Category Archive: Education
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Last bell at Schenley: Historic high school closes
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, June 11, 2008Students left Schenley High School on Tuesday more with a sense of resignation and eagerness for the summer than sadness for their school’s storied past.“You may not see any depression today, but I think in September it’ll hit us,” said activities director Joe Ehman.
As the last bell sounded at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday, freshmen, sophomores and juniors hugged each other, snapped photos in the hallway and said good-bye. Seniors had their last day of class Friday. In tribute, they scattered 92 roses — one for each year of the school’s existence — on its front steps.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” said Tariq Stephens, 16, a sophomore from Beltzhoover. “But I know at the end of the day it’s going to be crazy, because it’ll be the last time I see the inside of this building.”
The 1,127 Schenley students still do not know whether the Oakland school will close. The city school board will vote June 25 on a recommendation by city schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt to shut it down.Roosevelt has said the district cannot afford the $76.2 million cost of fixing the building’s mechanical systems and removing its asbestos.
Whether it closes or is renovated, Schenley students who will be in grades 10-12 in the fall are being assigned to Reizenstein School in East Liberty.
There was little evidence yesterday to indicate that Schenley was closing for good. One sign on the floor said, “Schenley we’ll miss you.”
“For a school that’s closing, it’s very quiet,” said Assistant Principal Nina Sacco. “It’s very peaceful.”
Sacco owes her very life to Schenley. Her grandparents met as Schenley students in the school auditorium.
Although classes have ended for students, teachers will be in school through the end of the week.
Kelly McKrell, an English and drama teacher, mulled her feelings in a room full of props such as a giant jukebox and an oversized pharaoh’s head, relics of the school musicals she has directed.
“It’s going to be difficult for me on Friday,” said McKrell, a Schenley graduate. “That’s the last day I walk out of this building and never come back. I don’t know how I’m going to walk out.”
Ehman has the unenviable task of returning to alumni all the memorabilia they gave the school over the years. “It’s just a big mess,” he said.
A couple from Kansas, graduates from the 1950s, came by recently to retrieve the wife’s megaphone and cheerleading uniform.
Schenley Principal Sophia Facaros, patrolling the halls, reminded a student to remove his earphones. She was so intent on making sure that students behaved properly that she did not have time to feel much of anything.
“There isn’t one ounce of emotion in me right now, because the job is too big to allow anything else to come into it,” she said.
Luke Trout, 17, a junior from Morningside, decided he was not leaving the school without a souvenir. He removed a framed picture of a rocket from the cafeteria wall “just to have something to remember Schenley.”
“What are they going to do,” he asked, “suspend me?”
As the clock wound down, security guard Marsha Comer hugged students good-bye.
“I can’t cry,” she said. “I love them. They’ll be okay.”
When the final bell rang, some students whooped their approval.
Then they trudged down the steps past the wilted roses.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Landmarks Awards Four Scholarships to College-Bound Students
During the Landmarks Scholarship Celebration on June 3 at Chatham University, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Trustee and Scholarship Program Founder David Brashear announced the award of scholarships to four high-achieving students who are involved in their communities and value Pittsburgh’s history, architecture, and/or landscape design. The Scholarship Celebration marked the tenth anniversary of the scholarship program and raised more than $75,000 for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Scholarship Fund. PNC, BNY Mellon, and The David and Janet Brashear Foundation sponsored the June 3 event.
Four students, out of 36 applicants this year, were selected to received $4,000 scholarships:
· Dawna M. Gilvarry of Schenley High School;
· Christa L. Pluff of Allderdice High School;
· Sarah J. Rogers of Woodland Hills High School; and
· Scott A. Schorr of Mt. Lebanon High School
(Brief profiles on each student below.)
David Brashear conceived of the Landmarks Scholarship Program in 1998 with several goals in mind: he hoped to build relationships with capable young people who share the values of our organization; he wanted to provide financial support to qualified students who were pursuing a college education; and he hoped to attract young people who had the potential to become future leaders of Landmarks and of other community-based organizations throughout the region.
