Category Archive: Historic Properties

1. Market Square’s makeover shifts into high gear this week

   June 30, 2008 2:22 pm

   Monday, June 30, 2008

   By Diana Nelson Jones,

   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

   Market Square’s transition is in full swing.

   Dunkin Donuts opens there at 6 a.m. today. Moe’s Southwest Grill will open Thursday. A dark, romantic bar is to follow later this summer.

   In addition, a veteran restaurant, Buon Giorno, is dressing up for a higher profile. Renovations are ongoing to add a second-story deck that has passed the city’s historic review. And the former Mick McGuire’s will become a wine, cheese and dessert bar called Sante — with an accent on the “e” — later this summer beside the 1902 Landmark Tavern.

   Of Sante, Mike Edwards, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, said, “It is supposed to be very romantic. So dark you have to be close” to see each other.

   Dunkin Donuts brings another choice of coffee and baked goods within a stone’s throw of Nicholas Coffee, Crazy Mocha, Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery and Starbucks.

   When questioned about a possible glut of caffeine choices, Robin Frederick, vice president of marketing and human resources for Dunkin Donuts, said Market Square was an attractive site for the company’s expansion.

   “We’re going to do what we do best and hope they do too,” she said of the competitors.

   Mr. Edwards said Market Square’s renovation plans have generated “a lot of public buy-in and set a direction for investors to make confident decisions.” He said the years of debate over the Fifth and Forbes make-over stagnated Market Square’s.

   “Now we have direction,” he said, citing a $1 million “Paris-to-Pittsburgh” grant from the Colcom Foundation to match up to $25,000 the cost of any restaurant renovation that opens it to the outside. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is administering the grants, which will enable “use of the city the way it should be used, not just as an office park.”

   The Paris-to-Pittsburgh grants target Downtown merchants only, he said, adding that Moe’s Southwest Grill “is probably the best use of it.”

   Moe’s co-owner Mike Geiger said the restaurant will open to the outside with three bays of windows, each 15 feet wide, and six retractable awnings. It will be the first Moe’s in the city, with four others in the region.

   Buon Giorno and Mixstirs, a casual restaurant that offers a range of smoothies, are also going for the Parisian look, and Mr. Edwards said other restaurants have expressed interest.

   True to its name, the square becomes a marketplace every Thursday through Oct. 23, with vendors selling fresh produce, baked goods, salsas and other items, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

   The Fifth and Market project, in which Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation has invested, is also under way and will include several condominiums.

   “There’s a maturing going on in Downtown Pittsburgh,” said Mr. Edwards, citing restaurants that have broadened and elevated diners’ tastes. “All the huge, great wonderful projects are important,” he said, but the smaller ones are the connective tissue that will keep making the city compelling.

   Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.

   First published on June 30, 2008 at 12:00 am

2. Cathedral of Learning trumpets education

   9:26 am

   By Bill Zlatos
   TRIBUNE-REVIEW
   Sunday, June 29, 2008 

   The Cathedral of Learning was constructed of Indiana limestone and built with the pennies, nickel and dimes of area schoolchildren.John G. Bowman, then chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, came up with the idea for a tower in 1921.

   “He wanted a tall building because his intention was the children of working men and women of Pittsburgh would see the tower and be inspired to get an education,” said Albert Tannler, historical collections director at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.

   

   But there was the issue of money. The cost of the building was estimated at $10 million to $15 million, a hefty sum in those days.

   In 1925, Marcus Aaron, chairman of the city’s board of education, summoned the district’s teachers to start a “Buy a Brick” campaign. The teachers told students to give 10 cents to Pitt and tell the university how they earned it. The children would get a certificate indicating they owned a piece of the building.As a result, 97,000 certificates were issued.    

   Parents also gave. In 1926, Bowman went to a meeting of steelworkers and their families in Carnegie to promote his tower.

