Category Archive: Architecture & Architects
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Phipps completes first phase of expansion project
By Kellie B. Gormly
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, March 29, 2005Visitors to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens this weekend will find a warm and bright spring greeting in the new Welcome Center, which is the first phase of a $36.6 million expansion project.
“It’s the first building in a major expansion of the conservatory that’s going to make Phipps the finest conservatory in the entire country,” says Richard V. Piacentini, executive director of the Oakland attraction. “We think it is the most attractive entrance to a botanical garden in the entire country.”Officials will discuss details of the new Welcome Center at a news conference scheduled for Thursday, which marks the official public opening. A grand-opening celebration for the public is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
The 10,885-square-foot Welcome Center — portions of which have been opened for about a month — includes updated visitor amenities, the 2,000-square-foot Shop at Phipps and the 78-seat Cafe Phipps. The center, topped by a 46-foot glass dome, sits mostly underground, with a small lobby on the ground level that leads to the Palm Court and the rest of the conservatory. The dome allows plenty of natural light to spill in, making it seem to visitors that they are not underground, Piacentini says.
“One of the biggest problems we had in the design process was figuring out how to put the building in front of the conservatory without blocking it,” he says. “This is an absolutely brilliant solution.”
The next phase of the project — a state-of-the-art greenhouse production facility designed to grow plants for exhibition — is scheduled to open this fall, followed by the 12,000-square-foot Tropical Forest Exhibit in the fall of 2006. The final two phases are adding facilities for special events and education administration. Timelines for these two projects depend on funding received, Piacentini says.
IKM Inc., a Downtown architectural firm, designed the Welcome Center, which replaces a pavilion that was built in the 1960s and complements the design of the 112-year-old conservatory, Phipps officials say.
“The Phipps Welcome Center is a beautiful and contemporary addition to a grand historical landmark,” said Jim Stalder, chairman of the Phipps Board of Trustees, in a written statement. “However, behind the beauty is an environmentally conscious structure that strives to lessen the impact on its surroundings while maintaining historical significance.”
Landscaping surrounding the Welcome Center is a work in progress, but Piacentini says the grounds can be tended and more flowers planted when the rain subsides.
Meanwhile, Phipps officials today will install more than 100,000 brightly colored, tulip-sized flags on the sloping front lawn to give a colorful spring flower appearance, he says.
The Welcome Center includes an upgraded ticketing and admission system, a visitor locker area, new restroom facilities and a grand stairway to the Palm Court, which leads to other conservatory exhibits. The Shop at Phipps — which is about four times the size of the old gift shop — will carry botanically themed merchandise such as cards, toys, beauty products, home items, gardening books and cookbooks, and actual house plants.
Cafe Phipps — operated by Big Burrito Group, which owns area restaurants including Mad Mex, Soba and Casbah — offers self-service meals and snacks featuring locally grown produce.
About the Welcome Center
Nearly 25 percent of the materials used are manufactured from within a 500-mile radius of Pittsburgh. Much of the material — such as steel, concrete, limestone block and bricks — also are extracted regionally, and much material was recycled.
The facility is awaiting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification at the silver level, which means it meets strict environmental and sustainability guidelines.
The building is environmentally conscious in its operations. For instance, energy used to operate the building comes from wind power, which helps prevent global warming and conserve natural resources.
About the Tropical Forest ExhibitThe 12,000-square-foot facility, scheduled to open in the fall of 2006, will be about one and a half times the size of the existing tropical exhibit, which is about 7,900 square feet. It will be 60 feet high and feature cascading indoor waterfalls spanned by an overhead catwalk.
The Tropical Forest Exhibit will have a rotating schedule, with a new country’s tropical region featured every two years. The first country featured will be Thailand.
The forest will have an 8,000-square-foot, single-pane glass wall that will maximize sunlight. It will include a Palm Circle, where as many as 40 visitors can gather to hear presentations, sample tropical foods, weave baskets, pot plants and participate in other learning activities.
Docents will lead in-depth tours throughout the exhibit, and hands-on educational areas will be available. Phipps’ Botany in Action researchers will be on hand throughout the year to talk with visitors and explain their work.
The exhibit will be environmentally friendly in its structures and operations. For instance, it will utilize a venting system on its glass roof that aims to conserve energy, and a blanket-curtain system at night to retain heat.
