Category Archive: Historic Properties
-
Carnegie Library repairs pegged at $2M
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, July 3, 2006A lightning bolt that struck the clock tower of the Allegheny Regional branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in April caused at least $2 million in damage to the historic North Side building.
The repair cost will be covered by insurance, library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes said.Library officials have been working with the city, which owns the building and leases it to Carnegie Library, to come up with specifications for repairs. Officials do not know when work will begin. The library has been closed since the lightning strike.
The lighting, which hit the building at 5 Allegheny Square about 8 p.m. April 7, exploded a pyramid-shaped portion at its top, blasting gaping holes in the roof.
A chunk of granite weighing several hundred pounds ripped into the second-floor lecture hall, imbedding itself — point first — in the floor. A piece of stone weighing about 2,000 pounds had to be pulled out of the attic, where it wiped out the building’s heating and cooling system.
Water lines also were damaged, sending a stream cascading through parts of the building. The building was closed at the time, and nobody was injured.Library patrons, who have been without a facility for nearly three months, soon will have access to the library in the Woods Run section, which has been closed for renovations.
“We don’t have an exact date yet. We should be opening (Woods Run) early in July,” Thinnes said.
Library officials have had no luck finding a temporary replacement for the North Side library, Thinnes said.
“We’ve looked at probably 20 buildings, but none of them was suitable,” she said. The space would not have to be as big as the 42,000 square feet that was lost, but it must be wired for Internet use and be accessible to people with physical disabilities.
The Allegheny Regional branch was the fourth most-visited library in the Carnegie network, Thinnes said. Last year, it circulated 76,000 items and had more than 96,000 visits.The branch has about 100,000 items in its collection.
The building also was used to store historic collections, including directories, meeting minutes, photos and newspaper clippings of Allegheny City, a portion of the North Side that existed as a city separate from Pittsburgh until 1906. A private company has been hired to make sure those rare documents are protected, Thinnes said.
Despite the extensive damage to the building, none of the library’s collection was damaged.
The Romanesque-style building, which opened in 1890, was designated a historic landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 1970. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7987.
-
Silence far from golden at Two Mellon Center
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 1, 2006Paulo Costa doesn’t want to move his tailor shop from its first-floor location in the Union Trust building, Downtown.
Not only has the store been his livelihood for 15 years, Costa said, the ornate building — designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling — also reminds him of the Galleria, an architectural landmark in his native Milan, Italy.
“Look, there was a tailor shop right there,” he said Wednesday, pointing to a picture of the Milan building in a book that he has in the store.
Despite Costa’s fondness for the 11-story building — also known as Two Mellon Center — he fears he soon may join the ranks of the ever-dwindling number of tenants in the nearly empty structure at 501 Grant St.
Most tenants face an uncertain future because of what they say has been an almost total lack of communication with the building’s owner — Florida-based DeBartolo Property Group LLC.
“We have heard nothing,” said Costa, adding that he plans to remain until told to leave but doesn’t know when that will be.“We have not heard a peep, (from DeBartolo),” said Rick Conley, owner of Oliver Flowers, who already has decided to move his store by July 1 from the building to the 300 Sixth Avenue Building, Downtown.
Conley said he wanted to stay at Union Trust but gave up awaiting the building’s fate — which has been unclear since the major tenant, Mellon Financial Corp., announced last year that it was leaving the building.
Mellon’s last day as the master lease holder for the building was yesterday. Having occupied about 70 percent of the rentable space under the master lease, Mellon has moved all its people to its three other buildings Downtown — One Mellon Center, 325 William Penn Place and the Mellon Client Services Center.
DeBartolo officials could not be reached for comment in recent days. In September, a company official denied the building would be taken to foreclosure or put up for sheriff’s sale.
“There have been different stories bandied about what could happen, including that it could be going back to the lenders,” said Pat Sentner, of NAI Pittsburgh Commercial, a Downtown-based commercial real estate firm.
Tenants interviewed yesterday said they continue to hear speculation that the building’s mortgage holder — Philadelphia-based health-insurance firm Cigna Corp. — may seek to foreclose on the building or that Cigna or DeBartolo may be soliciting buyers.
A Cigna spokeswoman declined to comment yesterday.
“People said we would be contacted by the new owners, but no one from DeBartolo ever contacted us,” said Randy Sams, manager of A-New-U Avon products store, which closed yesterday. Sams, who said he’s not sure if the company-owned store would reopen elsewhere Downtown, heard reports last year that the structure would be turned into a condominium complex, but nothing ever came of that plan.