   “A woman stood up with a baby in her arms and said, ‘We got no money, but we’ll go without meat for a week and give you that money.’ Then a man stood up and said, ‘I’ll wear this suit another year and give you the money,’ ” said Maxine Bruhns, director of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs, who is working on a DVD, “The Story Behind the Construction of the Cathedral of Learning.”

   The cathedral is home to 27 Nationality Rooms, which showcase the culture of the ethnic groups that built Pittsburgh.

   The steel skeleton of the building was erected in 1929. After the stock market crashed, the 52-story design was shortened to 40. Still, it was the tallest academic building in the world when it was finished in 1937. It remains the biggest in the United States.

   “It was a triumph,” Bruhns said, “symbolizing that those parallel lines going skyward never meet and education never ends.”

    

    

   Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828. 

    

3. $80 million Schenley tab challenged

   June 27, 2008 4:01 pm

   By Christian Morrow
   June 27, 2008
   The New Pittsburgh Courier

   Roosevelt sticks with his numbers Whether or not a proposed school district referendum on saving Schenley High School referenced estimates to renovate the Reizenstein, Milliones and Frick buildings, the school’s supporters say it unfairly pits Schenley against the rest of the district by using an inflated repair figure for the 92-year-old building. “This is not a $74 million question of whether to save Schenley or not,” said Vivian Loftness, Carnegie Mellon University architecture professor, in a letter to the school board. “The question is, ‘should we repair and upgrade a grand, crafted school building that has 50-100 years left, or should we repair and upgrade buildings with 20 years of life left, sinking our tax dollars into oblivion?’” The district-wide referendum was created by solicitor Ira Weiss and school board director Theresa Colaizzi after the New Pittsburgh Courier reported that two engineers and a former Schenley principal said there is no asbestos or structural danger at the building, and repair estimates include costs for fixing problems that do not exist. The issue was on the agenda for the school board’s June 23 meeting, but Colaizzi stormed out when one engineer, Nick Lardas, was allowed to speak. Lardas repeated what he and fellow engineer Jet Lafean told the Courier—that the building is as safe as any in the system. Roosevelt said that Lardas’ engineering credentials don’t stack up to the district’s experts. “Mr. Lardas is a reputable contractor,” said Superintendent Mark Roosevelt. “He is not an expert in the field.” Lardas said he never claimed to be an asbestos expert. “I’m not making an analysis, I’m reading from their report,” he said. “I never put myself out there as an asbestos expert, but I do have enough expertise to read a report.” Reiterating numbers Roosevelt revealed during a November press conference, officials said samples from the plaster failures in the building revealed asbestos levels “two to six times the acceptable limit.” Though he was unable to attend, Lafean, experienced in handling asbestos as well as more dangerous agents such as plutonium, said the district’s own documents show that to be false. “Their reports show all of the plaster samples submitted for testing to Wiss, Janney Elstner Associates in Cleveland, Ohio, came back as containing 00.00 percent asbestos,” he said. “The lab also told Roosevelt all the samples were from recent patches and none were the original plaster he has been falsely telling the public is falling from the sky,” School Board member Randall Taylor pointed out that temporarily moving Schenley’s science program to Westinghouse—where there is already a lab—and putting the remaining students in Peabody—where there is space, would allow time to renovate Schenley. “It would save about $25 million from the cost of renovating Milliones, Reizenstein and Frick,” he said. “If those costs are in the $50 million to $60 million range—how can we afford that and not Schenley?” He did not receive an answer. Celeste Taylor, parent of a Schenley student, said Lardas was “No. 1 in her book” for putting his reputation at stake, but believes the majority of the board will follow Roosevelt’s recommendation to close Schenley. “Who are their constituents—us/students or the superintendent/foundations,” she said. “I feel the future of our school district has a very large gray cloud above it and I don’t see it moving away anytime soon. I sincerely hope I am wrong.” The board is scheduled to vote on the closing next month. (Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)

4. School board votes to close Schenley building

   June 26, 2008 4:29 pm

   Thursday, June 26, 2008

   By Joe Smydo,
   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

   The Pittsburgh school board last night voted 5-4 to close the Pittsburgh Schenley High School building, rejecting a proposed referendum on the issue and saddening school supporters who spent months fighting to save the historic structure.

