Photos by Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette
See a larger version Omni William Penn Hotel (below), 530 William Penn Place, where the inspiration is Lewis Comfort Tiffany's stained-glass windows and lamps.	See a larger version Duquesne Light, (below) 411 Seventh Ave. (from Liberty Avenue), where letters on stacked cubes spell out "Glass & Light."
See a larger version Highmark Building (below) (the old Horne's building), Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street. Saturated color includes imagery of Emilio Santini's Venetian-style "Lampidario," which appeared in the Pittsburgh Glass Center exhibition "Well Hung: Chandeliers Revealed" in 2005, and may currently be seen in the round in "Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! America and Venice" at Carnegie Museum of Art.	See a larger version Katz Plaza, (below) corner of Penn Avenue and Seventh Street, the only location where two designs will periodically alternate. Inspired by contemporary glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose "Chihuly at Phipps: Gardens & Glass" is currently at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

You have until next Sunday to see the largest concentration of buildings lighted by French artist Lucette de Rugy and her organization, Artlumiere, yet staged in the United States -- and it's all Downtown and free.

Rugy's teams, which have worked around the world, decide upon their approach to lighting a particular site based upon a variety of considerations, including local history and the theme of a sponsoring organization. Because the display, officially called "Pittsburgh Festival of Lights!," is part of the yearlong Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass!, a focus on glass was a natural.

Rugy and designer Corentine Buron compose each projection piece, combining imagery and colors to suit their aesthetics, and consider each an original work of art. Rugy writes that the inspiration for the Downtown illumination project came from "glass art coupled with the incredibly rich architecture of Downtown Pittsburgh, which reflects so much its history, heritage as well as its future." The comments under each building reflect what I see in the projected works.

The lights go on at about 9 p.m. daily and glow until 1 a.m.