Category Archive: Architecture & Architects
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Symposium Marks Centennial for Rodef Shalom, Western PA’s Oldest Jewish Sanctuary
September 25, 2007
Historians and architectural experts will discuss Rodef Shalom Congregation’s landmark sanctuary listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its founders during “Historical Symposium: Honoring Our Builders and Building” on Sunday, November 4, 2007 as part of the sanctuary’s centennial celebration and the Congregation’s sesquicentennial observances. Free and open to the public, the community-wide symposium starts at 1:00 PM, at Rodef Shalom, corner of Fifth and Morewood Avenues in Oakland.
Professor Jonathan Sarna, a Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Director of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program will deliver the keynote address, “The Place of Rodef Shalom in the History of American Judaism.” Two panel discussions will follow. Elaborating on the Congregation’s historic building include: Eliza Smith Brown, author of Pittsburgh Legends and Visions: An Illustrated History, Charles Rosenblum, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University and Albert M. Tannler, Historical Collections Director of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. The second panel will discuss the Congregation’s builders and early members who made significant contributions to the development of Rodef Shalom and the Pittsburgh community.
Henry Hornbostel (1867-1961) who designed the century old sanctuary is well known for his designs of many national treasures including Pittsburgh’s Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Pittsburgh City-County building and nearby Carnegie Mellon University originally known as Carnegie Technical Schools.
A 1907 Pittsburgh Post article wrote of Rodef Shalom: “wonder in architecture… one of the handsomest temples for Jewish worship in the country.” It further describes the building: “In design, construction and workmanship, in decorations and in every respect the fine edifice is one of the proudest creations in modern architecture and building methods, being a composite of excellence in hundreds of details.”
The sanctuary’s most distinctive feature is its dome which was constructed in the Catalan timbrel vault style, indigenous to northeastern Spain using interlocking layers of thin tiles laid in mortar to create a lightweight, strong vault without the use of wood or steel beams. The Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, which patented the Catalan vault, often collaborated with well-known architects such as Henry Hornbostel, who used Guastavino arches and stairways in a number of his buildings including the Rodef Shalom sanctuary.
Two contemporary assessments of Hornbostel’s Rodef Shalom Temple are offered by Franklin Toker and Walter C Kidney. Franklin Toker, an associate professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in 1980, was instrumental in obtaining the designation of the Temple Sanctuary on the National Register of Historic Places. Professor Toker is quoted in “Historic Landmark,” which appeared in The Pittsburgh Press of May 25, 1980: The Temple’s sanctuary is one of the…first products of the Beaux Art movement in Pittsburgh…popular in the United States between1900-1935.
In Pittsburgh’s Landmark Architecture (1997), Walter C. Kidney of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation– and the author of Henry Hornbostel: An Architect’s Master Touch (Landmarks, 2002) — described Hornbostel’s work on the Rodef Shalom Temple: “Hornbostel designed a quietly sumptuous interior of mahogany and gilt, focused on an ark in the Ionic order.” He went on to say, “Rodef Shalom has served two purposes well: as a dignified place of worship and as an ornament to an elegant neighborhood.”
For more information on the “Historical Symposium: Honoring Our Builders and Building” or tours of this community treasure, contact Chris Benton at 412-621-6566, or visit http://rodefshalom.org/who/history/.
The Symposium is underwritten in part by the Ruth & Bernard Levaur Contemporary Lecture Fund.
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From June 2007 through May 2008, Rodef Shalom Congregation, the oldest Jewish congregation in Western Pennsylvania, as well as the largest Reform congregation, celebrates two significant milestones: the 150th anniversary of its charter by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the 100th anniversary of its landmark Fifth Avenue building. In 1885 Rodef Shalom leaders hosted the Pittsburgh Platform where members of the national Reform movement defined its first major tenets, marking the Congregation’s historic role in the development of Reform Judaism.
Throughout its history Rodef Shalom has been dedicated to observing and teaching Jewish values through inspirational worship, an emphasis on lifelong learning, active advocacy for social justice, service to region-wide human needs, promotion of interfaith dialogue and understanding, and encouragement of the spiritual and educational growth of its young people. For more information, visit www.Rodefshalom.org.
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Bedford golf course builds on famed architects’ designs
By Rick Starr
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 30, 2007The Bedford Springs Resort Old Course has been rejuvenated.
The classic 18-hole golf course re-opened in July as part of a $120 million renovation of the links and the 216-room resort and spa by Bedford Resort Partners.“With four sets of tees on every hole, the course will challenge players of every skill level,” says golf pro Ron Leporati.
