Matt Diersen
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mattdiersen.bsky.social
Matt Diersen
@mattdiersen.bsky.social
Pittsburgh Architect of limited note.
What did my beautiful boy ever do to you?
December 3, 2025 at 3:12 AM
A movie that takes place where I’m from.

This movie is set in my hometown, and much of it filmed in the mall where I worked in high school, which will likely be torn down within the year.

I have never seen it.
November 23, 2025 at 10:34 PM
My 8-year-old found this and requested I put batteries in it. Still works, and you can still only hit the ball by timing the sounds and f the pitch delivery.
November 23, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Always a good time for a shoutout to the pride of Curaçao (and briefly Pittsburgh), Randall Simon!
November 19, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Call it my weird hobbyhorse, but hats have lots of names. Everything that is not a ball cap or a cowboy hat is not, by default, a “fedora.”
Yes, this is a fedora shape, but it is clearly a woven straw “Panama hat,” so that common name is right there for you to use to better describe it.
November 18, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Wasn't sure which thread to add this too, but the idea that the Lincoln bedroom had an ensuite in the 1860s didn't really sit right.
As near as I can tell, the White House still appeared to have only ONE bathroom not in the basement, as late as 1891.

Future Lincoln BR: yellow,
Bathroom: Orange
October 31, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Among others
October 24, 2025 at 11:29 PM
You know, if these guys worked for a private employer, you’d have a pretty rock-solid OSHA workplace safety violation for all this rubbing around in the roof without appropriate fall protection…
Though I suppose OSHA is managed by a table saw lobbyist at this point?
October 17, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Not just McMicken, there were matching Hanna and Cunningham Halls Too. Van Wormer Library makes a lot more sense next door to these buildings. Good info here: spncrtckr.mn/ohvarsity/th...
October 5, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Mcmicken Hall 2.0 sucks anyway compared to this banger:
October 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
I was curious how tall this was (4 stories) because I agree the well would suck more than ~2 down, but the craziest thing is the ground floor. The light wells go down to grade & then have these crazy narrow arms to the street. I think for ventilation? They couldn’t be claiming egress within these?!
September 22, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Based upon the video above, this style, tapered from top to bottom, would have to be made differently, or stretched by hand after forming?

All the other styles have “draft” (a meaning of the word that I recall from classmates in industrial design) which lets jello (or fezes) come out of a mold.
September 21, 2025 at 11:54 PM
The man is notoriously vain and yet he slaps this “I just sharted” portrait on everything…
September 19, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Was curious so I looked it, first confirmation of (Russian) steroid use was two years before this photo…
September 19, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Thankfully still there (last year at least)
September 18, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Post a PERFECT album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana or Pearl Jam.
September 4, 2025 at 2:04 PM
They keep saying the quiet part out loud; “But these public broadcasting station that are predominantly federally-funded are all in OUR rural areas!”
Jesus Crackers…
August 26, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Something getting lost in translation here…
August 24, 2025 at 2:35 AM
The last job in the world I would want would be driving a city bus, but when I read, “According to Pittsburgh Regional Transit, the car struck the bus from behind…” I have questions.

The 87 makes stops all along Liberty, how could it trap a car against the wall if it didn’t blindly merge into it?
August 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
The Times hasn't accepted and posted one of my (perfectly reasonable) comments in months but I just tried to post this:
August 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Excellent, but when will you do this classic?
July 26, 2025 at 1:35 AM
It’s still here in Pennsylvania. Never been through that part of the state myself. Wonder if any of these programs remain.
July 24, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Tomorrow night, for just the price of admission, I’ll be getting one of these beauties from Mrs. T’s (and a Mac Miller bobblehead, apparently?) and hoping the pirates lose to the abysmal White Sox by less than 10-1.
July 19, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Age verification? I remember getting the 1986 Atari 2600 re-release for Christmas so I could play all the hand-me-down games from my older siblings that my parents didn’t want to replace.
July 11, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Have some sad news about Philadelphia’s Vine Street.
June 20, 2025 at 11:44 AM