Others said they had heard the building might to turned into a multi-use complex that would include a hotel.
“I’m optimistic about the building,” said Tom Michael, president of Larrimor’s, the upscale clothier that occupies a prime corner at Grant Street and Fifth Avenue.
Unlike most tenants, who operated their businesses under sub-leases with Mellon Financial, Michael has a separate, longer-term lease for his store that doesn’t expire until 2010.
“We’re happy to be in the building, and I think this is going to be resolved,” he said.
The building’s owner is Pittsburgh DeBartolo Historic Associates, and the structure’s estimated market value is $30.7 million, according to Allegheny County’s real estate Web site.
The site also shows that about $144,000 in county real estate taxes are unpaid for 2006. County Treasurer John Weinstein said that those taxes, along with about $8,600 in penalty and interest, are delinquent.
“We have fully satisfied our 2006 real estate-tax obligations for Two Mellon Center for both the city and the Pittsburgh School District,” Mellon spokesman Ronald Gruendl said. “We will make our payment to the county, once the ultimate owner for the building is determined and is set to pay the remainder of the county obligation.”
As of yesterday, fewer than 20 retail tenants, either in the first-floor arcade area or the first-sub-basement level, remained in the building, along with a few fourth-floor office tenants.
Outside, signs on some of the store windows told of pending moves to new locations, including that of the Nettleton Shop of Pittsburgh upscale shoe store, which plans to move to One Oxford Centre. Others, such as Betsy Ann Chocolates, gave no indication of plans to close or relocate.
Still other windows reveal vacant store areas inside.
Mellon’s Gruendl said that it his understanding that office tenants will be allowed to remain until the end of June under a temporary lease extension.
As of today those arrangements will be in the hands of DeBartolo, he said.
“Our master lease for the building ends today (Wednesday), so as of Thursday, DeBartolo becomes the landlord for all of the remaining leases,” he said.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
-
Wilmerding group sees chance for renewal
By Jack Markowitz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 24, 2006It’s an old company town with at least half the population gone from the glory days. But the headquarters of the company’s great founder still stands, and as the saying goes, “they don’t build ’em like that anymore.”
The question is, can a new era of civic vitality spring up around what townsfolk call “the Castle?”
That is the situation of Wilmerding, a green-hilled Turtle Creek valley community of 2,200 in eastern Allegheny County. George Westinghouse, inventor and businessman extraordinaire, employed thousands in the town making railroad brakes from the late 1800s. People can still visit the office he used until 1913, with its solid wooden desk and high bay windows.
Wilmerding Renewed Inc. is betting modern professionals will want to be his neighbor, one century removed.
Wilmerding Renewed is a nonprofit corporation of six people who, with no paid staff, are buying the Castle for $750,000 and aiming to raise $4 million over the next two years to put it on a self-sustaining economic basis. They also want to recycle a nearby school for public events, more offices and a private or charter academy. And farther out, to bring new life to rows of historic “company town” houses.
John Gagetta, chairman of Wilmerding Renewed and an energy consultant, says the town was lucky to escape the bulldozers of “redevelopment.” He expects the Castle purchase to close June 30. “We gave ourselves a smaller window than most nonprofits — only eight months — to get this done, and we’re starting with debt,” he said.
Some 75 percent of the building’s 50,000 square feet is being marketed by Aegis Realty Partners Inc. at $14 a year per square foot, including utilities and parking overlooking the town’s central park. The rate easily beats Downtown Pittsburgh. But the ornate onetime home of Westinghouse Air Brake Co. has stone and brick walls six feet thick. Fiber-optic cable can’t get in there, says Joe Tosi, of Aegis. But computers and phones work fine.
The best prospects, Tosi said, are professional offices of 200 to 2,000 square feet that might enjoy free use of elegant 1890s conference rooms. A dozen tenants already are aboard from previous management. Also up and running is a George Westinghouse Memorial Museum rich in artifacts and memories.
The current owner is APICS, acronym for an industrial training foundation in the Washington, D.C., area, whose space needs are shrinking. APICS bought the Castle for $10, a gift from the old Wabco after a merger. It was obviously regarded as a white elephant.
But in this era of blah architecture, castles can live again, says Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. A steel mill is hard to recycle, he said, but an office building “as impressive as this, on an impressive site, has a very good chance.”
