Category Archive: Historic Properties
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Vote on closing Schenley High School delayed
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 21, 2008City schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said he delayed a vote on closing Schenley High School to give supporters time to raise money to fix it and to study if it would be cheaper in the long run to repair the structure.
“We think it is indeed worth the time and exploration,” Roosevelt told members of the school board at Wednesday’s agenda review meeting. “It does not imply a decision has been made either way.”
Roosevelt said the district is studying whether it would be more cost-effective to fix Schenley because of its sturdy construction compared to a more recent building that might not last as long.
The Oakland school has 1,086 students and was built in 1916. Roosevelt last year recommended closing Schenley because of the $64.3 million cost of renovating it and removing its asbestos.
The board yesterday discussed his proposal to make a couple of moves he believes necessary whether Schenley is permanently closed or temporarily shut down for repairs.
Those actions, to be voted on Feb. 27, involve moving Schenley students in grades 10 through 12 to Reizenstein in East Liberty in the fall. At the same time, the 174 students in the robotics technology program at Schenley would be relocated to Peabody High School in East Liberty.
Ninth-graders from Schenley’s feeder pattern would go to a University Prep School at Milliones in the Hill District. Eventually Milliones would expand to a grade 6-12 school.
Ninth-graders in the International Baccalaureate and international studies programs, both of which are at Schenley, would go to Frick School in Oakland.
Board member Sherry Hazuda questioned whether it would make more sense to keep Schenley open while fixing it as opposed to shutting it down.
Richard Fellers, chief operations officer, warned that fixing Schenley while leaving part of the school open could endanger students from falling plaster.
“We think it would be cost-effective, faster and removes the health risk” to close the building, he said.
At one point, Roosevelt and board member Mark Brentley became involved in a heated exchange when Brentley criticized the move of black students from the Hill District to Milliones.
“We take very seriously our obligation to better serve kids that the data tell us are not doing well off,” Roosevelt said.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Millions could go to revamp landmark Union Trust Building
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 19, 2008An investment group that paid $24.1 million to buy the ornate Union Trust Building plans to spend “several million dollars” more to bring the landmark structure back to life.
The group, led by executives of the Mika Realty Group in Los Angeles, promises to refurbish the nearly empty, block-long structure at 501 Grant St., Downtown, and restock its 595,000-plus square feet of rentable space with new office and retail tenants.
“We really want to bring something wonderful to the city. This is a once-in-a-lifetime location. The building is irreplaceable, so we want to get it right,” said Rick Barreca, CEO of Mika Realty.
“I’d like to see a retail bank come into the ground floor, and I’d like to see a nice restaurant,” said Barreca. “We want to have a mix that everybody in the building will be able to take advantage of, and that people in the surrounding area will be happy to come to.”
Hopes are that Larrimor’s, the upscale clothing retailer that occupies a prominent corner at Grant Street and Fifth Avenue, will continue its long relationship with the building, he said.
Barreca is one of the investors in the group headed Michael Kamen, founder of privately held Mika, and a business associate, Gerson Fox of Los Angeles.They’ve hired the Pittsburgh-area architectural firm of Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates to design the upgrade.
Plans are to clean the building’s facade and install new exterior lighting, signage and new windows on the ground level retail area that rings the building, topping them with decorative glass awnings. The building would get its first on-site parking with 60 new spaces planned on one of its two sub-basement levels accessible from William Penn Place.
Planned lobby improvements include a new security desk, benches and a new lighting package to brighten space underneath the colorful rotunda. Lighting will highlight ceiling mosaic tiles and stained glass above several building entry points.
“We’re working with a historic consultant on the exterior to be careful not to disturb any of the historic features,” Kosar said.
“We’re also looking at adding new artwork and possibly some displays that could be changed seasonally, Barreca said.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is happy with Mika’s plans for the building, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the South Side preservationist organization. The foundation has offered to work with the developers to help them secure historic tax credits for some of the renovation work, if the group decides to pursue them, he said.
Designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the building opened in 1917 as the Union Arcade, an upscale, indoor mall with 238 shops and more than 700 office tenants.
