Category Archive: Education
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Landmarks Scholarship Program Marks 25 Years
We are pleased to announce that our Landmarks Scholarship Program, now celebrating 25 years of recognizing high-achieving, community-minded, college-bound students in Allegheny County who care deeply about the Pittsburgh region, has awarded three scholarships and eight honorable mentions to students as part of the 2023 program.
We look forward to celebrating these students’ achievements together with their families in an afternoon reception, which will be in the dining room of the Grand Concourse Restaurant in Station Square on July 12.
Our Landmarks Scholarship recipients are:
- Emily Barrie (Upper St. Clair High School/University of Virginia);
- Andrew McLaughlin (North Allegheny Senior High School/University of Pittsburgh); and
- Nelson Morris (Pittsburgh Westinghouse/Penn State University).
The scholarship award of $6,000 is payable over four years to the recipient’s college/university to help pay tuition and book expenses.
Our Honorable mention recipients are:
- Taylor Billet (Riverview Jr.-Sr. High School/Ohio University);
- Kendal Chilcoat (Pine-Richland High School/University of Pittsburgh);
- Dylan Folan (Pittsburgh CAPA/University of Pennsylvania);
- Maya Leyzarovich (Shady Side Academy/University of Pennsylvania);
- Lindsey Storey (Gateway High School/University of Pittsburgh);
- Annali Thomas (Thomas Jefferson High School/Slippery Rock University);
- Sejal Verma (South Fayette High School/Purdue University); and
- Brayden Wisniewski (Avonworth High School/Savannah College of Art & Design).
The Honorable mention award is a one-time gift of $250, payable to the student’s college/ university to help pay for tuition and book expenses.
We thank the trustees and members of our organization who have served on the Landmarks Scholarship Committee, and especially David Brashear, who as chair of the committee for 25 years, shepherded this program, which helped introduce young people to the work and mission of our organization. Two former scholarship recipients have served as trustees of PHLF––Todd Wilson and Kezia Ellison––and many others contribute their time and expertise as members.
Our organization has awarded 88 scholarships and 59 honorable mentions to high school graduates from Allegheny County since the creation of this scholarship program in 1999. Applicants are asked to write about a place in Allegheny County that is meaningful to them.
The essays this year were outstanding and insightful. Featured places included the Gilfillan Farm in Upper St. Clair, the Homewood neighborhood, Allegheny County Courthouse, Bridge of Sighs, the former Pittsburgh Athletic Association clubhouse, St. Nicholas Church in Millvale, Carnegie Science Center, Mister Rogers statue on the North Shore, Frick Park Market, and Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor. The essays from all the applicants are bound and archived at PHLF.
PHLF welcomes contributions in support of the Landmarks Scholarship Program. Please click here to contribute; be sure to designate your gift to “Scholarship.”
Thank you!
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Pine-Richland’s First Annual Architectural Design Challenge
After many months of work, six teams of sixth-grade gifted students from Eden Hall Upper Elementary School presented their models on April 5 to a jury of architects and community representatives showing how they would adapt the vacant Parsons House Garage on Chatham University’s Eden Hall campus to house an orientation center that would connect the community with the Falk School of Sustainability that is being developed on the 388-acre site in Gibsonia, PA.
“This first annual architectural design challenge was the result of a new partnership with Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation,” said PHLF Executive Director Louise Sturgess. “Joanna Sovek and Jennifer Kopach, Eden Hall Upper Elementary Gifted Support teachers, connected with our organizations in 2015 so they could involve their students in meaningful assignments based in their community.” Kelly Henderson (LEED AP O+M), K-12 education coordinator at Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus, highlighted this educational partnership (that also involves the Frick Art & Historical Center) during her presentation with Ms. Sovek, Ms. Kopach, and Principal Steven Smith at the Green Schools Conference, held in Pittsburgh from March 31 to April 1 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
In the gallery below see the Design Challenge on April 5, 2016.
“One of our main goals in design challenges such as these,” said Louise, “is to let young people know that they have a voice in their community and that they have valid ideas for making it better. In the process of developing their model, oral report, and written presentation, they strengthen academic, problem-solving, and teamwork skills; they become passionate about their ideas for reusing a historic structure; and they feel more connected to their Pine-Richland community. They take tremendous pride in what they accomplish, and we are always impressed and inspired by their ideas and energy.”
Each team demonstrated that they can collaborate and develop an excellent design concept for a vacant building. By saving and finding a new use for that building, they are able to rejuvenate a local landmark so a sense of continuity is maintained in Pine-Richland.
A special thanks to the following people for serving as judges: Lou Anne Caligiuri, Chatham University; Samantha Carter, Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture; Christopher Driscoll, Young Preservationists Association; Nancy Evans, Northwood Realty; Brian Newhouse, engineering consultant; Kelley Stroup, architectural historian; and Paul Tellers, AIA.