Golf at Bedford Springs goes back more than 100 years, so the first obstacle to restoring the layout was deciding which era to revisit:
= Spencer Oldham designed the original 18-hole course in 1895, complete with geometric bunkers.
= A.W. Tillinghast added a classic par-3 hole in 1912 that he named “Tiny Tim,” while taking the course to nine holes.
= Donald Ross expanded the course to 18 holes in 1923, adding several holes along Shober’s Run, one of the state’s Gold Medal trout streams.
The resort preserved the designs of all three famed architects, according to restoration specialist Ron Forse, of Forse Design of Hopwood.
“While we tried to maintain the visual character and the playing character of each hole from its original design, we also made a lot of changes to make it playable for today,” Forse says.
The course now features a state-of-the-art irrigation system, and Bentgrass fairways, tees and greens.
“We were restoring a significant piece of Pennsylvania history at Bedford Springs, at least as far as golf is concerned,” he says. “We’re very cognizant of the responsibility.
“It’s a balancing act to maintain as much of the design intent of the old hole, but still make it play as part of a resort course today.”
Because of modern driver technology, which ushered in the era of 300-yard drives, Forse moved several tees to bring hazards back into play.
Other changes, such as lowering the degree of slope on greens, were forced by advances in turf management and equipment.
“But we felt all along that if the course had a modern feel, it would have been a failure,” Forse says.
Forse is particularly proud of the restoration of Tillinghast’s “Tiny Tim,” now the 14th hole. Tillinghast considered the little hole one of his best because it brings a pond, creek, wetlands, mounding and tight bunkering into play.
“There aren’t many par-3s from 1912 left in Pennsylvania,” Forse says.
“Tiny Tim” was almost lost when the property was virtually abandoned in 1986 – just two years after the Department of the Interior designated its hotel and spa as a National Historic Landmark.
Forse had to rebuild two of Ross’ closing holes — using a 1952 photograph — because they had been converted into a driving range.
Forse says he’s constantly impressed with the strategic aspects of holes designed by Oldham, Tillinghast and Ross.
“Playing their designs never gets old, because they built alternate routes to the target,” he says. “They didn’t want golfers to take shots for granted.”
Bedford Springs Resort Old Course
Par: 72
Yardage: 6,795 blue tees, 6,431 white, 5,807 gold, 5,050 red
Greens fees: Resort guest, $105-125; public and tournament, $115-$135; twilight rate (after 3 p.m.), $70-90
Overnight golf packages: Starting at $355 per person, $470 per couple
Tee times: Required
Details: 814-623-8100 or www.bedfordspringsresort.com
Rick Starr can be reached at rstarr@tribweb.com or 724-226-4691.
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Bedford Springs Resort returns to its roots
By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 30, 2007Even the U.S. presidents who stayed here didn’t have it this good.
During its 200-year history, the Bedford Springs Resort has played host to Presidents James K. Polk, William Taft and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Not to mention author Nathaniel Hawthorne, manufacturer Henry Ford and nine Supreme Court justices.They were drawn by the resort’s rustic serenity and the reputed medicinal benefits of its seven natural mineral springs. These waters were also known to the Indian tribes in the region’s frontier days, when Bedford was a British stronghold in the French and Indian War, and later, a headache for the fledgling U.S. government during the Whiskey Rebellion.
Today, the Bedford Springs resort rises, reborn, an elegant Greek revival redoubt nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, in Bedford County.
The resort, parts of which date to 1806, reopened July 12 after a $120 million restoration. An easy two-hour drive from Pittsburgh, Bedford Springs pays tribute to its past while providing modern spa service, fine dining and a range of outdoor activities on its 2,200 acres, including 25 miles of trails, a golf course and a gold-medal trout stream.
Exit the turnpike and drive four miles through the antique shops and apothecaries of Bedford. Outside of town, the mountains press against the road. Round a curve, past beds of blooming black-eyed Susans, swoop down a small hill, and — wham — the panorama spreads out before you. Strung across the landscape is a columned palace with manicured lawns and a circular drive blooming with formal gardens. It’s easy to see why the place served as the summer white house for U.S. President and Pennsylvania native James Buchanan.
Bedford Springs wears its historical pedigree proudly. Above the front desk hangs a vintage 39-star American flag. Visitors will discover a soothing warren of fireplaces, graceful curving banisters and long hallways carpeted in restful sage green. But modern amenities haven’t been forgotten. Each of the 216 rooms and suites features a 32-inch flat-screen TV, Egyptian bed linens and i-Pod. Wi-fi access is available throughout the resort.