   Voting to close Schenley were board members Heather Arnet, Theresa Colaizzi, Jean Fink, Floyd McCrea and President Bill Isler. Voting no were Mark Brentley Sr., Sherry Hazuda, Thomas Sumpter and Randall Taylor. The vote followed another in a string of emotional debates about whether the building could be spared.

   “The closing and the destruction of Schenley High School — the public’s not going to forget this,” said Mr. Taylor.

   The 92-year-old landmark that graduated artist Andy Warhol, jazz great George Benson and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Clifford Shull, among other notable names in sundry fields, will close June 30. Staff members already had packed equipment and supplies for use at other school buildings.

   The board left open the possibility of reopening Schenley one day by forming a committee to investigate future uses for the building and how to pay for renovations.

   “It remains to be seen whether Schenley will rise again,” Mr. Sumpter said.

   The board’s action did not satisfy Schenley supporters. “There was no reason to vote to close Schenley,” said Highland Park resident Jill Weiss.

   In October, Superintendent Mark Roosevelt proposed closing Schenley at the end of the school year, saying the district couldn’t afford to address asbestos and other maintenance problems.

   At the time, Mr. Roosevelt said renovations would cost about $64 million.

   He increased the estimate to $76.2 million May 19, after consulting with a fourth architect, and in recent days had put the cost at more than $80 million.

   Mr. Roosevelt said the district must commit its money to academic improvement, not bricks and mortar, and he maintained the district is stretched to the financial limit with increasing costs, flat revenues and previous debt.

   The proposal to close Schenley and replace it with new schools drew an outcry from school supporters, who scrutinized architects’ reports and concluded the building’s needs weren’t as serious, or the potential cost as high, as Mr. Roosevelt had indicated.

   Supporters argued that the building could be renovated for about $40 million, and they bitterly opposed Mr. Roosevelt’s claim that students couldn’t remain in the building during a renovation project.

   Civil-rights and neighborhood groups united to save Schenley. Supporters packed public hearings, lobbied board members and tried to get City Council to intervene in the dispute.

   The building has been the touchstone for a larger debate about the direction in which Mr. Roosevelt is leading the district.

   Parents asked why Mr. Roosevelt would dismantle a school with a happy, diverse, high-performing student body, suggesting that Schenley instead should be a model for reform district-wide.

   Supporters have skewered the new schools Mr. Roosevelt has proposed in place of Schenley, such as questioning the efficacy of the middle-high school concept he wants to make a district staple and claiming a university-partnership school in the Hill District will promote segregation.

   Believing a majority of voters wouldn’t want to go into debt to save one building, Mrs. Colaizzi last week proposed a referendum on the issue. But the board ultimately chose to make the decision itself.

   The fallout of the Schenley debate remains unclear.

   At a time when Mr. Roosevelt is trying to sustain community support for a broad range of academic and financial initiatives, the Schenley fight alienated numerous parents, including some who have threatened to pull their children from a district already struggling from plummeting enrollment.

   The debate also conflicted a school board that has strived to remain focused on Mr. Roosevelt’s improvement efforts .

   Schenley’s remaining 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders will attend classes at the Reizenstein building in Shadyside and remain together — as Schenley students — until their classes graduate.

   Future ninth-graders will go to the university-partnership school, a new International Baccalaureate school or Pittsburgh Peabody High School. Assignment will be based on students’ neighborhood or magnet preference.

   Joe Smydo can be reached at jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.

   First published on June 26, 2008 at 12:00 am

5. Children’s Museum still looking to grow

   2:24 pm

   Thursday, June 26, 2008

   By Adrian McCoy,

   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

   At 25, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has grown into a mature nonprofit and community leader — although it’s still all about kids.