Source: Phipps Conservatory and Botanical GardensKellie B. Gormly can be reached at kgormly@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7824.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Phipps’ new welcome center makes a grand entrance
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tuesday, March 29, 2005Entrances matter.
The new entrance to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens marks the passage into the great glasshouse as a dramatic and memorable event, and along the way gives Pittsburgh an elegant outdoor room.
Via a long ramp from the sidewalk, the visitor descends into the landscape and is gathered in by welcoming arms — the pair of exterior, winding stairs that flank the courtyard and lead to the upper walkway. In the center of the courtyard wall, with its echoes of Renaissance gardens, is the entrance door to the lobby. Open it and the courtyard’s sense of enclosure gives way to a feeling of expansiveness under a sky framed by the new glass dome.
To the right is Cafe Phipps; to the left is The Shop at Phipps, both earth-sheltered but with generous windows looking onto the courtyard. What beckons first, though, is another winding stair, this one leading the visitor up into the dome and ending in a balcony that provides not only an overview of the rotunda but also of the landscape beyond: A sweeping panorama bracketed by the extending Phipps wings and encompassing Carnegie Institute and its puffing steam-plant, the cascading buildings of Carnegie Mellon University, the sloping lawn of Flagstaff Hill and the woods of Schenley Park.
We have seen this view before, of course. But after our vertical journey through the landscape, the historic, horizontal landscape is refreshed and reframed by the glass dome. We see it with new eyes and a new appreciation.
Phipps Conservatory’s $5 million welcome center, designed by IKM Inc. and built by Turner Construction Co., completes an Oakland trifecta in which the public and the public realm are the big winners. With the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy’s transformation of Schenley Park’s horribly disfigured, vacant nature center into a showcase visitors center and Phipps’ restoration and revival of Botany Hall, whose tile roof nears completion, there is every reason to celebrate and give thanks for the renewal wrought in recent years.
In fact, the Phipps welcome center is better than what was originally proposed. The scheme announced in March 2001 had two entrances: a main entrance at the rear, near a new 200-car parking garage, and a small glass pavilion set in a reflecting pool at the historic entrance to accommodate walk-ins and provide a sparkling evening reception area.
Phipps hoped to share the garage and its cost with another institution, but when a partner couldn’t be found and funding became tighter in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, that plan was abandoned and a new one hatched.
There will be no rear entrance. But behind the conservatory, new production greenhouses are under construction and a tropical forest glasshouse is expected to open late next year. Alas, it will not step down into Panther Hollow, a big opportunity lost.
But another was found.
“In the old days, you went up about 6 feet to enter” the conservatory, said IKM’s Jim Taylor, the project’s master planner and designer, along with project manager Joel Bernard and Sonny Sanjari, who worked on design development.
“We realized if we went down, you could get everything” — cafe, shop, lobby, bathrooms, locker room and the courtyard as a bonus, about 11,000 square feet of new space in all.
And with the dome, a lot more volume, adds IKM president Mike Marcu.
At the top of the interior winding stair is the conservatory’s entrance, housed in a rusticated limestone addition that recalls Phipps’ original rusticated sandstone entrance of 1893 at the same location. It also contains the elevator and, below ground, the bathrooms.
The earth-sheltered portions — the cafe and shop — will have a 40 percent to 50 percent energy savings over a one-story, above-ground building. The large operable windows looking onto the courtyard provide significant daylight and natural ventilation, as do the dome and its vents.
When the most recent entrance, which dated to the 1960s and replaced the 1893 stone entrance, was demolished, 75 percent of its waste material was recycled. New materials were selected for recycled and non-toxic content and local production. All of these and other sustainable strategies are expected to add up to a Silver LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
For the courtyard design, detailed by IKM’s George Bedo, the architects studied Italian Renaissance walled gardens, but inspiration also came from the conservatory itself, in the arches of the Palm Court. A band of green tiles high on the courtyard wall and others recessed in the columns that join the courtyard arches lighten the mood.
Through Taylor, who studied in Rome, the twin winding stairs that enclose the courtyard have their source in the Villa Giulia, built in the mid-1500s for Pope Julius III and a national museum since 1889.
“My wife says all of my work relates to the Villa Giulia,” said Taylor, sounding like a man who thinks his wife may be onto something he himself hasn’t quite grasped.
