Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538080
I felt compelled to make the design simple, unnoticeable and yet exceptional. The production selected the exterior of Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital to be the exterior of our "Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center." A door buried in the hill at the base of the practical exterior works to imply the pedestrian entrance to our emergency department. I adored certain aesthetics of the building and wanted to incorporate those elements throughout, like little architectural kisses, so the authenticity of the exterior of the space could be felt influencing the interior stage set. The marble columns, the brick, the capitals, and the marble floor in the waiting room and the tangential public spaces that lead off from the main emergency department, are purposeful and a link to the heritage architectural spaces that help define the city of Pittsburgh. I wanted the set to reveal years of remodeling, but also have spaces left in original textures to express the century-old reality of this hospital. The double meaning of the title The Pitt is of course, Pittsburgh, but also the idea that the emergency department is in the basement of the hospital. I added supporting columns inside the space to make it like the space is underground, foundationally holding up the building. The height of the building, the emotional and physical weight of it all is, metaphorically, on top of the characters. There's an old aphorism: You make a few decisions and suddenly, you're fifty years old. On this project, I felt—of the two million decisions that go into any design—I would make five foundational commitments: the layout, the palette, the floor, the lighting and the ceiling. After that, there would be no turning back. I wanted the design to flow contiguously and allow for seamless, handheld photography to maintain A. STAGE 22 STRUCTURAL LAM- BEAM SUPER-GRID TO SUPPORT CEILING, SOFFITS, AC, ELECTRICAL AND 689 LIGHTING FIXTURES. B. PAINT AND MATERIAL SAMPLES. C. OWL COLUMN CAPITOL SCULPTURE IN PROCESS. D. WB STAGE 21 PTMC PEDESTRIAN RECEPTION AND "CHAIRS." SKETCH MODEL BY JOSH LUSBY AND DEAN WOLCOTT. E. PTMC PEDESTRIAN RECEPTION AND "CHAIRS." SET PHOTO BY KEN HABER. B C A D E