The resort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984 before closing two years later. It defied eight attempts to get it up and running again, says Todd Gillespie, director of sales and marketing.
The property was purchased and developed by Bedford Resort Partners, who include the Ferchill Group of Cleveland, Chevron TCI, and the Bedford Springs Company. The resort was restored to its 1905 incarnation.
“It had to be built back to the way that it looked in 1905,” Gillespie says. “There were very specific criteria we had to meet.”
Restoration efforts included removing sediment from the Shobers Run Creek, where guests can fly fish. The golf course was restored to its original design. Workers also removed, cleaned and replaced the original glass window panels of the hotel. Several bear the etchings of brides who were married there.
“When people would get married here, it was traditional to etch their names in the glass to prove that their diamonds were real,” says Cheryl Funk, marketing manager.
One inscription, in a window near the clubby, masculine library, reads “B.T. Warren, August 23, 1892.”
Bedford Springs is planning to revive that tradition for future weddings, Funk says, but will provide an etching pen to forestall embarrassment to a bride who gets stuck with cubic zirconium.
Today, “taking the waters” means surrendering to the luxurious ministrations of the staff at the brand-new Springs Eternal Spa.
First is a plush Terricloth robe and sandals, followed by a shower with ginger black walnut body scrub, one of the spa’s extensive line of personal care products, most made using local botanicals. Sink into a hot tub fed by an eighth spring, which was discovered during the renovations. Then dip into the cold plunge pool. Repeat, then repair to the aroma therapy steam. Don the robe, then wait in the lounge, with its view of the flower gardens, and sip Orchid Oolong tea and munch fruit and nuts. Then it’s time for a massage.
Rates range from $249-$299 per night, based on views, day of week and seasonality. Spa suites start at $309.
The restaurants on the premises include the Crystal Dining room, with the original crystal chandeliers, gilt framed mirrors, wood floors and four hues of blue.
Enjoy an Angus beef filet and a glass of Rodney Strong Cabernet and contemplate the period photos of the resort’s guests from the previous century, taking their ease in boaters and bustles. After dinner, gather at the fire pit on the grounds or sit in one of the vintage rocking chairs on the balcony.
Athletes can run, kayak, hike or rent bikes made by Cannondale, which operates a factory in nearby Bedford and has offices in Europe and Asia. Cannondale has provided cycles to competitors in the Tour de France.
Guest Marsha Miller, concluding her stay the resort, summed up its appeal: “What I really enjoyed about it was that it’s got all this history and tradition, but it’s modern.”
Resort highlights
• The Crystal Dining Room has an exhibition kitchen and rotisserie and a 1,500-bottle wine cellar. It includes the Daniel Webster room, named for one of the resort’s celebrated guests, which is reserved for private dining.
• The Frontier Tavern is in the Stone Inn, which was a stagecoach stopover for travelers. Guests can enjoy trout club sandwiches, billiards, micrwobrewed beer or a cigar from the well-stocked humidor. Artifacts on display include an old wood stove, crockery and a bear trap. After dark, step outside and pass the time by the fire pit, just as guests did 100 years ago.
• The 1796 Room, which features fine dining in an upscale 18th-century ambience, puts a 21st-century twist on American colonial cuisine. Dishes include venison, bison, rabbit, quail, wild boar, game pie and mountain trout.
• The Springs Eternal Spa is a 30,000-square-foot addition to the resort and features wet and dry treatment rooms, a private spa garden, mineral springs, couple’s treatment, aromatheraphy, facials and massage. It also features a boutique shop with a line of personal-care products, many made using local botanicals and minerals.
• Activities include trout fishing in Shobers Run Creek, 25 miles of hiking and biking trails and an indoor fitness facility. The spring-fed indoor pool area has been restored to its original 1905 state, right down to the orchestra pit on the second story, where string quartets used to serenade bathers. The outdoor pool complex includes private cabanas. Resort Rascals, a children’s activity center, will open soon.
• The restored 18-hole golf course, one of the first to be built in America, has old-growth trees. Refreshments will be available at the Half Way House, which will be near the 10th green.
• Banquet catering is available for the 20,000-square-foot conference facility.