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Arts and Crafts Conference in Pittsburgh
PHLF members and friends are invited to attend the 17th Annual Arts and Crafts Conference, which will be held in Pittsburgh from September 17 through September 20.Register for all four days or for any one day of this national conference sponsored by the Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC), titled “Multiple Modernities: From Richardson to Wright and Beyond––The Arts and Crafts Movement in Pittsburgh and Environs.” As part of the “Beyond” portion of the conference, participants will be able to tour the Frank Giovannitti House, designed by Richard Meier in 1979-83, on Sunday afternoon, September 20.
Click here for a full agenda and to register. Please use the Promo Code PHLF to receive a conference discount of $475. Regular registration is $550.
Please note: the discount applies to those who register for the whole conference, not for one-day registrations. However, for those who are interested in attending more than one day but less than all four, then call the IAC at 646-485-1952. The IAC might be able to work something out and offers the warmest of welcomes to anyone who wishes to attend.
Conference organizer Lisa Koenigsberg, PhD, has planned an incredible agenda of tours and lectures (including one by PHLF trustee Lu Donnelly and one by Historical Collections Director Al Tannler). “Pittsburgh is astonishing,” said Lisa. “There is so much to showcase and explore.”
Participants will be touring Wilpen Hall in Sewickley Heights (protected by a PHLF easement); the Duquesne Club in Downtown Pittsburgh; several private homes, including an Arts-and-Crafts foursquare in Squirrel Hill featuring a superb collection of furniture and art; and several historic religious properties in Downtown, Shadyside, and Sewickley.
“This is a terrific opportunity to tour a selection of significant sites in the Pittsburgh region,” said PHLF Executive Director Louise Sturgess, “and to immerse yourself in the Arts and Crafts tradition.”
Conference partners include PHLF, the Frick Art & Historical Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Fallingwater, and Kentuck Knob, among others.
Register today!
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Creating Magic with Second-Grade Explorers
“I can’t thank you enough for the magic that you have helped to create in assisting our students learn the vital foundations of their own community,” wrote Jeffrey Zeiders, supervisor of Social Studies for the Mt. Lebanon School District. “The PHLF is simply the best,” he added.
Every year since 2001, PHLF staff and docents and volunteers from the Mount Lebanon Historical Society, have been leading second-grade students in the Mt. Lebanon School District on a walking tour of Washington Road. Students search for architectural details that match photos on their worksheets and tour the historical society, municipal building, and public safety building. They paste photos of the 105 details they find on Washington Road buildings on a huge map with a timeline that they take back to school to study further. PHLF also provides students with a workbook, Your House, with worksheets on their school, and with a book of community stories, Memory Lane. Click here to see 15 photos of the award-winning educational program.
PHLF first developed the program for the Mt. Lebanon Public Library and many of the school tours still begin and end there. The program won a state Social Studies award in 2002 and continues each year through funding from the School District, a $3.00 per student tour fee, and the Alfred M. Oppenheimer Memorial Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Fine Foundation, and the McSwigan Family Foundation that help underwrite PHLF’s educational programs for students, teachers, and adults.
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Historic Crafton Elementary School Threatened with Closure
PHLF News
January 28, 2011In 2010, the Carlynton School District conducted a district-wide facilities-use study on renovating or replacing its two elementary schools: the Carnegie Elementary School and the Crafton Elementary School.
The Crafton Elementary School, built in 1913 and designed by architect Press C. Dowler, is a handsome Tudor-style building located at 1874 Crafton Blvd, a lovely residential neighborhood of Crafton Borough. The school is threatened with closure and ultimate abandonment in one of the options being considered.
Included in the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Architectural Survey of Historic Resources, the building has served as a community focal point for nearly a century and was one of the deciding criteria in selecting Crafton as the best place to raise children in Pennsylvania by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The Crafton Elementary School is made of hand-burned brick laid in Flemish bond and has two projecting bays with crenelated tower projections, giving the building a stately appearance.
Crafton Councilwoman April Weitzel called the building a “gem of the community that has served and will continue to serve the citizens of Crafton and Carnegie.” Councilwoman Weitzel is convinced that renovating the school will be less expensive, resulting in no tax increases for the district. She further stated that “maintaining our neighborhood schools instead of abandoning them helps stabilize property values and encourages others to move into Carnegie and Crafton.”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation would like to see this building continue being used as a school and has expressed its concern about possible closure of this important community asset. Renovation of historic schools is often less expensive than new construction. Restoration supports “green” policy and helps stabilize historic neighborhoods. This issue is scheduled to be discussed at the next School Board meeting. Comments can be sent to:
Carlynton School District
435 Kings Highway
Carnegie PA 15106
Click for MapBoard Meeting: Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. in the High School Cafeteria
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Board Meeting: Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in the High School Cafeteria -
Kaufmann’s is Back? Well, the Kaufmann Center will be, with $100,000 from PPG
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Pop City Media
The historic Kaufmann Center in the Hill District, home to social services and events in the neighborhood for decades, is that much closer to reopening as a state-of-the-art auditorium for community development, education, arts and cultural happenings, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the PPG Industries Foundation.