Jack Markowitz can be reached at jmarkowitz@tribweb.com
-
Restoration completed on Great Hall at Hartwood
By Jerome L. Sherman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, May 04, 2006Last summer, several tons of molded plaster fell from the ceiling of the Great Hall at Hartwood mansion and crushed dozens of valuable antiques. The debris-filled room, a centerpiece of Allegheny County’s Hartwood Acres Park, resembled the aftermath of a powerful earthquake.
The bizarre incident pushed county Chief Executive Dan Onorato to start devising a wide-ranging plan for funding capital projects in the county’s 12,000 acres of public green space.
Yesterday, he said, was a first step in that process, as he and other officials unveiled an almost fully restored Great Hall, with an exact replica of the room’s Renaissance-style ceiling now in place. The restoration, including repairs of antiques, cost about $260,000 and involved a team of skilled craftsmen.
“This is really the beginning of a lot of park investment that we’re going to be rolling out soon,” Mr. Onorato said.
The chief executive gave few details, but all nine county parks — North, South, Settler’s Cabin, Deer Lakes, Round Hill, Boyce, White Oak, Harrison Hills and Hartwood — are likely to benefit.
Mr. Onorato hopes to use some money from Growing Greener II, a program that will provide $625 million in state funds over the next six years for environmental cleanup and conservation projects throughout Pennsylvania.
A top priority in Allegheny County, Mr. Onorato said, is to find funding for a $7.7 million dredging project in North Park Lake. The federal government had promised to cover the bulk of the cost, but, so far, it hasn’t followed through on that promise.
Mr. Onorato said he has been working with state officials to find the money. He thinks the county will be able to start the project, which would remove 400,000 cubic yards of sediment from the lake, by the end of the year.
The chief executive also said he would soon unveil a plan for raising money from private foundations, corporate entities and individual donors.
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy already taps similar funding sources for the city’s public park system.
A sizeable chunk of the cost for restoration work at Hartwood mansion came from insurance money, county officials said.
The ceiling collapsed on the afternoon of Aug. 11, just 20 minutes after a tour group had passed through the room. Initially, parks officials estimated the ceiling’s total weight to be about 2 tons. But Dan McClelland, of McClelland Plastering, said as many as 6 tons of plaster fell to the floor.
It took him and his employees more than five months to recreate the ceiling at a workshop in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, and affix it to the 20-foot-by-40-foot hole in the mansion’s main hall.
They used pieces of the original ceiling to match molds of elaborate nature patterns. In total, Mr. McClelland’s company created about 700 molds.
The new ceiling is more secure, he said, because it weighs much less than the original and is anchored to the second floor with materials that weren’t available when the mansion was constructed almost 80 years ago.
More than a dozen other contractors helped restore some of the room’s antiques, including a Steinway grand piano from 1901 and an Aeolian pipe organ.
A textile conservator in Ohio is repairing two rare Georgian folding walnut game tables and a 17th-century Flemish tapestry, items worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The 31-room Hartwood mansion, built in the Tudor style of Elizabethan England, was the home of John and Mary Lawrence, who sold it and 400 acres of property in Hampton and Indiana Township to Allegheny County in 1969 for a little more than $1 million.
On Saturday, the Hartwood mansion will be open to the public, at no charge, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some craftsmen will be available to discuss the repairs.
(Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at jsherman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1183. )
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
Preservationists hope UPMC respects history in Baum corridor expansion
By Christopher Snowbeck,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, April 26, 2006The medical giant last month spent $10 million to buy a 91-year-old building at the corner of Baum and Morewood Avenue that was built as a combination assembly plant and showroom for the Ford Motor Co. Preservationists say they’re working with UPMC in hopes that the health system will be mindful of the structure’s historic character in any renovation.
For now, the health system isn’t talking much about its plans for the building, saying only that it “will eventually house programs and personnel from UPMC Shadyside or the Hillman Cancer Center,” said Eric Cartwright, vice president of construction and corporate real estate for UPMC. “If the ultimate use for the building allows it, we will preserve as much as possible.”
UPMC has been active lately in its quest for research space near its hospital in Shadyside.
In January, it spent $1.3 million for property at 5200 Baum Blvd. that is the home to a Boston Market restaurant. Spokeswoman Jane Duffield said there are no immediate plans for the property because the restaurant has a long-term lease.