Since 1999, the we have granted 29 scholarships to a remarkable group of young people. Sixteen students are Pittsburgh Public School graduates and thirteen are graduates from other schools within Allegheny County. Seventeen winners have already graduated from prestigious colleges, and at least four scholarship recipients are living and working in Pittsburgh: two are architects, one is an engineer, one is a bridge inspector, and several are looking for jobs in the region.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Scholarship Program is offered each year. Applications for the 2008-09 school year will be available in Jan. 2009. Applicants must:
· be a resident of Allegheny County;
· be a high school senior who has been accepted to a college or university;
· have a cumulative Grade Point Average at the end of the first semester senior year of 3.25 or greater; and
· write an essay on a certain topic, complete an application, and submit two letters of recommendation.
2008 Landmarks Scholarship Recipients: Student Profiles
Dawna M. Gilvarry
A graduate of Schenley High School, Dawna will be attending Seton Hill University to study International Relations.
Described as “positive, optimistic and above all empathetic,” Dawna has volunteered at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind, and has worked at the Jewish Community Center, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and as a camp counselor. At Schenley she was a member of the swim team, a writer for the school newspaper, and a member of the Interact Club. Dawna was a featured speaker at “Strong Women, Strong Girls,” a mentoring program for high-risk young girls in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
In her Landmarks Scholarship essay Dawna wrote: “…you can see the beauty in our architecture. History especially hits home because unlike many people I enjoy hearing about what life was like in different times. When I look into the past I can see where the future rose….Whether it’s Pittsburgh or somewhere across the country I can value the fine art in architecture and landscape. When I go downtown and look up, I am lost in a different world. …Pittsburgh has so many surprises in its older buildings… .
“…my most unforgettable experience as a child was riding the incline and viewing the city from afar.”
Christa L. Pluff
A graduate of Allderdice High School, Christa will be attending Georgetown University to study Political Science and Sociology.
Christa was a National Merit Finalist and recipient, in 2007, of the Chatham College Rachel Carson Book Award for Environmental Science and Research. She served as an Allderdice representative for Students for a Greener Pittsburgh and was a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Newswire. She has volunteered at Magee-Women’s Hospital and at the Frick Environmental Center.
Christa’s scholarship essay explains her love of Hazelwood––“a small Pittsburgh neighborhood [with] all of the shops and restaurants, the churches and businesses, the post office and, interestingly, two funeral homes within a block of each other.” She describes the positive influence that the Hazelwood Initiative has had on “adding some life and culture back to today’s neighborhood,” and laments the media’s often one-dimensional portrayal of the community when it “highlights isolated acts of violence.”
“Perhaps it is the continued inequity fielded as a Hazelwood resident or perhaps it is the activism undertaken by neighbors such as my own grandmother…that has shaped my identity as a resolute, politically active individual. Regardless of the origin, my surroundings have fashioned my belief in the power of the individual and the importance of an education and giving back to the community that, regardless of its faults, determined who you are.”
Sarah J. Rogers
A graduate of Woodland Hills High School, Sarah will be attending Fordham University to study History.
Recognized as a “distinguished scholar” and “best young playwright,” Sarah was named a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review East Young Achiever and was commended for her performance in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Competition. She has volunteered with her church and worked as a clerk at Thomson, Rhodes & Cowie, P.C.
In her scholarship essay, Sarah writes that “Some of my fondest memories are of the trips my father and I would take: early Saturday morning adventures to ride the incline up to Mt. Washington or to wander around Point State Park.” During those times she realizes that her “own passion for history was beginning to take root.”
She sees the “pride and heart throughout Pittsburgh, past and present. I see it in the early organization and passion of the Homestead strikers…I see it in the inclines we continue to operate and in every ‘Historical Landmark’ sign I walk past. I am beginning to see it, too, in myself….”
