my favorites were a number of pieces that consist of lifelike replicas of flower arrangements -- many of them orchids. These pieces were amazingly lifelike.

I think the Phipps Conservatory has hit

upon a real winning combination with these art shows placed among their beautiful plants. I hope they keep it up!

A Morning at Phipps Conservatory - Chihuly Style

On the Saturday after Christmas, December 26, 2009, Dad and I traveled into Pittsburgh to visit one of my favorite places in the City - Phipps Conservatory. I'm not sure how long the Conservatory has existed in Pittsburgh, but it's been around for quite some time. It's located in Schenley Park, just across a small bridge from the Carnegie Library and Museum complex.

The Conservatory is immaculately maintained and consists of a couple dozen "rooms" where plants of different varieties are amazingly well kept. Some of my favorite rooms are the orchid room, the fruit tree room, the desert room and the Japanese garden. Also, for many years, the Conservatory has adhered to a program of doing several big "shows" a couple times in the year -- a Spring flower show and a Christmas seasonal show -- when special plants are brought in and planted among the permanent collections.

Additionally, several years ago, the Conservatory began to bring art shows into the Conservatory setting. The first such exhibit was of Chihuly glass. It was an amazing hit. The Conservatory was packed to capacity with guests during the entire period of the exhibit -- which was originally scheduled to last about four months but was extended to six months because of its popularity.

Chihuly is an internationally known glass artist who hails from Tacoma, Washington. His glass has been displayed in special settings all over the world, including Venice and Paris. His

pieces tend to be extremely large and colorful. He also has done a number of installation exhibits designed for conservatory settings all over the US.

The Chihuly exhibit at the Phipps Conservatory was fantastic. I saw it two times -- once during the day and a second time at night. Both visits were wonderful. And, at the conclusion of the exhibit, the Conservatory had raised enough money to purchase several

Chihuly pieces to keep on display permanently. Those permanent pieces are pictured here.