Did you know? During World War II, the U.S. Department of State used the Bedford Springs Hotel as a U.S. Naval communications training center until 1945, remodeling hotel facilities, including the convention hall, to accommodate more than 7,000 Navy personnel. In 1943, the posh retreat also housed 200 Japanese diplomats and their families detained after the fall of Germany. Guests of the United States, they later were exchanged for captured American POWs in Asia.
If you go
Where: Bedford Springs Resort, 2138 Business Route 220, Bedford
Details: 814-623-8100William Loeffler can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or 412-320-7986.
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Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Announces New Non-profit Corporation
Mark Bibro, Chair, announced today the formation by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) of a new non-profit corporation to expand PHLF’s activities in neighborhood and urban revitalization. The Chief Executive Officer will be Howard B. Slaughter, Jr., and Arthur Ziegler will serve as president.
The new non-profit, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation (LCCC), will build a financial base by obtaining loans, grants, and investment capital and in turn will finance and develop projects that assist in the revitalization of urban centers, towns, and neighborhoods. The corporation may undertake the actual developments, and co-develop or lend funds to community development corporations and others that undertake such work. It will also work to support expansion of the regional employment base and energy conservation, green and sustainable goals, and assist rural and farm economic developments. LCCC will also contract with government and private agencies to define such projects and conduct feasibility studies for them.
Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr., who resigned last week after eight years as the Director of the Pittsburgh Fannie Mae Community Business Center, will become one of Pittsburgh’s newest Chief Executive Officers. Dr. Slaughter will now serve as the CEO of the newly established company, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation. The company’s focus will be on providing equity, debt, short and intermediate term financing for housing and economic development activities in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and West Virginia markets.
Slaughter will utilize his vast experience, which includes serving as the former Vice President of Dollar Bank’s Community Development group and past Director of Preservation Services of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Brian Hudson, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, said,
“Howard’s new role as CEO of Landmarks Community Capital Corporation will benefit the State by ensuring that more capital is deployed in this market, which will have a significant impact in Pennsylvania. We are fortunate to have someone with Howard’s skills serving at the State level and as the CEO of LCCC.”
Arthur Ziegler said of Howard, “He has been deeply involved in community development financing from every perspective and we are certain he will lead our new non-profit to excellent results. He has been deeply involved in preservation nationally as the former PA Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.”
Slaughter said, “There is an opportunity in the market to provide appropriate financing for existing and new developments independently and in collaboration with other financial intermediaries and developers. Landmarks Community Capital Corporation will be a private-sector catalyst and a participator in financing housing, mixed-use, and commercial developments. It will also focus on public sector policy initiatives and work with legislators as well as utilize tools like the New Market Tax Credits to bring additional needed capital to the region.”
Brief background of Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr.: He holds five earned degrees, including a Master’s Degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Public Management and his Doctorate in Information Systems and Communications from Robert Morris University. He also attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, completing the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government. He completed course work on Fundamentals of Real Estate Finance at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate. Slaughter is also a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow and serves on the Board of the Urban League of Pittsburgh, and on the Board of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, receiving a gubernatorial appointment from Governor Ed Rendell. He is also the Founder of the Financial Literacy Program of Pittsburgh at Robert Morris University. He will start his new job on October 15, 2007.
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Private-public partnership resurrects old Bedford getaway
By Jack Markowitz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 9, 2007They’re using the word “miracle” around Bedford these days.
It’s a nod to the revival — after 22 years of near-death experience — of the Bedford Springs Resort, the venerable vacation spot with gleaming front porches that seem to go forever and a history that stretches back 203 years.Presidents slept there. But a glorious past can carry a hotel only so far if everything else is falling apart. The “Springs’ ” new owners, a half-dozen sophisticated investors from out of state, have bet $120 million that this piece of the past has a future.
They see a very modern aggravation — airport delays and hassles — nudging upscale Easterners to do their vacations and conferences, weddings and weekends, closer to home. Within two or three hours’ easy driving from Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia, in fact.
In that market area of millions, Bedford Springs means to compete with the best. Namely, the Greenbrier in West Virginia, the Homestead in Virginia and other high-prestige — and high priced — watering places for the well-heeled and the politically and corporately influential.
So look for weekday room rates of $249 a night and up ($350 on weekends), golf rounds at $105 for hotel guests, $115 for drive-ins ($70 after 3 p.m.), and sumptuous but pricey breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Not to mention concierges, valet parking, masseuses and white-gloved bellmen.
None of which would have been possible without the help of taxpayers.
Some $40 million in state and federal help has lifted the grand dame of Keystone State travel destinations to its legs again. “The hotel is probably better than it has ever been,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, which helped in the rescue.