In 1922, it came to be owned by Union Trust Co., and after a 1946 merger, by Mellon National Bank and Trust Co., predecessor to Mellon Financial Corp., now Bank of New York Mellon.
Mellon decided to vacate its substantial presence in the building in May 2006 and DeBartolo Property Group LLC, the owner since 1984, stopped aggressive efforts to keep other tenants, leaving it in its present state.
It eventually defaulted on its mortgage, and ownership passed to Philadelphia-based insurance firm Cigna Corp., holder of the loan.
Chances to fill the building’s office space have likely improved thanks to a recent tightening of the Downtown office market. And interest in both the office and retail space has been high, said Jeffrey Ackerman, a commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh.
Ackerman represented Cigna in a nationwide marketing effort to find a buyer for the building and brokered the deal with the purchasing group.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Vandergrift’s Grant Avenue dusts off charm
By Francine Garrone
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Saturday, February 16, 2008Once dotted with awnings and marquee store signs, Grant Avenue in Vandergrift proved to be the place to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Today, it’s turn-of-the-20th-century charm and historic facades have fallen victim to perhaps-misguided modernization. Vacant storefronts leave many buildings vulnerable to water damage or even cave-ins.
But through the efforts of the Vandergrift Improvement Program and state grants, Grant Avenue is beginning to return to the look it had during the time of soda fountains and 75 cent movies.
VIP has applied to the state Department of Community and Economic Development for a third year of funding for its Main Street Program.
If the non-profit, grassroots organization is seeking a $45,000 state grant.
“The Main Street Program is a tremendous help and enabled the VIP to begin,” said VIP Main Street manager Shaun Yurcaba. “It has given us the foundation to start down the road to rebirth.”
In 2006, VIP received its first $5,000 from the Main Street Program.
Yurcaba said the money was used to set up an office on Grant Avenue.
Last year, VIP received another $50,000. That paid for operational expenses such as rent, insurance, utilities, and Yurcaba’s hiring. The rest went to programs such as meetings and the real estate breakfast.
“There was not much left over,” Yurcaba said.
If VIP continues to apply for funding beyond this year, it will be eligible to receive $40,000 in 2009 and $35,000 in 2010.
However, there are annual requirements that the organization has to meet in order to receive the state grants, including raising some of its own money.
In order to get the $45,000 from the state this year, VIP had to raise $15,000, she said, which it has done.
In fact, VIP has raised more than $17,000. The remaining $2,000 will go toward next year.
“We did a pledge drive initially and had commitments from the community in various pledge amounts,” she said. “The community has been really supportive in following up with pledges.”
The Main Street Program grant has pushed VIP to reach out further for additional funding in bettering the community.
VIP received a $120,000 Facade Improvement Grant that allows $30,000 in state funding over a four-year period. The grant enables business owners to make improvements to their facades by being awarded half of the cost of the improvement up to $10,000. Anything above that cost would come out of pocket.
“We want to work with them in the projects they are doing,” Yurcaba said. “The money can be used for anything dealing with preserving history to enhancing and restoring the downtown business district, which is also a historic district.”
Vandergrift is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the architect of New York’s Central Park and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Vandergrift was a planned community founded by George G. McMurtry, president of the Apollo Iron and Steel Co., Apollo. It was named after Capt. J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel mill.
At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Vandergrift won two gold medals for best town design.
Yurcaba said the Vandergrift Improvement Program has established a name that they hope will continue to provide revitalization efforts to the community.
“The goal is, through the years, to become more and more self-sustaining as an organization,” she said. “But that will only happen through public and private funding and volunteer assistance.”
Francine Garrone can be reached at fgarrone@tribweb.com or 724-226-4701.
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Group to save landmarks
By SARAH WEBER
Erie Times News
February 11, 2008Driving past the site of the old Koehler Brewery pains many area residents who remember the landmark that once stood there.
To Chris Magoc, the Koehler building represented a part of Erie’s heritage that is now lost to future generations.
He said the question now is how to prevent other landmarks from meeting a similar fate.
The Mercyhurst College history professor and about 20 other people have formed a group called the Erie Center for Design and Preservation to help protect Erie’s historical places.
“This is really about trying to cultivate a preservation ethic for this region,” Magoc said.