The courtyard walls are cement stucco, with Indiana limestone framing the windows. The base molding is granite. The budget prevented the use of stone paving in the courtyard; it’s aggregate and brushed concrete. Let’s hope funding can be found for an upgrade over time. In warm weather, the courtyard will be outfitted with cafe tables and a shopping kiosk.
The conservatory has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. So throughout, the architects followed the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for rehabilitation of historic buildings, which call for additions that do not radically change the existing architecture and can be clearly differentiated from it. While the new dome’s geometry comes from Phipps’ wings, its cupola is a subtle distinguishing feature. The entrance’s steel-and-glass canopy is another contemporary marker.
The landscape will be gently terraced and mostly lawn, with strips of planting beds for seasonal display. The two Chinese redwoods planted in the 1930s and moved to accommodate the welcome center are doing well in their new location flanking the entrance to the outdoor gardens, said Phipps’ director Richard Piacentini.
Piacentini, who also is current president of the American Association of Botanical Gardens & Arboreta, thinks the architects have created “probably the most dramatic and beautiful entrance of a conservatory in the country,” and it would be hard to disagree.
One thing is certain: At last Phipps has the entrance it has so long deserved.
Information:412-622-6914 or www.phipps.conservatory.org.
(Architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Southern Hospitality; Brentwood house has the long, cool lines of a mint julep
By Gretchen McKay,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, February 05, 2005The Greek Revival style, which is characterized by low roof lines, square or rounded columns and a simple, symmetrical shape, is a common sight in Pittsburgh’s older neighborhoods. The most dominant architectural style in the United States during the mid-1800s, the style was adopted in most parts of the country.
Regional differences, however, exist. In the Northeast, for example, entry porches tend to be less than full height, and the imposing columns associated with the style are often replaced with decorative pilasters.
So the stately, stone Greek Revival that sits at 4344 Brownsville Road in Brentwood is something of a rarity here. With its full-width, two-story colonnaded porch and massive chimneys, the structure — a true Southern Colonial — would look more at home in a Gulf Coast state like Louisiana.
Its architectural style isn’t the only thing that’s a bit unusual about the house, which is currently for sale by owner for $395,000. Located just across the street from South Hills Country Club, it sits on three-quarters of an acre, a large lot in most suburban communities and “huge” by Brentwood standards. And the house itself, which has five bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, boasts more than 4,000 square feet of living space.
“You won’t find too many houses of this style and size in the area,” says owner Mary Jane Jones.
The house was built in 1925 by distinguished local architect Louis Stevens (1880-1961) as his personal residence. Workers used 16-inch-thick stone gleaned from an old church that had been torn down in Downtown Pittsburgh. In 1949, Stevens sold the property to D. L. Feick, president of Brentwood Motor Coach. It was given Historic Landmark status in 1993 by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The double front door, which stands in the middle of the porch and features sidelights, deposits visitors directly into the living room. Like the two-story porch, this sunny space stretches the entire width of the house and offers occupants a wonderful view of the front yard through two pairs of six-over-six windows.
The 33-by-15-foot living room is actually two rooms divided by an entryway into an adjoining hall. Mirror images of each other, they boast decorative crown molding and chair rail, oak floors and twin log-burning fireplaces with polished marble surrounds. On each side are built-in bookcases with cabinets underneath. Foot-deep window sills like those found in early farmhouses add to the spacious feel, as do the soft buttercream walls.
The living room leads into a wainscoted center hall, which is also accessed by a six-panel side entry door off the driveway. Many older homes have problems with storage, but that’s not the case here; the hall, which wears tasteful maroon floral wallpaper above the chair rail, contains a coat closet under the staircase, two more closets at the other end and a small cubby for games and hats next to the stairs.
A french door opens onto the family room. At 28 feet by 18 feet, this comfy space is nearly as large as the formal living room. But it’s much more relaxed, thanks in large part to a sizable wood-burning brick fireplace with stone hearth. Because the kitchen lacks a breakfast room, one corner of the family room serves as informal eating area. But there’s still room enough for several sofas and two large armoires.
Adding to the room’s charm are four large picture windows that overlook a fenced-in side yard landscaped with rhododendrons, peonies, lilies, irises and azaleas. A door opens onto a rear deck with a small rock garden off to the side. A magnolia blooms beautifully each spring in the fenced-in back yard.
More french doors open onto a formal dining room with red-and-white striped wallpaper and exposed hardwood floors. Twin built-in china closets allow for display of heirlooms. The room also features a decorative fireplace with marble surround.