“She sat there empty and forlorn for 22 years,” says Bedford historian-architect Bill Defibaugh. “I expected every day to get a call, ‘They’re tearing her down.’ ”
It all goes to show what money can do. Plus vision, patience, taste and, well, tax dollars.
Here’s one item. To give a new generation of guests an unspoiled view — and no noise, fumes or trucks, across elegant lawns and gardens — a half-mile of U.S. Route 220 was relocated behind the hotel. The traffic is now in a deep, $11 million highway cut that never would have happened without friends in Harrisburg and Washington.
Still, someone had to bring money. His own.
Meet Mark Langdale, 53, of Dallas. He’s the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, a friend and appointee of President Bush, and a real estate investor. From afar, he spotted a then-dying, dust-gathering hotel a decade ago. And never let up gathering partners, political allies and financial tools.
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks (which saved Station Square in its home city decades ago) threw a big life ring. It acquired the hotel’s outside. Right — just the outside.
That’s the historic facade of tall columns, old glass and white porches — the building’s skin. History and Landmarks legally owns all that by way of an “easement,” a legal contract by which the historic look of a National Historic Landmark should never be lost.
By giving up the easement, Langdale and his group, Bedford Resort Partners, acquired a $23 million federal income-tax credit aimed at historic preservation. Then they sold that as a market investment to Chevron, the California oil giant, to put into the reconstruction. As many as 400 skilled tradespeople have reworked the property for almost two years.
Result: The hotel, some of it dating from 1804, is practically new inside — in a stronger outside. The four-story architectural wedding cake lies four miles south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Bedford interchange, just outside the 3,500-population county seat.
“Basically, we took the hotel back to the structure,” says Keith Evans, managing partner of Bedford Resort Partners, who oversaw the big fix. An associate jokes: “Keith said, ‘Take it upside down and everything that falls is gone. So we have new walls, new floors, ceilings, heating, plumbing and air-conditioning.”
Evans said it’s fair to say the place was “gutted.” To make larger guest rooms, now 216 of them (vs. 721 at the giant Greenbrier and 486 at the Homestead), walls were knocked down and about 60 old rooms sacrificed. Deteriorated timber was replaced by steel beams. Great white outdoor columns were sent to Altoona and Scranton for $75,000 rebuilds. But century-old, wavy window glass was kept; 19th century brides etched initials in it with their wedding diamonds.
“This ceiling was just hanging down,” said Cheryl Funk, marketing director, of the top-floor ballroom (capacity 300) three floors up from a soaring lobby of angled stairs and footbridges. Five restaurants, a huge kitchen (and several satellite kitchens), an antique-rich library, porches with painted rocking chairs — What would a grand old hotel be without them? — and long vistas of furniture and decor keep visitors walking and gawking.
More than a half-dozen presidents have visited the place, including Pennsylvania’s own James Buchanan, who used it as a summer White House before the Civil War. Others on the register included Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan (while California governor).
The first post-revival wedding was in late August with 225 guests. Extra help was sent in by Texas-based Benchmark Hospitality International, contract operator of this resort and more than 30 others. The first new guests in a generation arrived July 12 without any “grand opening.” It seemed more important to get 275 resort employees up to speed for a “world-class destination luxury resort.” That’s the goal, not an easy one.
The Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and the Homestead, in Hot Springs, Va., plus Nemacolin Woodlands in Fayette County and the Hotel Hershey near Harrisburg are viewed as the elite competition for individuals, corporate meetings, special events and, hopefully, congressional and other government retreats.
“The luxury segment is one part of our industry that’s continued to grow,” said Todd Gillespie, Bedford Springs’ vice president of marketing and sales. He said four groups already are signed for 2008 — and one as far out as 2011.
No numbers are being released, but “we’re very optimistic about the early results,” Evans says. “Bookings have been very good.”
Word-of-mouth from the hard-to-please can be elusive. An early guest from Rochester, N.Y., told a reporter the new staff isn’t four-star yet. “It’s beautiful around here, but they’ve got to get the kinks out,” she said.
But Helen Ferry, Dorothy Ritchey and Marcia Davis, all from small Bedford area towns, thought the restoration exciting and the food “delicious.” They bused in on a senior citizens weekday tour with buffet lunch (fare: $26.50). “Before they started working on it,” Ferry says, “you’d come up here and think somebody dropped a bomb.”
