Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s newsroom in transition

1928: The second floor of The Pittsburgh Press building. (Press photo)

May 1963: Artist Glenn Heydt and a copy boy among the air conditioning pipes. (The Pittsburgh Press)

May 1963: From left, business editor Bill Allan, chief photographer Ray Gallivan and copy editor Julian Whitener oversee the chaos of the former features department during a renovation. (Press photo)

September 1963: Looking from the newsroom into the advertising department. (The Pittsburgh Press)

Sept. 22, 1981: Workers install new office equipment in the newsroom. (Andy Starnes/The Pittsburgh Press)

December 1982: A tour group takes a look at a Press computer. (Tony Kaminski/The Pittsburgh Press)

July 30, 1981: The classified advertising department of The Pittsburgh Press. (Kent Badger/The Pittsburgh Press)

2014: A look at the former Pittsburgh Press and current Post-Gazette newsroom. (Ethan Magoc/Post-Gazette)

The Post-Gazette’s newsroom on the second floor of 34 Boulevard of the Allies has gone through quite a transformation since the building first opened for The Pittsburgh Press in 1927. We combed through our archives and traced its evolution, from the days when a suit and vest were expected newsroom attire to major renovations of the space in the 1960s and ’80s.

One of the oldest photos we found depicts a different era (a staff member actually wrote “old” on the back of the print some years ago). A group of men, all dressed in vests and ties, sit reading and making calls, newspapers and scissors littering the desks. It’s the same floor that Post-Gazette reporters work on today, but the scene couldn’t be more different. Technology, for one, has come along way, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a reporter who walks into work in 2014 wearing such a formal getup.

Press reporters worked around air conditioning pipes in the early 1960s, when updates to the editorial department’s space made it appear a construction site. One photo from May 1963 depicts an artist busy at work with stacks of the metal pipes behind him as the copy boy looked on. In another, the Press’s business editor, its chief photographer and a member of the copy desk stand between stacks of pipes, chatting in what was once the features department.

In one more from the era, a staff member leans in his chair alongside the aisle that connected the editorial and advertising rooms. As the photo shows, it was a mix of the traditional desk set up with curtains blocking sight of the construction: a newsroom in transition.

Fast forward to the 1980s, and more changes attracted locals to tour the newsroom and the building’s presses. Press staffers in 1982 showed off their computer monitors, which look bulky now; that technology crowded the desk of the Press’s classified advertising department in this shot from July 1981.

Since then, we’ve rearranged some furniture and replaced terminals and keyboards, but it’s not so hard to recognize the Post-Gazette newsroom today in those photos.

Take a look at a more recent shot and see for yourself.