Scott A. Schorr
A graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School, Scott will be attending Emory University, pursuing his interests in Political Science, History, and Music.
Elected Treasurer of the High School Student Government and Vice-President of the School Orchestra, Scott is a National Honor Society member and recipient of numerous science and musical awards. He was a co-captain of the Debate Team, a Model United Nations delegate, and a volunteer at the Heinz History Center for four years in the Education Department.
In his scholarship essay, Scott describes his experience in leading a group of inner-city youth through the Points in Time exhibit at the Heinz History Center. “Early in our tour, I sensed that my visitors did not share the same level of interest in the Colonial era that I did. But as we shifted our focus to more recent decades…it became evident that their enthusiasm for history was no less than my own. My visitors shared with me their own passions, a sense of excitement about the passage of the Underground Railroad through Western Pennsylvania and the proud heritage of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays…. I reflected on the fact that my visitors now lived in the neighborhood where my great-grandparents had first resided…as immigrants to this country…. I was able to see history in a different light, impressed by the importance to my guests of the Civil Rights Movement and the enthusiasm and reverence with which they embraced it. …They provided me with an important lesson in diversity that I had yet to discern from the pages of a history book.”
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New Pittsburgh Website Features 25 Downtown Landmarks
Click below to explore an interactive website that plays off Landmarks’ most popular downtown walking tour for students. There’s plenty of information, animation, fun facts, and material for adults too.
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Modern Venture: Home designed by famous architect on history group’s East End tour
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Like the elegant orchids in her kitchen windows, Betty Abrams’ love of beauty bloomed in a nurturing environment. Her mother designed the family’s English Tudor home on Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill and loved fashion; her father’s furniture sales on the streets of Braddock attracted buyers to his business, Ohringer Home Furniture Co.
Mrs. Abrams still recalls what features she liked best about the homes of her childhood friends and has read architectural magazines all her life.
So, it’s not surprising that she interviewed five architects before choosing Robert Venturi, winner of the 1991 Pritzker Architecture Prize, to design her Woodland Road home, which will be featured on Tuesday’s tour sponsored by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the city’s largest preservation group.
Set on an acre of wooded land with a view of a 100-year-old stone bridge and three Japanese maples, the home, which features an entire wall of southern exposure windows, invites the outdoors inside.
Mrs. Abrams asked Venturi if he had ever visited the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., a sleek, light-filled space that is the work of I. M. Pei.
“That’s what I want,” she told him. “And that’s what I got,” she said during an interview last week. “I made Venturi listen to me.”
No walls separate the home’s kitchen, living room, bars and dining room, which are all visible as soon as you enter the first floor. The home’s most dramatic feature is a floor-to-ceiling window that is shaped like a ship’s wheel and cut into eight pieces.
Her late husband, Irving, was floored by the window’s design when he saw it on the blueprints.
“It’ll be OK. You’ll get used to it,” Mrs. Abrams told him.
A determined woman, Mrs. Abrams knew what she wanted — a 10-by-15-foot walk-in closet in the master bedroom, a lap pool just off the master bath, a heated two-car garage, maid’s quarters, and a living room and kitchen large enough to entertain.
The Abrams bought the land in January 1979.
“We broke ground in September of 1980 and moved in in April of 1982,” Mrs. Abrams recalled, adding that she began working as a financial adviser so she could afford to buy art for the couple’s new home.
The focal point of the living room is a Roy Lichtenstein print of a domestic scene; lowering the artwork by about a foot made a huge difference in how it looked and harmonized with the architecture, she added.
Noel Jeffrey finished the home’s interior design, selecting three shades of blue that are all visible as you stand in the living room. A light blue ceiling and darker shades of that color set off the balcony of an overhead loft that contains a library. Three clerestory windows light up the ceiling, intensifying the illusion of a blue sky overhead.