Swinging doors lead into the recently renovated kitchen. A happy marriage of old and new, this L-shaped space has white-painted beadboard walls, rustic slate floors and cherry cabinetry. The black appliances include double wall ovens, a dishwasher and an electric cooktop. There’s also a separate built-in pantry and, off a back hallway, a small powder room with beadboard walls and a first-floor laundry.
The second floor holds five bedrooms, including two with doors leading to the front veranda. The pale-yellow master bedroom suite, which measures 17 by 16 feet and overlooks Brownsville Road, is both comfortable and practical. His-and-her closets on either side of a decorative marble fireplace feature built-in dressers, and there’s a private master bath with twin sinks. There’s also a small, private porch overlooking that back yard. On a clear day, someone standing there can see the top of the U.S. Steel Building and in the summer, fireworks.
A second front bedroom, painted a deep maroon, has the same double closets with drawers and marble fireplace and also opens onto the top veranda. A third bedroom has two large closets on either side of an alcove.
The most unusual bedroom lies at the rear of the house and is accessed by a back staircase from the kitchen. Originally the maids’ quarters, this charming little room — which features lilac wallpaper and light-purple woodwork — has a wide-plank built-in closet and a tiny nook overlooking the back yard with built-ins on either side. There’s also a separate kitchen area down a narrow hall and, tucked into the roofline, a small bath.
Although the homeowners currently use the rooms for storage, they could easily be turned into guest quarters or an in-law suite, or perhaps even a home office.
Because of the home’s size and circular floor plan, it’s the perfect house for entertaining, says Jones. It’s also very private, thanks to the long row of fire bushes that line the driveway and towering maple trees out front, which help keep the property cool during the summer.
Afraid of a house that’s 80 years old? Not to worry. Along with central air, the house has a new roof and all new windows. The owners have also replaced the original wood siding with HardiPlank, a fiber-cement product that resists rotting and cracking. The porch has new wood floors and railing. There is also a two-car attached garage, as well as a two-car tandem detached garage.
(Post-Gazette staff writer Gretchen McKay can be reached at gmckay@post-gazette.com or 412-761-4670.)
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Traditional Amish Barn Raising at Oliver Miller Homestead in South Park
December 14, 2004
A traditional Amish barn raising occurred today at the Oliver Miller Homestead in South Park.
For the last several months, Allegheny County’s public works and parks departments have worked with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to construct a historic replica of an 18th century barn on the Oliver Miller Homestead in South Park.
Landmarks project manager, Tom Keffer, worked with the architectural firm of Landmark Design Associates and general contractor Lee Bruder to contract with Amish Timber Framers (www.amishtimberframers.com) of Doylestown, Ohio. The Amish construct native timber frames with mortice and tenon joints using wood pegs – the construction method of 200 years ago. No metal screws or fasteners are used on the timbers in the barn. The project took three days to complete the framing work.
In addition to the historic timber framing, the roof is covered with recycled material of simulated shakes, which will remain fairly maintenance free, for it’s 40-50 year life span.
“This importand addtion will serve the region for years to come and improve our ability to attract visitors and engage the public in the historic events that occurred on the Homestead,” said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.
According to the the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the Oliver Miller Homestead, built in 1772, was a two-story log house with a shingle roof – a rare structure for that period.
It was at the Oliver Miller Homestead that General John Neville and U.S. Marshall David Lenox went on July 15th, 1794 to serve a warrant on William Miller, for failure to register his still. An arguement ensued and shots were fired by the farmers working in nearby fields.
The first shots of the Whiskey Rebellion had been fired. Two days later, 500 irate farmers, led by John Holcroft, stopped at Fort Couch where the Reverend John Clark of Bethel Church pleaded for peace. The farmers went ahead to burn down Neville’s Bower Hill Mansion.
In 1808 James Miller, added a stone section to the log house, and in 1830, the original log house was replaced with a large stone section, making it as it stands today. In 1934 it became a National Registered Landmark building.
The Oliver Miller Homestead Associates, a volunteer organization with 40 members locally was formed in 1973. Long time member Paula Bowman said: “The Associates are excited about this additon to the Homestead as the barn will afford us the opportunity to display historic artifacts and ephemera and to offer educational outreach to the community.”
Allegheny County worked with the Oliver Miller Homestead Associates to secure a $500,000 state grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development to build the barn.