Last month, Ms. Duffield also said UPMC wanted a 350,000 square-foot- building in the area to “provide for continued rapid growth” of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute’s cancer research program and related biomedical research programs at Pitt and UPMC. Ms. Duffield declined to say whether that building would incorporate the old Ford assembly plant or involve new construction elsewhere on the Baum corridor.
Transforming the area into a center for biomedical research would represent a far cry from its historical roots.
The Ford Motor building was located within blocks of the world’s first company-owned gas service station, operated by Gulf Oil. Nearby, at 4709 Baum, also was a dealership for the old Packard Motor Car — one of many dealers, manufacturers and repair shops that cropped up along the corridor during the early 20th century.
Indeed, the affluence of Pittsburgh’s East End in 1907 could be measured by the approximately 3,000 cars being driven by city residents, said Donald Doherty, the founder of a neuroscience company in Shadyside. He has studied the history of the area and developed a presentation designed to help preserve the Ford building. Many of those automobiles were purchased or tended to along Baum and most of the owners were quite wealthy, he said.
Henry Ford’s plan with the assembly plant he built here was to offer his Model T cars at a reasonable price. The factory on Baum was one of about 28 around the country that would provide the ultimate one-stop car shopping experience — vehicles would be assembled, sold and subsequently serviced all in one building.
Three hundred workers used a vertical feed hand-assembly method to build about 40 Model Ts per day at the Pittsburgh plant, Mr. Doherty said. Assembly operations continued until 1932, and the building remained a Ford sales and parts branch until at least the early 1940s. It was subsequently used as a manufacturing plant for clothier Reidbord Bros. Co. until 1995, and currently houses a PaperMart store.
Annie O’Neill, Post-Gazette
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s plan to make Baum Boulevard in Shadyside a corridor for cancer care and research is running up against the strip’s historical legacy as “automobile row.”All of the Ford buildings were designed by architect John Graham in red brick with large windows and cream terra cotta tile accents. The renovation of a similar building by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for biotechnology labs and companies could serve as an example of what UPMC might do, Mr. Doherty said.
“When you look at the materials used, the details in the design — this is a fabulous building,” he said.
The building “clearly” could qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, said Rob Pfaffman, president of Preservation Pittsburgh. But community groups have refrained from seeking that designation, he said, so that they can work cooperatively with UPMC.
City Councilman Bill Peduto said UPMC initially intended to demolish the building, but he and other community representatives opposed the plan.
“UPMC hasn’t reported back to me on what their goal is for that building,” Mr. Peduto said.
(Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at csnowbeck@post-gazette.com or 412 263-2625.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
Thunderbolt rips library
By Thomas Olson and Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE REVIEW
Sunday, April 9, 2006A ferocious lightning bolt that struck the clock tower of the historic Allegheny Regional branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Friday evening hurled massive chunks of granite through sections of the building’s roof.
The structure, at 5 Allegheny Square, North Side, was the first of 19 public libraries built by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.
A pyramid-shaped portion of the tower’s peak weighing several hundred pounds ripped through the roof of the second-floor lecture hall, imbedding itself — point first — in the floor where speakers typically stand for presentations.
“What’s most amazing is that none of our collection was damaged,” said Barbara Mistik, the Carnegie’s executive director, who was at the library Saturday surveying the damage. “I’d say we were pretty lucky.”
The library has about 60,000 pieces in its active collection and another 100,000 pieces in its archives, she said.
The impact caused steel roof joists to punch through the lecture hall ceiling — one resting inches from a Steinway & Sons baby grand piano, which appeared to escape damage.
Twisted metal lath and sections of galvanized steel air-conditioning duct work hung from the lecture hall ceiling, and plaster dust settled throughout the room.
Right below the lecture hall in the first-floor children’s section, a roughly 3-foot by 5-foot portion of the plaster ceiling crashed to the carpeted floor, scattering debris and dust. Chunks of stone also damaged the wire-reinforced glass skylight above the library’s main room on the first floor.
Nobody was in the building when the lightning struck at about 8 p.m.
By Saturday afternoon, workers had sopped up water from broken pipes and rain that had streamed down a 3-story metal spiral staircase.
The carved granite cornices that adorned the top edges of the clock tower — each weighing a hundred pounds or more — and shards of razor-edged stonework were littered around the outside of the building, some imbedded several inches in the sodden grass.