He said he secured a small grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in summer that helped the group form a board of directors and some long-term goals.
The ECDP does not plan to focus on a single historical landmark, Magoc said, but all historical places in the area, including barns and houses in the county and buildings in the city.
“It’s is about city and regional pride,” Magoc said. “It’s about what makes Erie, Erie.”
He said one of the group’s goals is to educate the community and government leaders about the benefits of rehabilitating historical buildings. On May 9, he said, the group will host Arthur Ziegler, the president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, one of the most successful preservation groups in the U.S.
“The places in the country that have created an infrastructure for preserving these places have seen the economic fruits of that,” Magoc said.
He said Erie could be more attractive to tourists by harnessing its heritage, and would also benefit the environment by rehabilitating old buildings instead of building new ones.
A key point of the group’s success, Magoc said, will be partnering with lawmakers and community members to foster a commitment to historical sites.
Magoc said the group plans to fund itself through grants, donations and membership fees, which are not yet determined.
“I know there are people in Erie who care about the community,” Magoc said. “I think we can count on a pretty good groundswell here.”
For more information about the group or to donate, call Magoc at 824-2075 or e-mail him at cmagoc@mercyhurst.edu.
SARAH WEBER can be reached at 870-1854 or sarah.weber@timesnews.com
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Union Trust sale a done deal
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 7, 2008The sale of the historic Union Trust Building, Downtown, was completed Wednesday to principals of Mika Realty Group of Los Angeles.
Purchase price for the ornate, 11-story building that covers a full block of Grant Street, was $24.1 million, according to documents filed with the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds office.
The purchase was expected to be completed last week. It was delayed because of the complicated nature of the transaction, said Jeffery Ackerman, commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, who negotiated the deal.
The new owners intend to restore the grandeur of the building that was designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The buyers were not available for comment yesterday.
The group, which includes Michael Kamen, founder of privately held Mika, and a business associate, Gerson Fox, also of Los Angeles, plans to continue using the structure as an office building and to attract a mix of upscale retail tenants to the first level.
The sale price was about $6 million below its $30.75 million market value, including land, as listed in public records. But local real estate experts said it was not a bargain-basement deal, noting that the building is nearly empty with the exception of a few retail tenants on the first floor.
“It’s a beautiful building with a lot of character,” said Jim Geiger, senior vice president with Grant Street Associates-Cushman & Wakefield, a Downtown commercial real estate firm. “It has a lot of things going for it, but it will be a challenge to fill the office space in light of today’s office market.”
Seller of the building at 501 Grant St. was Teal Rock 501 Grant Street LP, a unit of Cigna Corp. of Philadelphia.
Cigna has controlled the property since 2006, when it assumed ownership from long-time owner, Florida-based DeBartolo Property Group LLC, which defaulted on a mortgage held by Cigna.
The building ran into trouble after Mellon Financial Corp., its major tenant, relocated employees to other buildings Downtown in May 2006, and most other tenants followed suit due to uncertainties with their leases.
For the buyer, the purchase price, which works out to about $40.50 per square foot based on the 595,000-square-feet of leasable space in the building, is lower than it would cost to try to duplicate such a grand structure in the city, said Ned Doran, of GVA Oxford, the commercial leasing arm of Oxford Development Co.
Questions to be determined are how much they will spend to upgrade the building and their ability to attract tenants, Doran said.
Ackerman has said a number of large office users and retail prospects already have looked at the building.
The purchase was welcomed by Tom Michael, who owns upscale Larrimor’s clothing store in the building, the largest remaining retail tenant. Michael said he had talked to Michael Kamen of Mika recently.
“We are optimistic about moving forward and filling the building with quality tenants,” said Michael. “They have a large plan in the works for the building.”
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907
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Cinema fans preserve local old-school movie houses
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 7, 2008When an opportunity to buy the movie theater she used to frequent as a child came up six years ago, Meg Burkardt and two friends jumped at the chance.
Burkardt, Cyndi Yount and Marc Serrao, all of Penn Hills, bought the Oaks Theater in Oakmont with one goal in mind: preserving a dying breed.