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Renowned architect designed Scaife Gallery
By Jerry Vondas
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, September 24, 2004Edward L. Barnes, who designed the Sarah M. Scaife Gallery at the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, once said that most architectural ideas can be expressed on the back of an envelope.
“He was not terribly concerned about getting credit, just concerned about doing the job right, and he did do it right,” Carnegie Museum of Art board member James L. Winokur said in a magazine published by the Carnegie Museums.Edward Larrabee Barnes, of Cambridge, Mass., died from complications of a stroke on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004, in Cupertino, Calif. He was 89.
Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, called the Scaife Gallery, which opened in 1974, “a fine example of a contemporary, later 20th century design in Oakland.”
Richard M. Scaife, the son of Sarah M. Scaife and owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, praised Mr. Barnes’ talents.
“I was delighted that it turned out as well as it did,” he said of the gallery.
Mrs. Scaife died in 1965, and her family and the Scaife Foundation presented the gallery to Carnegie Institute in her memory.
“I had a lot of adventures with Ed Barnes, and I came to have great respect for him,” said Winokur, who visited the construction site several times a week in the early 1970s. “The Scaife building fell right into place. It couldn’t have been done at a better time, and it couldn’t have been done better.”
Richard Armstrong, Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, told the Carnegie magazine, “Of the many museums built in the 1970s, this is among the half-dozen best.”
“It receives people well, it functions very cleanly, and its greatest attribute is the incomparable light in the galleries. It’s not dated. It is truly very sophisticated architecture. It simplifies and elevates the Beaux-Arts ideals in the Alden and Harlow building next door.
“It expunges decoration and exalts the idea of the building as a container and a noble stage.
“Its strength, in fact, is evident in the graciousness with which it accommodates changing attitudes toward exhibiting works of art, a graciousness characteristic of the architect who created it.”
In the 50 years since the end of World War II and his discharge from the Navy, Mr. Barnes designed the IBM corporate building in Manhattan, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building in Washington, D.C., among others.
His master plans also included work done at Williamsburg, Va., the New York and Chicago botanical gardens and the National University of Singapore.
Born in an Episcopal family in Chicago, Mr. Barnes was the son of Cecil Barnes, an attorney, and Margaret Helen Ayer Barnes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Years of Grace.”
He entered Harvard University in 1934 and studied English before focusing on art history and then the history of architecture.
After graduating, Mr. Barnes taught English at Milton Academy in Massachusetts, his alma mater. But his interest in the works of Walter Gropius, his mentor at Harvard, and Marcel Breuer convinced him that architecture was his true calling.
Mr. Barnes is survived by his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Coss, an architect whom he married in 1944; a son, John Barnes, of Davenport, Calif.; and two granddaughters.
Jerry Vondas can be reached at jvondas@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7823.
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Highland Park’s grandeur reborn – Fountain at center of renovated entry
By Ervin Dyer,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, August 28, 2004In Highland Park, the past is present.
In the early 1900s, a grand Victorian entryway greeted visitors with imposing bronze sculptures, clustered Ionic columns, a fountain, reflecting pool and lush formal gardens.
Just beyond the entry of the twin stone pillars, there is evidence that that world is returning: polished stone work; sweat-soaked contractors; and the most refreshing sign, a gush of sparkling water 15 feet in the air.
Decades after its demise, the Highland Park Fountain is almost back.
The water seen spouting this week comes from crews testing new pipes that have been laid. Over the next few weeks, the fountain may be on or off, depending on the testing schedule.
According to city workers, no official opening has been scheduled yet.
But under yesterday’s sunny skies, walkers, residents and passers-by caught an early peek.
“It’s beautiful,” beamed Annette Marks, 67, a lifelong resident of the East End neighborhood that was laid out over 300 acres in 1778. “It’s going to be just like it was.”
As a child, Marks remembers Sundays in the park. There were plenty of picnics and leisurely walks with her parents. As a mother, she and her husband, Ron, took their own children swimming and strolling there. The fountain then, in the late 1960s, was in such disrepair it was taken down and covered in soil. Marks’ husband can’t recall there ever being a fountain.
At one point, the pond where the fountain was centered held lilies and, some remember, goldfish.
To see it gurgling again gave Annette Marks, a local museum fund-raiser, a flash of yesteryear. “They’re bringing it all back, reverting to what we had originally. It’s going to do a lot for this neighborhood.”