Three modern red chairs in the living room face a three-section sofa that once sat in the Pittsburgh Room of the Duquesne Club. After buying it at auction, she had the sofa reupholstered with understated multicolored fabric she found in Las Vegas.
The black and white marble dining room table has four chairs painted in a periwinkle automobile paint. Soothing celery green walls set off a neatly arranged, mirrored bar.
Long before granite counter tops became fashionable, Mrs. Abrams chose black and white granite for the kitchen and for two long bars where she serves appetizers and cocktails.
An accomplished cook who taught cooking and ran a catering business years ago, Mrs. Abrams insisted the kitchen be wider than Venturi had planned. She also rejected the idea of a grand staircase. When the Carnegie Museum of Art exhibited Venturi’s designs in 2002, the architect conceded that she had been right as he savored a bowl of her mushroom barley soup while seated in her dining room.
In her will, Mrs. Abrams has bequeathed the property to PHLF. Some day — when the house is at least 50 years old — it may be listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its distinctive features and the significance of Venturi’s contributions to post-modern architecture.
In the meantime, its caretaker is enjoying it immensely. She particularly loves the rectangular skylight in the master bath.
“When I take a bath, I can look up and see the moon,” she said.
Marylynne Pitz may be reached at 412-263-1648 or mpitz@post-gazette.com.First published on May 31, 2008 at 12:00 am -
Getty Foundation grant funds study of IUP’s heritage
by Laura Kingsbury/Editor in Chief
The PennApril 25, 2008
Thanks to a $100,000 Campus Heritage grant from the Getty Foundation, IUP’s historic buildings and landscapes are being studied to ensure the preservation of the campus’ rich history.Since its creation in 1984, the Getty Foundation has worked toward fulfilling a philanthropic mission of “supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the understanding and preservation of the visual arts locally and throughout the world,” according to its Web site, getty.org.
“The university was invited to participate in a historic review of our landscape and historic buildings built prior to 1950,” said Bob Marx, IUP’s executive director of facilities operations, engineering and capital planning. “We then had the opportunity to qualify for the Getty project and submitted a proposal and other materials, working in conjunction with the university relations division.”
In order to begin the historic review, IUP has contracted with the Pittsburgh Landmarks Foundation, which will perform studies on the various buildings and landscapes and then offer suggests for preservation by March.
In addition, Marx also said the suggestions that result from the study will help IUP’s facilities team move forward with renovations while still keeping consistent with the heritage.
Recently, PLF has performed similar studies at Grove City College, Allegheny College, Geneva College and Slippery Rock University, said Eugene Matta, PLF’s director of real estate and special developments programs. Currently, studies are in the works at Seton Hill University, Washington and Jefferson and California University of Pennsylvania in addition to IUP, said Eugene Matta.
“It’s important to note that this is not to replace or question any development plan that the university may have,” Matta said. “The two things should and can coexist amicably.”
In terms of IUP’s buildings, a team of architects and historians are surveying and getting familiar with many structures that are more than 50 years old, said Ellis Schmidlapp, president of Landmarks Design Associates, who will be providing the PLF’s long-term preservation suggestions.
The buildings currently being reviewed are Breezedale and Fisher Auditorium as well as Clark, Keith, Waller, McElhaney, Sutton, Uhler, Leonard, Whitmyre and Wilson halls.
“An important part of saving old buildings is planning,” Schmidlapp said. “It’s also finding a new use, because a building has to be useful to be preserved.”
An example, he said, could be Waller Hall, which when was originally designed in 1926 to be a gymnasium but is now used for the theater department.
In addition to finding uses for the buildings and ensuring they are up to modern codes, PLF also focuses on their lighting and overall visual appeal.
More specifically, Thomas Keffer, PLF’s property and construction manager, takes photographs of campus at night to survey both for beauty and for safety.