A new “spa” wing has been built for body-pamperers, with guest rooms topping $300 a night. The outdoor-pool complex overlooks a first-rate view: the restored 18-hole golf course that occupies a valley between hills veined with hiking trails. Bringing the 6,785-yard golf course back to the 1924 Donald Ross design was an $8.5 million labor. Look for serpentine bunkers, tufted hillocks, wetlands, wildflowers and meandering Shober’s Run.
Restoration work in the hotel aims for the high-ceilinged look of the resort’s pre-World War I heyday around 1905. But underpinning the charm are amenities geared to at least a half-decade in the future, Gillespie said: elegantly tiled bathrooms, iPod docking stations and high-definition flat-screen TVs behind the doors of antique-looking chests.
And, of course, year-round occupancy. The old hotel closed in winters.
Historian Defibaugh, whose antique photos decorate the long corridors, said Bedford folks never quite lost hope after the hotel’s depressing 1986 shutdown. “Developers came in with high hopes but very little money,” he said.
Wonderful what a major investment will do, though. Along Pitt Street, downtown Bedford’s main stem, merchants see signs of contagious rebirth. “I know three businesses that say they would not have opened had it not been for the Springs,” says Kim Foreman, owner of the Green Harvest Co., a cafe and bakery.
“I’m planning a third fitting room, the weekends have become so busy,” says Elaine Housel, owner of Elaine’s Wearable Art, a clothing and jewelry retailer. “Women on vacation can only sit around for so long. They’re coming to town to shop.”
There are reports of higher home prices around Bedford, but Todd May, at Johnson Real Estate, cites a “certain amount of speculation on business properties in town,” retirement-home buying by Baltimoreans, who like the lower housing costs across the Pennsylvania border, and some new industries opening.
Sharyn Maust, managing editor of the Bedford Gazette, says of the hotel’s revival: “Obviously it’s great, but I like old buildings.” Some of her readers have written angry letters, disapproving of public funds going to entertain wealthy out-of-towners. “In effect they’re saying ‘I’ll never see any benefit from this,’ ” Maust says.
At this point, the resort is no bonanza for local and school tax collectors. It’s cocooned in its own state-delineated “Keystone Opportunity Zone.”
That’s a sweetener for investors. It was laid out when the idled hotel was desperately seeking a savior in 2001. Thanks to the Opportunity Zone, no real estate or personal property tax has to be paid for 10 years, through 2010. The hit wouldn’t be heavy in any case. Annual real estate tax only would be about $32,000. That’s on a laughably low assessed value of $394,000 and “fair market value” of $2.3 million. Considering all that’s been invested, a future shock seems inevitable.
The resort’s new owners number six partners: Langdale, Evans and John Ferchill, head of the Ferchill Group, of Cleveland, and three of his associates. Ferchill is a veteran developer of historic properties, like 99 percent-occupied Heinz Lofts on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Here’s how $120 million was put together, according to Timm Judson, chief investment officer of Felcher. Owners’ equity of $10 million; historic tax credit of $23 million, the History and Landmarks easement; $28 million in state grants under the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program; another $11 million in PennDOT funds for highway relocation; a $40 million senior mortgage held by Marshall Investment Group, of Minneapolis; and a $9 million second mortgage by Hudson Realty Capital, of New York.
Using public funds to subsidize private enterprises is a perennial issue for debate. State and federal laws favor it for historic property. But well-placed friends help.
Two lawmakers have long backed efforts to keep Bedford Springs alive: U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Everett (and his father, former Rep. Bud Shuster, a kingpin among public works promoters in Congress), and former state Sen. Robert Jubelirer, R-Altoona, who lost a re-election bid after helping to engineer an the since-rescinded legislative pay increase in 2005.
The Ferchill Group’s Judson says there’s no way the resort’s revival could have happened without the state’s $40 million-odd input (in grants and PennDOT funds), a third of the total cost.
Says Evans: “Many people tried for a long time to get it done and they couldn’t. The state had a great treasure that had not been open for 20 years, and it now has a viable new employer bringing in tourist dollars that did not exist before.”
Pittsburgh Landmarks’ Ziegler agrees — when it comes to the architecturally irreplaceable: “It’s so hard to do these buildings on a market basis,” he said. “As for subsidizing, it just couldn’t be done without it. And keep in mind, these owners have their own money in. They have a mortgage. I think it’s little short of a miracle.”
The competition
The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
250 miles south of Pittsburgh and southwest of Washington, D.C.
• Acreage: 6,500.
• Opened: 1778.
• Rooms: 721, including suites, guest houses.