The spruce-up of the park began six years ago when the Highland Park Community Development Corp. received a $75,000 state grant to help pay for restoration of the garden, fountain and reflecting pool.
To receive the grant, the group raised an additional $75,000 in matching funds in foundation and private donations. Financial assistance also came from Allegheny Regional Asset District funding earmarked to aid the city’s parks.
It is estimated the completed project will cost about $700,000.
“It is quite lovely,” said Maxine Jenkins, a schoolteacher who lives in nearby Stanton Heights and regularly walks near the fountain.
Jenkins did not initially know the fountain was there, but watched its rebuilding. “I haven’t seen anyone sitting down there,” she said of the fountain’s new benches, “and it seems a little impractical to use funds when the city could be doing other things.”
Phase two of the project is expected to begin shortly. It will involve more horticultural work to restore the Victorian Gardens, which will offer a rainbow of seasonal color, said Philip Gruszka, a director with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, a group working with the city and Highland Park community groups to rebuild the park.
The city has four grand parks — Highland, Schenley, Riverview and Frick. Highland Park, when it opened in 1896, was the most formal and grand, said Arthur Ziegler, of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
It had a promenade, with the fountain and a lily pond, he said. “It was important” because it helped the newly developed community attract people and traffic to the East End.
It is believed the park was designed by German-born Berthold Froesch, a parks designer who lived in Morningside.
The 500-acre park, with the zoo and open-air reservoir, continues to be one of the city’s most well-used parks for walkers, runners and retirees. “To enter the park with less than an optimum image was not good,” said Ziegler. “This will give everything a new life and set the tone for other restoration in the park.”
As the temperature steamed toward 86 degrees, the fountain was one of the coolest spots at the park yesterday.
“It is certainly tranquil,” said Marette Simpson, a minister from Monroeville, jogging past the babbling fountain on her 3-mile run. “I’m ready to take a dip in it.”
(Ervin Dyer can be reached at edyer@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1410.)
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Barn to re-create old homestead’s look
By A.J. Caliendo
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Wednesday, August 18, 2004The fifth generation of the Miller family was not very happy when Allegheny County informed them in 1927 that their farm was being bought to establish a county park, which today is South Park.
Though it was small consolation to the Millers, some of their land and their stone farmhouse have been preserved as part of the Oliver Miller Homestead, a historical attraction at the park. And now, because of a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, a barn will be built to replace the one that was torn down when the county took over the land.
The grant request process started in 2001, when then state Sen. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, who is now in Congress, visited and noticed that much of the homestead was in disrepair and that modern day intrusions, such as exposed electrical wires, interfered with the ambience. Murphy thought the homestead should have more of the flavor of the time when Scots/Irishman Oliver Miller settled the land in 1772.
Murphy asked the Oliver Miller Homestead Associates if that group would oversee the renovation and building of the barn if he could persuade state lawmakers to get the money to cover the project. The nonprofit group, established in 1973 to tend to the property and conduct educational tours, agreed and the lawmaker went to work.
Murphy’s efforts resulted in a $500,000 grant from the DCED to Allegheny County, which, in turn, appointed the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to oversee spending.
That news was music to the ears of Kathleen Marsh, president of the Oliver Miller Homestead Associates, who said the money would be put to good use, particularly the portion that will be used to build the barn.
“[The grant] means a great deal, ” Marsh said. “We will be able to display many of the things we haven’t had room to display.”
Those items include farm implements and furniture, along with “a lot of the smaller artifacts” that have remained in storage.
Most of those items have been collected by volunteers over the years, said Marsh, who acknowledged, “We don’t have a lot things that belonged to the Millers.”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Property Manager Tom Keffer puts the total cost of raising the barn, designed by Landmarks Design Associates of Pittsburgh, at about $388,000. That amount includes some very specific guidelines of authenticity.
“Bidders had to base their bids on a barn that used no metal fasteners,” Keffer said, adding that the frame would be put together using the old-style mortise and tenon connectors.
Amish Timber Framers, of Doylestown, Ohio, will erect the frame. The company also cuts and mills the white oak trees that will be used.
While $388,000 might seem like a lot to erect an old-fashioned barn, OMHA Publicity Director, Paula Bowman, said it was not as simple as it was when the Millers settled here.