In doing this, he said he looks for ways to brighten up the campus by adding more lighting to sculptures, architecture and landscapes.
“You can light the trees, instead of the sidewalks; it’s much more beautiful that way,” said Ron Block, the project’s design consultant and landscape historian.
For the PLF’s report, Block is also examining IUP’s landscapes, especially those in the Oak Grove.
“If you ask students what their favorite thing about campus is, they will probably say the Oak Grove,” he said. “So we recognize the importance of it, and even if you are running out of space, you don’t want to build anything there. Some of the trees were there before the buildings.”
However, in order to make these suggestions fit the atmosphere of campus, both IUP and the PLF are stressing the importance of student input.
“Students can give input and articulate what they see as a building’s purpose,” Schmidlapp said.
Marx agreed that it is important to get students, faculty and staff interested in learning and writing about IUP’s heritage.
To get involved with this project, students are encouraged to contact Marx at bmarx@iup.edu or Matta at eugene@phlf.org.
© Copyright 2008 The Penn
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Allegheny County Courthouse 120th Symposium & Exhibition
PHLF News
March 7, 2008Friday, April 18th, 2008
To commemorate the 120th anniversary of the dedication of the Allegheny County Courthouse, Professor Drew Armstrong, director of the Architectural Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh, has organized a public symposium on ‘The Allegheny County Courthouse in Context’ that will take place on Friday, April 18th, 2008. Speakers from across the continent will address the history of the courthouse, its place in H. H. Richardson’s career, and its impact on public architecture throughout North America.Arthur Ziegler will open the conference with a brief outline of PHLF’s Allegheny County Historic Properties Committee work for several decades in guiding the restoration of the Courthouse.
September 2nd through October 16th.
A major exhibition on ‘Pittsburgh and the Architectural Sublime: H. H. Richardson’s Allegheny County Courthouse’ in the Frick Fine Arts Building will feature archival material documenting the courthouse competition and Richardson’s design process.Click here for details on the symposium.
A Bench for the Courthouse
Several years ago, we embarked on a program to replace the unattractive and randomly selected used chairs that lined the corridors of the Courthouse with sturdy wooden benches designed by County architect Sam Taylor, in the style of Richardson. Each bench costs $3,500 for Wilson and McCracken to create. They may be given to honor or memory of family and friends. To date, 21 benches have been donated out of the total of 35 that we need.
For the symposium, we are asking PHLF members and friends if they would like to either sponsor a bench in it’s entirety, or to contribute a small amount between $10 and $50 that will go toward the $3,500 fee to commission another handsome wood bench for the halls of the Courthouse to be dedicated to H. H. Richardson.. We will report on progress as we move along.
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School Tours Booked through June
PHLF News
March 7, 2008Now through mid-June, our calendar is filled with tours for school groups and private groups–so if you would like to explore Pittsburgh with our staff or docents, book your FALL TOUR now.
Contact Mary Ann Eubanks at 412-471-5808
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June 3 House Tour and Scholarship Fund-Raising Event
PHLF News
March 7, 2008Save the date of Tuesday, June 3, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and tour the Abrams House (designed by Robert Venturi, 1979-82) and the Neeper House (c. 1903), both on Woodland Road, and enjoy a reception in the Andrew W. Mellon Hall at Chatham University. Event tickets: $100 and up.
We will be celebrating and building support for the Landmarks Scholarship Program that provides financial assistance to City and County students attending college who have demonstrated a love for the Pittsburgh region and excel as students and citizens in their communities.
Since 1999, Landmarks has awarded college scholarships to 25 outstanding young people, thanks to contributions from the Brashear Family Named Fund and from several trustees. For details about the June 3 event and the Landmarks Scholarship program visit:
https://phlf.org/education-department/scholarships/the-landmarks-scholarship/landmarks-scholarship-program-fundraiser/Help us expand a program that gives us the opportunity to build lasting relationships with capable young people who care deeply about the Pittsburgh region.