• Rates: Per night : traditional room, $379 to $489. Higher level rooms, suites: $529 to $900.
• Golf courses: Three, per player round: $195, after Oct. 21, $130.
• Fact bites: 26 presidents have visited. A $50 million renovation completed last April. 112,000-square-foot underground bunker can be toured. Built “top secret” for Congress in case of Cold War blowup, it was never used.
• Details: 1-800-624-6070, www.greenbrier.com.
The Homestead, Hot Springs, Va.
250 miles south of Pittsburgh, 210 miles west of Washington, D.C.
• Acreage: 3,000.
• Opened: 1766.
• Rooms: 483, including suites
• Rates: Per night, $225 to $450; with meal packages, $310-535; golf packages, $620 to $1,120.
• Golf courses: Three, rounds per player depending on course, $120 to $245.
• Fact bites: 23 presidents have visited. Golfer Sam Snead had early experience as a pro here. Spa massages at $150, $220 for 50-minute and 80-minute rubs respectively.
• Details: 1-800-838-1766, www.thehomestead.com.
Bedford Springs Resort, Bedford, Pa.
100 miles east of Pittsburgh, 135 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
• Acreage: 2,200.
• Opened: 1804 (on spring property purchased 1796).
• Rooms: 216.
• Rates: Introductory rates per night: $249 up.
• Golf courses: One, 18-hole round per player, $115, $70 twilight (after 3 p.m.)
• Fact bites: Seven presidents (some say nine) have visited. A 36-star flag behind registration desk flew at Civil War’s end. Indoor pool in a classic 1905 Grecian “temple” is spring-fed, heated.
• Details: 1-866-623-8176, www.bedfordspringsresort.com.
Contractors
A partial list of Pennsylvania “midwives” to the rebirth of Bedford Springs:
Reynolds Construction Inc., Harrisburg, general contractor; Miller Electric Construction Inc., Allison Park, electrical systems; G.N. McCrossin Co., Bellefonte, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and foundation of the spa wing; Rob-Bern Associates Inc., West Mifflin, carpentry; W.G. Tomko & Sons Inc., Finleyville, plumbing; L.R. Constanzo Co., Scranton, windows and columns; Hemlock Hills Landscaping Co., Altoona, interior landscaping (flower boxes, potted trees etc.).
Jack Markowitz can be reached at jmarkowitz@tribweb.com.
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Book recounts 100 years of Westmoreland county courthouse
By Jennifer Reeger
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, September 3, 2007If history had repeated itself, the Westmoreland County Courthouse wouldn’t be ready to celebrate its centennial.
Instead, the majestic domed structure on Main Street in Greensburg would look more like something that came out of the 1970s.The previous three courthouses built on the same site had been deemed too small and were torn down.
But in the 1960s, when the powers that be were discussing whether to tear down the current courthouse or just build an expansion onto it, preservation prevailed. The courthouse annex was dedicated in 1979.
“Thank God we do have this beautiful building,” said Mike Cary, professor of history and political science at Seton Hill University and an editor of a book on the courthouse’s history. “People remember Greensburg — they remember that dome when they see it from a distance, and it’s somehow inspirational for people.”
The courthouse, completed in 1907 and dedicated in 1908, will be celebrated in upcoming events and a book, “This American Courthouse: One Hundred Years of Service to the People of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,” scheduled to be released Sept. 14.
The centennial celebration entered its planning stages in 2002, when Judge Daniel Ackerman put a committee of academics, government officials and historians together.
“I thought this was an event that should not be missed,” Ackerman said. “… I can’t think of any (courthouses) that overall are more beautiful than this building. I always have said, ‘It’s like going to work in an art museum.'”
At the heart of the celebration is the book, edited by Cary and Tim Kelly, chairman of the history department at St. Vincent College.
During the past four years, they gathered historic photos of the courthouse and asked local people to contribute chapters to the book.
“It’s really been very much a community effort, probably more so than most books are,” Kelly said.
Of course, one chapter delves into the history of the current courthouse and the four others in Westmoreland County’s history.
The first, in Hanna’s Town, served from 1773 until the town burned in an Indian raid in 1782. For a few years, court was held wherever there was space, until a board-and-log-structure was built in what is now Greensburg in 1786.
By 1794, the courthouse was torn down for a larger replacement that wouldn’t be finished until 1801. Court was held in local taverns in the meantime.
The two-story brick building, which cost $5,000, would be replaced in the 1850s by a larger, Greek revival building with a small dome and columns.
