Where else can you stroll from a Greek temple porch to a Renaissance doorway to a Gothic cloister without leaving Pittsburgh? The Hall of Architecture at Carnegie Museum of Art holds one of the largest collections of plaster casts of famous buildings in the world — around 140 full-scale reproductions, most made in the early 1900s when Andrew Carnegie wanted Pittsburghers to study the masterpieces of Europe at home.
The giants still stun: the Porch of the Maidens from Athens’ Erechtheion, the carved west portals of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, Ghiberti’s bronze ‘Gates of Paradise’ gleaming in reproduction. Few museums anywhere kept their cast collections — Carnegie did, and the hall remains a pilgrimage site for architecture lovers.
The Hall of Architecture is inside Carnegie Museum of Art at 4400 Forbes Avenue in Oakland, included with admission. Give it a slow lap; the details reward it.