“We’re bringing in a crane (Sunday) to get above the roof to assess the damage and begin pulling the pieces of granite and other debris out,” said Suzanne Thinnes, a spokeswoman for the library. “We really won’t know how long the library will be closed or how much repairs will cost until we determine the extent of the damage.”
Thinnes said library officials will be meeting with representatives of its insurance company to determine if any of the repairs will be covered.
Customers can return books to the library’s book drop outside the library’s main entrance or to other branches. The closest branch is at 612 Smithfield St., Downtown.
The Romanesque-style building was designated a historic landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 1970. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The library was dedicated in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Pittsburgh foundation controls Bedford Springs Hotel’s future
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Wednesday, March 29, 2006Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is playing a key role in a $90 million renovation and expansion of the historic Bedford Springs Hotel in Bedford County.
The preservationist organization on Pittsburgh’s South Side, which for more than 15 years has been concerned about the fate of the landmark property, has accepted the donation of a conservation easement that ensures preservation of historic elements of the 200-year-old hotel.
“This is an extremely important project as a jobs generator and for economic development in Bedford County,” Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., the foundation’s president, said Tuesday. “In addition, it enables a major historic complex to be restored and go back into service.”
The foundation’s easement allows it to monitor redevelopment of the hotel and “protects the elaborate wooden gingerbread porches on the guest wings and the Greek Revival central building dating from 1829-42.” In addition, it protects an indoor swimming pool wing and a historic golf course.
The Bedford County hotel, whose earliest buildings date to 1806, in former times of elegance served as the summer White House for Pennsylvania’s only native-born president, James Buchanan.
The property, about 100 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, has been closed since 1990. Since then, several plans to resurrect the hotel failed for varied reasons.
But now the easement and historic tax credits available for the renovation are part of a financing plan that helped Bedford Resort Partners Ltd., a group headed by Texas developer Mark Langdale, to proceed.
The credits and tax deductions available through the easement are expected to cover about $19.5 million of the development costs for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2007. As previously reported, the state is providing $24.9 million in redevelopment grants plus a separate $2 million infrastructure grant.
Minneapolis-based investment banker The Marshall Group has put together a consortium of banks for a $38.7 million first mortgage on the property, with Langdale putting in $4.4 million.
Two other important players are Thistle Financial Group, a Westmoreland County-based company that is providing bridge financing, and The Ferchill Group, a Cleveland-based developer that has expertise in similar historic preservation projects.
Landmarks also cooperated with Ferchill in securing easements and tax credits that helped develop the Heinz Lofts luxury apartment complex on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
School fire does little damage at Arsenal Middle School
By Bobby Kerlik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, March 21, 2006The roof of a historic Lawrenceville school caught fire Monday, but children are not expected to miss any classes, Pittsburgh Public Schools officials said.
There were no students in Arsenal Middle School at the time because an after-school program had just ended. The remaining staff were evacuated, and no one was injured, Principal Debra Rucki said.
Firefighters had the one-alarm fire — which started about 4:40 p.m. — extinguished within minutes of arrival. Arson investigators ruled the fire accidental.
A Strip District company, Ralph J. Meyer Co., has been doing work on the school’s roof.
Workers had been using torches earlier in the day, and parts of the roof that were smoldering progressed to flames, arson investigators said.
The fire was contained to the roof. It appeared to cause no damage inside the building, except for water seeping into the top floor, Rucki said.
Materials and equipment, including rubber insulation and propane tanks, sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky, said Pittsburgh fire Battalion Chief Keith Drudy.
“It looked a lot worse than it was,” Drudy said of the fire. “I knew right away when I pulled up and saw the (trash bin). We always have (fire) problems with roofers in general.”
Ralph J. Meyer Co. officials could not be reached for comment.
Worried parents watched firefighters extinguish the flames.
“I’ll be debating to send my kids to school (today),” said April Rocco. “I want to make sure it’s OK.”
District spokeswoman Lynne Turnquist said there will be school today.
Under the right-sizing plan adopted by the school board on Feb. 28, Arsenal, located at Butler and 40th streets, will be converted to an elementary school this fall.
The school is named for the old Allegheny Arsenal, which made armaments during the Civil War. The school, built in 1931, occupies part of the site where the munitions factory once stood. An addition was built in 1939.
The school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It was designated a historic landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation on Nov. 30, 1999, and on Dec. 17 of that year, it was designated a historic structure by the city of Pittsburgh.
Bobby Kerlik can be reached at bkerlik@tribweb.com.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review