That building, too, proved too small, and in 1901 it was torn down in favor of the current courthouse, which was completed in 1907.
The building, designed by architect William Kauffman in the Beaux-Arts style and constructed of light-gray granite from Maine, cost $1.5 million.
The book delves into that history as well as the history of the jail, which used to be attached to the courthouse.
It also discusses the building’s architect and architecture — which was controversial because some considered it too ostentatious, Cary said.
There are broader chapters on the changing role of judges and the history of the Westmoreland Bar Association. One chapter focuses on the social context of what was happening in the area at the time of the construction.
Another looks into the multiple uses of the courthouse.
Kelly said the book not only delves into the specific history of the building but gives “a broader read of social climate and the lives and the activities of people who came to the courthouse.”
He said the book is complemented by historical photos and modern pictures taken by attorney and amateur photographer Mark Sorice.
“It’s the sort of thing you could thumb through and never read a word and be happy,” Kelly said.
The book will be unveiled at a black-tie optional gala event on Sept. 14 at the courthouse.
Susan Mitchell Sommers, professor of history at St. Vincent College who chaired the courthouse centennial committee, said members of the Bar will offer tours of the courthouse, while judges and row officers will talk about their roles.
The tours will include, if the weather cooperates, the first public access to the courthouse dome in about 25 years.
Guests will be able to stroll through the courthouse and view the opening of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts juried exhibition, “History Through Art.”
The show will run through January, which marks 100 years since the courthouse dedication.
The culmination of the centennial celebration will be a free open courthouse event on Jan. 26.
“We’re hoping to get as many people into the courthouse as we can because I talk to neighbors and other people who you would have thought would have been here at one time or another and they haven’t,” Ackerman said. “It’s sort of a shame that so many people haven’t.”
Jennifer Reeger can be reached at jreeger@tribweb.com or 724-836-6155.
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The Granite Building To House Luxury Condominiums
Built in 1889–90 as the German National Bank and now a contributing structure in the Pittsburgh Central Downtown National Register Historic District, The Granite Building provided German immigrants to the Pittsburgh area with a place where they could transact their banking in their native language.
Designed by Bickel & Brennan, the “Richardsonian Romanesque” granite building imitates the style of the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail, designed by H. H. Richardson in 1884, just a few blocks away. Charles Bickel was a prominent Pittsburgh architect who designed several notable buildings downtown, among them Kaufmann’s department store.
After more than a century as an office building, Landmarks board member Holly Brubach is renovating The Granite Building as luxury condominiums and making the building available for a September 26th Heritage Society tour and reception.
Among the many downtown candidates for residential conversion, The Granite Building is considered ideal for its spaciousness and ample light. With only one 2,750-squarefoot unit per floor, The Granite Building provides the comfort and privacy of a single-family home in the heart of the city and represents another example of how historic buildings can stimulate economic development.
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Cathedral of Learning bricks mistakenly cleaned
By Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, August 30, 2007The Cathedral of Learning’s dirt nearly had its finest moment.
After clinging to the 42-story University of Pittsburgh building for 70 years, the black soot almost received its own plaque to recognize evidence of the city’s industrial past.“Somebody has to honor those people who made the city,” said E. Maxine Bruhns, director of the cathedral’s Nationality Rooms, who came up with the idea. “These grimy stones were a perfect tribute.”
University officials agreed to keep a few blocks dirty near the Fifth Avenue entrance when they spent $4.8 million this summer to wash the Indiana limestone exterior, fix mortar joints and replace rusty fasteners. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation planned a marker.
“The new generation of students attending Pitt have no idea this city was the workshop to the world,” said Louise Sturgess, the foundation’s executive director. “The dirt visually lets people know what the air was like, and the air was filled with the gritty soot from all of the industry.”
Bruhns hand-picked the blocks for their markings and high-profile location. Workers built a cover so the area wouldn’t be cleaned, and the school newspaper reported in June that a crew member was assigned to protect it.
But after most of the building had been cleaned and the cover removed, another worker noticed the blemish. Without asking, he washed away the grime — so the blocks look as fresh and bright as the rest.
Overall, the cleaning project turned out better than anyone expected, said Park Rankin, the university architect. It was just an oversight that Bruhns’ blocks were washed, he said.
Still, the damage has been done — or undone.
Standing near the spot Wednesday, Paul Sawyer, 24, a junior from Whitehall, said he forgot all about the formerly dirty facade when he returned to campus this month.
“I didn’t even notice,” he said.
Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or 412-320-7835.