“Code issues and the [Americans with Disabilities Act] uses up a lot of the money,” she said.
The official ground breaking takes place at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on the homestead grounds.
“This will be a symbolic thing,” she said of the ceremony. Hopefully, when [the barn] is up, we’ll be able to have a much bigger party.”
Construction will begin soon, but there is no start date. It will take about three months to complete.
The barn will house a meeting room on its lower level. Currently, the 70-member associates meet in the homestead’s small stone house, which was built in the early 1800s to replace the original log cabin occupied by the Millers.
Other projects to be completed with grant money are the renovation of electrical wiring in the stone house and purchase of educational materials to help visitors understand the day-to-day existence of farmers in that time period.
The group will buy tools for a working blacksmith shop on the grounds.
(A.J. Caliendo is a freelance writer.)
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Ligonier Valley engineers winning riverfront design
By Marjorie Wertz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 21, 2004The hardest part was getting started. But once they did, the Ligonier Valley High School Budding Builders team constructed a first-place showing in the 2003-04 Westmoreland County Architectural Design Challenge.
Westmoreland County Gifted Coalition and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation sponsored the eighth annual competition. The challenge called for student teams to select an appropriate site for a barge building and construct a model detailing the plans. School teams were given a choice of 10 different sites along the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers in Pittsburgh.
“The students chose to base their model on a site along the Mon River, across from the Technology Center,” at the South Side Works Development, formerly J & L Steel, said Jennifer Brisendine, one of Ligonier Valley High’s four gifted program advisers.
Senior David Poerschke, who served as team leader, has participated in the challenge for three years. He was joined on this year’s team by junior Kelly Morrisey; junior Patrick Sharbaugh; senior Stephanie Pompelia; and junior Abby Orchard.
“In my sophomore year, we were given the challenge to remodel one of the old Carnegie libraries. Last year, we were assigned an empty lot on the North Side and told we could build whatever we wanted,” Poerschke said. “This year’s challenge was more open. We had to come up with a place to start.”
Morrisey, a 16-year-old who has been interested in architecture for several years, said the team labored to develop a concept.
“Once you have a good concept, you build from there,” said Morrisey. “The team discussed the concept of our design for a while.”
“It was a very open-ended assignment and, since I’m a very structured person, it was difficult to get started,” said Pompelia, whose father, Mick, took her on a tour of the South Side bike trail.
“It gave me the idea of incorporating a rest area and information center in the model,” Pompelia added. The model had to be based on the size of an actual barge, 150 feet long by 35 feet wide. The students could build whatever design they wanted, as long as the model remained within the specifications.
“The team came up with a cross between a barge building, an information center, and a rest area for people who use the bike trail along the river,” said Brisendine. “The students really had to think outside the box on this assignment.”
In addition to model construction, the team had to write a report detailing the project and present an oral report to competing teams and judges. Projects were judged on feasibility, creativity, aesthetics, effectiveness of the oral presentation, and teamwork.
The budding builders worked on their project from October to Feb. 10, the day of the judging. Other high school participants were three teams from Belle Vernon Area; three teams from Mt. Pleasant Area; Yough; Burrell; Connellsville Area; four teams from Franklin Regional in Murrysville; Greater Latrobe; and two teams from Ligonier Valley.
Twenty-two middle school teams also competed. They were Laurel Valley; two teams from Burrell; Mt. Pleasant; five Franklin Regional teams; three teams from Greensburg Salem; three teams from Rostraver in Belle Vernon Area; four Penn-Trafford teams; Yough; Valley; and Greater Latrobe.
“We were incredibly impressed with the quality and the time the students put into the projects,” said Louise Sturgess, executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “They come up with the most ingenious use of materials in their models. All the models are beautifully made. It’s incredible what these students can do.”
In the past several years, some of the students’ work has been utilized in renovation projects in the Pittsburgh area.
“In the new renovation plans for the Brookline and Homewood Carnegie Libraries, many of the elements that the students had in their models from several years ago are being incorporated into these renovations,” said Sturgess.
The 2004-05 competition will focus on the Fifth and Forbes area of Pittsburgh, Sturgess said.
“We’ll probably take them downtown in October and have them focus on a building or two and working toward preserving a building,” she added. “Maybe the students can trigger new life in the Fifth and Forbes area of Pittsburgh.”
Marjorie Wertz can be reached at mwertz@tribweb.com or (724) 522-2904.