The structure – part of the six-building Hill House Association, local provider of health, education, housing and other services – had fallen into disrepair and closed in June 2009. The grant from PPG, says Foundation Executive Director Sue Sloan, will aid the Center’s $5 million renovation effort, which includes a new entryway and LEED certification of the building as a newly energy-efficient green structure.
Hill House hopes the renovated auditorium will attract regional events to the neighborhood as well. Overall, the building’s renewal should contribute to the organization’s and the neighborhood’s health, both financially and socially.
“The real value is that this will help revive and increase services for individuals in the Hill District,” Sloan notes. “This is going to make a difference to the folks who are living here and using these services.”
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Sue Sloan, PPG Industries Foundation -
Unusual Touches Mark Phipps’ Winter Show
Saturday, November 20, 2010The Winter Flower Show opens Friday at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Oakland. Nine of the indoor gardens will be bedecked with topiary snowmen, decorated trees, hanging baskets, thousands of lights and more than 2,000 poinsettias. Newer varieties of poinsettias will be on display, including ‘Polar Bear,’ ‘Winter Blush,’ ‘Ice Punch,’ ‘Visions of Grandeur’ and ‘Tapestry.’
Also on display is the garden railroad with operating trains and miniature living scenery that includes dwarf conifers. The show, which runs through Jan. 9, was designed by the conservatory staff with help from Michele McCann.
“The show is a wonderful combination of horticulture and whimsy, with beautiful new poinsettias and common annuals used in unusual ways,” says Margie Radebaugh, Phipps’ director of horticulture and education.
Special seasonal events include:
• Visits by Santa Claus on Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 19.
• A “Garlands & Gifts” sale on Dec. 2-3 from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
• Phipps stays open until 10 p.m. daily, beginning Dec. 6, with candlelit walkways and live entertainment.
Admission is $12 for adults; $11 for seniors 62 and older and students with valid ID; $9 for children ages 2 to 18; free for children under 2. Information: www.phippsconservatory.org or 412-622-6914.
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City Plans to Offer Career Education Earlier
Tuesday, November 09, 2010By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-GazettePittsburgh Public Schools already is on track to revamp its career and technical education program for high school students.
Now there’s a proposal for students in third through eighth grade.
At the school board’s education committee meeting tonight, Angela Mike, the district’s executive director of career and technical education, will present a plan to provide all students in grades 3 through 8 once-a-month lessons about careers and work.
The plan is expected to be up for a board vote next month and, if approved, begin in the second semester of this school year.
“Students already are starting to think about careers at a younger age,” said Ms. Mike.
Pennsylvania requires career education for all students and sets academic standards for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11.
Pittsburgh is working on developing a curriculum for students in kindergarten through grade 2 as well. If approved, that may be in place next fall.
The first lesson in third grade is aimed at helping children identify their own personal interests, including a survey asking, among other things, whether they like math, taking things apart and managing money. The next lesson helps to identify the range of jobs available. The third helps children understand that careers take preparation.
By grade 8, students are writing resumes and learning interviewing skills. Eighth-graders already have a requirement to complete a career portfolio.
One lesson to be demonstrated to the board uses materials from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, such as a piece of slag to talk about how the steel industry has changed.
The Foundation is among the more than 50 partnerships the district has set up as resources for students, including speakers, internships and tours.
Plans call for students in grades 4 and 7 to take two field trips to businesses in each of those two years.
Ninth-graders will be able to spend a day visiting the training sessions for the carpenters, plumbers and electrical workers.
At the high school level, the board already has approved the creation of three regional programs — health careers; culinary arts; and information technology and business finance — that will be offered at high schools in each of three regions of the city.
Some high schools will have “signature” programs — such as auto body at Pittsburgh Brashear and advanced machine operations at Langley — that require students to attend certain high schools.
Most of the programs in this system will be in place next fall. About 700 students are enrolled in high school CTE programs, and Ms. Mike said the district is trying to attract more.
The district also is trying to make sure that its programs meet the state standards, including a checklist of competencies for each field and adding meeting not only academic standards but also industry standards. The latter still requires an agreement from the teachers union.