   Originally called the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, it was on the leading edge of a wave of children’s museums that began opening around the country in the ’80s.

   The idea for a children’s museum here dates back to 1972, when a group of community leaders established The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum Project — a mobile traveling museum that started at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

   The physical space opened its doors in the basement of the historic North Side post office building in Allegheny Center in June 1983. The Junior League of Pittsburgh got the project off the ground. Two years later, it expanded to the rest of the building, quadrupling its space and housing an exhibit of puppets from the collection of puppeteer Margo Lovelace.

   The ’90s brought other key developments. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation deeded the post office building to the museum. The museum launched several educational outreach programs and hosted its first traveling exhibit — “Kidsbridge.” In 1995, another traveling exhibit built around the works of “Sesame Street” creator Jim Henson set attendance records at the museum. In ’98, the museum created a major traveling exhibit of its own: “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — A Hands-On Exhibit.” There were two traveling versions of the Rogers exhibit. One is now part of the museum’s permanent collection; the other was donated to the New Orleans Children’s Museum in 2007.

   The 21st century also has been a period of ambitious growth. In 2004, the museum expanded again into the former Buhl Planetarium building next door. The museum exceeded its goal in the $28 million capital campaign that funded the expansion, but there were challenges and hurdles, recalls then-board president Anne Lewis, who led the expansion effort and who is now board member emeritus.

   “The long-term vision was always to create a community for kids,” Lewis says. “That meant the entire area needed to be brought back with economic development. We knew we had to become the leader and the catalyst for change.”

   “The expansion allowed us to do things we’ve always dreamed of doing,” says Children’s Museum executive director Jane Werner.

   Increased exhibition space and parking space have raised attendance: This year, the museum set a new attendance record, with a projected 228,000 admissions for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

   “People are looking at the Children’s Museum as a new model of how to do children’s museums,” Werner says. “It’s been really fun to push those boundaries and try different things. We’ve enjoyed working with artists and taking chances.”

   The museum places high priority on designing and building its own exhibits. “In the ’80s, people started to drift away from that and go with outside consultants,” Werner says. “We decided that we really wanted to stay in-house and make sure that our exhibits worked. We’ve gone back to that, and I think people are seeing the value in it.”

   Looking ahead to the future, the museum and its neighboring institutions are poised for new growth. The Children’s Museum is in the middle of a $22 million capital campaign to raise the funds to create a green park space in the plaza area in front of the museum, extending the kid- and family-friendly environment outdoors and creating an example of how urban spaces can be green by using bioswales — landscaping elements that use plants to remove pollutants from runoff.

   The Children’s Museum is also spearheading the Charm Bracelet Project, an effort to link North Side cultural organizations and create a unified cultural district in that neighborhood.

   Lewis is enthusiastic about the museum’s future plans. “You want to bring that experience outside, so that synergy between inside and what’s outside becomes welcoming for kids.”

   Adrian McCoy can be reached at amccoy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865.

   First published on June 26, 2008 at 12:00 am

6. Public Hearing at City of Pittsburgh Council on the Malta Temple City Historic Structure Nomination

   June 25, 2008 5:41 pm

   PREPARED TESTIMONY OF

   ANNE E. NELSON, ESQ.

   GENERAL COUNSEL

   PITTSBURGH HISTORY & LANDMARKS FOUNDATION

   BEFORE THE PITTSBURGH CITY COUNCIL

   PUBLIC HEARING ON THE MALTA TEMPLE

   CITY HISTORIC STRUCTURE NOMINATION

   June 25, 2008

    

   Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation supports the nomination of the Malta Temple Building to be a city-designated historic structure. 

   The former meeting house of the Ancient and Illustrious Order of the Knights of Malta is noteworthy for its historical and architectural character.  Furthermore, the building’s location, as part of the continuous streetscape of the historic North Avenue next door to the Federal North block, which is also significant.  Therefore, the Malta Temple Building should be preserved for the benefit of the residents of Pittsburgh.