“This is definitely a labor of love,” Burkardt said.
The Oaks has avoided the fate of most of the neighborhood movie theaters that once dotted this area’s towns.
“This is an area where you had a lot of Main Streets, and many of them had a theater. One of the main casualties on Main Street has been the theaters,” said Al Tannler, director of collections at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The Oaks, which opened in 1938 and seats 430, “rounds out the community,” said Bob Cooper, president of the Oakmont Chamber of Commerce.Interest in preserving old movie houses has grown over the past decade.
The Denis Theater in Mt. Lebanon, which has been closed for about 20 years, was bought by newly elected Commissioner D. Raja, who is studying how best to use the building.
The Strand in Zelienople will reopen later this year after a $1 million face-lift, said its owner, Ron Carter, 40, of Cranberry, who plans to eventually convert the theater into a performing arts center. The theater opened in 1914 as a silent movie house and vaudeville theater.
The Web site Cinema Treasures was launched eight years ago to help preserve movie theaters. The site links “movie theater owners and enthusiasts in an effort to help save the last remaining movie palaces across the country.”
In the early days, movie theaters would open at 10 a.m. and close at 11 p.m., said Michael Aronson, assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon and author of a soon-to-be-released book on the early days of movies in Pittsburgh.
“Some people would go after work. It was an alternative to going to the saloon,” he said.
The social aspect of going to the movies made them stand out, Aronson said. “It wasn’t just what was on the screen.”
Today, neighborhood movie theaters are luring customers with lower ticket and concession stand prices.
The January reopening of the Hollywood Theater in Dormont has added an extra draw to the business district, attracting patrons to nearby Potomac Avenue and its restaurants, merchants said.
The Bradley Center, an agency serving children with mental, emotional and developmental disabilities, reopened the 300-seat Hollywood for second-run films.
Dan Bahur, 50, of Pleasant Hills got his start in the “movie biz” as an usher when he was 16.
“My friends were working at theaters and I got a job. I got sucked in and never left,” said Bahur, manager of the Hollywood, where he worked 20 years ago. He came back when he heard the theater was reopening.
The theater, which opened in 1933, has undergone extensive renovations to its lobby and projection booth. The theater is Dolby-digital capable and has new seats.
“We have a really good theater here. We have an awesome place to see a movie in,” Bahur said. ” ‘Ben Hur’ on a 19-inch screen is a lot different than on a 30-foot-screen.”
The Hollywood has been a hit with neighbors.
“It’s so nice to have a theater in your neighborhood. A lot of people walk to it,” said John Maggio of Dormont. With its single screen, “you don’t hear other movies in the other rooms.”
The Ambridge Family Theater got its start in the late 1960s in a former sewing machine store.
“This is a great little business. It’s not going to make us wealthy by any means,” said Glenda Cockrum, who bought the theater with her husband, Rick, about 10 years ago.
The theater is involved in the community, and often hosts Scout troops or high school groups. Cockrum said she was bitten by the “movie bug” while working as an assistant manager for Carmike Cinema.
Her own theater is a little smaller. It seats 134.
“We used to have four movie theaters in Ambridge. This is the only one left,” said Mayor Carl “Buzzy” Notarianni, who saw “Serpico” and “The Ten Commandments” at the theater.
It’s a family operation. Cockrum handles booking, advertising, painting and the box office. Her husband is the projectionist, plumber, electrician, computer programmer and bookkeeper.
For the Cockrums, who have four children, simple economics dictated their plans to buy the theater.
“It was cheaper to buy the theater than to take the kids to the movies each week,” Glenda Cockrum said with a laugh.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.
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Sale of Union Trust Building completed for $24.1 million
By Sam Spatter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 6, 2008The historic Union Trust Building in Downtown Pittsburgh has been sold.
Mika Realty Group of Los Angeles completed the previously announced purchase of the 11-story building from Teal Rock 501 Grant Street LP, a unit of Cigna Corp. of Philadelphia, on Tuesday for $24.1 million.The purchase, through Mika’s Five 501 Grant St. Partners LLC, was recorded today at the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds offfice.
The new owner will continue to use the building for offices, plus first floor retail, said Jeffrey Ackerman, commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, who negotiated the sale.