   The Salvation Army intends to replace the current structure with a building that is almost identical in style and design to the current structure.  The reason for the new building is that the existing floor plates do not support the services the Salvation Army needs to offer at that location.  Landmarks is currently rehabilitating four historic  buildings in Market Square and has altered the floor plates and interiors to meet the new uses of the building.  This is done with numerous historic properties.

   Landmarks offers its assistance to the Salvation Army in planning to reuse the structure.

    

7. Hot Metal Bridge Lighted

   June 13, 2008 2:19 pm

   PHLF News
   June 13, 2008

   

   

   

   

   Governor Edward G. Rendell, accompanied by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, activated the lighting of the portals of the Hot Metal Bridge, as it is commonly called today, at 8:15 p.m., Thursday, June 12, 2008. 

   

   The ceremony took place at the Steelworkers’ Monument on the South Bank of the Monongahela River.  This was the third bridge decoratively lighted under the auspices of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (Landmarks).  The first was the Smithfield Street Bridge and the second was the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

   

   Actually, the portal lighting decorates the Main Bridge (Monongahela Connecting Railroad Bridge), constructed in 1904 and opened to motor vehicles in 2000. The Hot Metal Bridge of 1900 (opened to bicycles and pedestrians in 2007) replaced the original Hot Metal Bridge of 1887. With the opening of Hot Metal Street in South Side Works, the name “Hot Metal Bridge” is now commonly used to refer to the historic bridge pair that is built on a shared set of piers.

   

   

   Historically, hot metal––iron just smelted in a blast furnace and still close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit—was transported in ladle cars from the blast furnaces on the north shore of Jones & Laughlin’s Pittsburgh Works across the Hot Metal Bridge of 1900 to the Bessemer converters and open-hearth furnaces of the South Side Plant. The Main Bridge of 1904 served the general purposes of the Monongahela Connecting Railroad, including the transportation of steel ingots and slabs.

   The bridge lighting is LED tubular lighting in orange, red, and yellow, suggesting the colors of the hot metal and steel slabs that were once transported across the bridges.

   

   Grenald Waldron Associates of Philadelphia designed the lighting for the bridge as they did for the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  Courtney Sarge was the principal designer. 

   The Governor said, “Grenald has done excellent work once again, we are delighted to see Landmarks utilizing Pennsylvania designers and Pittsburgh contractors for the work that they do with bridge lighting.”

   Funding for the project came primarily from a grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development at the Governor’s request.  That grant totaled $125,000.  Design of the lighting was financed by grants from the Soffer Corporation, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Wellington Power, and Landmarks totaling $12,500. Landmarks also underwrote an additional $15,000 of costs for the project, bringing the total to approximately $150,000.

   
   

   Mayor Ravenstahl pointed out, “This is another fine public-private accomplishment in our goal to make Pittsburgh a uniquely attractive city by capitalizing on our historic assets.  We thank the Governor and Landmarks and our city team for bringing about this excellent result.

   

   Mark Bibro, Chair of Landmarks, said, “We are grateful that we have a governor who understands the significance of lighting these great engineering monuments to promote their continued use and increase tourism.  We are the ‘City of Bridges,’ with 446 bridges (based on the most recent count) within the City limits, and hundreds more throughout Allegheny County.  We must continue this lighting program.

   

   

   

   
   

   Founded in 1964, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation works to identify and save architectural landmarks; revitalize historic neighborhoods; and instill community pride. Visit www.phlf.org or call 412-471-5808 for information about preservation services, educational programs, and membership benefits.

    

    

   # # #

8. Last bell at Schenley: Historic high school closes

   June 11, 2008 3:48 pm

   By Bill Zlatos
   TRIBUNE-REVIEW
   Wednesday, June 11, 2008 

   Students 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.