Efforts will be made by Ackerman and Jeremy Kronman, also of CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, to locate tenants for the 800,000-square-foot building which is nearly empty, except for several retail tenants on the ground level.
Previously known as Two Mellon Bank Center, the building was designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F. J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick.
Sam Spatter can be reached at sspatter@tribweb.com or 412-320-7843.
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Tale of two buildings: Different countries, but similar styles
Sunday, February 3, 2008
By Mike Filey,
TORONTO SUNA quick look at the two photos that accompany this article might lead the reader to think they are of the same building viewed from different angles.
But on closer inspection, it’s obvious they are two totally different structures. One shows the Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh, Pa., while the other is of what we now call “old” City Hall in the heart of our city. The former was constructed from 1883-88, while construction of the latter began in 1889 and took a decade to complete.
The fact that the two buildings are similar in appearance should not come as a surprise since the architect of the Toronto building, Edward James Lennox, was inspired by the work of well-known American architect Henry Hobson Richardson.
In fact, Lennox often made trips south of the border to see various Richardson projects created in a style that had become known internationally as Richardson Romanesque. A couple of those buildings were in nearby Buffalo, N.Y., but it was Richardson’s Allegheny County Courthouse that caught Lennox’s eye.
The young Toronto architect unabashedly used many of its architectural elements in his design for what was initially planned as Toronto’s new combination courthouse/city hall.
Today, the Pittsburgh building is still being used for its original purpose, that of a courthouse. And although Lennox’s building was initially planned to serve as both Toronto’s new city hall and a courthouse for the County of York, it actually served only a single purpose, that of Toronto’s City Hall, from the day it opened in the fall of 1899 until our new City Hall opened across Bay St. 66 years later.
The project began to take shape in 1884 when Lennox proposed replacing the old county courthouse on Adelaide St. E. with a new one at a cost of $400,000. Nothing happened.
In a second report presented to council three years later, Lennox estimated the cost of the new courthouse would now be $690,000. He also introduced the idea of building a new city hall at a cost of $570,000 to replace the old, outdated one at Front and Jarvis. He then went on to suggest that the city could save money by combining the two uses, courthouse and city hall, under one roof. This building could be built for approximately $1 million , thereby saving the taxpayer a nifty $260,000.
More discussions ensued and it wasn’t until 1889 that work on the dual purpose structure — the cost of which had by now escalated to $1,650,000 — actually began. The completion date was set for January 1893.
Progress was slow, painfully slow, with architect Lennox blaming the general contractor for the hold-ups. The delays prompted the following comment in the May 30, 1895 edition of the Globe newspaper: “It is gratifying to note that there has been as yet no fatal accidents attending the building of the new (municipal building) project although several employees have become incapacitated through old age.”
Eventually, and in an effort to get the project back on track, Lennox fired the contactor and assumed full control himself. By now the cost had mushroomed to $2 million. Four more years of work followed and when Mayor John Shaw officially opened the building on Sept.18, 1899, the cost of the long drawn-out project had risen to more than $3 million.
Interestingly, when it did open it was as Toronto’s new city hall with the county courthouse remaining ensconced in its ancient (1852-53) building on Adelaide St. E. It appears that county and city officials couldn’t agree on what proportion of the total building cost each would pay.
Among the invited guests on opening day was the proud yet frustrated architect, Edward James Lennox. Proud because his creation had become one of the continent’s architectural wonders; frustrated at the criticism he faced from the politicians and the newspapers over the building’s final cost.
And the architect’s frustration continued to grow as the city officials refused to pay the various bills he had submitted for the 15 years of work he had undertaken on the constantly changing project. The amount he billed the city totaled exactly $269,658. Of that, a mere 25% was for actual architectural work. The remaining amount covered all the extra work Lennox was forced to undertake himself once work had commenced on the new building.
The arguments over just how much of that bill the city would pay lasted for years and it wasn’t until January 1912, almost 13 years after Mayor Shaw officially opened Toronto’s wonderful new city hall, that architect/contractor Lennox, fed up with the whole matter, accepted the city’s offer of $121,615 — an amount that was less than half of what he requested