Category Archive: Landscapes
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‘Heritage Grant’ Aimed at Preserving Cal U Campus
BILL LIEPINIS
CalTimes
May 1, 2008For many at California University of Pennsylvania, it may seem like the changes of every semester include a new construction project on campus. Whether it’s been the demolition of Binns Hall, Longanecker or Duda Hall, the construction of Carter Hall, Booker Towers and the new Duda Hall, or the renovations of Steele Hall, Vulcan Hall and now Herron Hall, changes have become a part of life for many students, faculty and staff. Even though the campus landscape has drastically changed over the last 10 years, a new grant now backs a project in the works that will help preserve the university’s heritage in the years to come.
The $200,000 grant from the Los Angeles based J. Paul Getty Foundation was awarded to the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation last summer, which will be distributed to preservation projects on the campuses of Seton Hill, Washington & Jefferson and IUP, along with Cal U.
Project Manager and PHLF Landmarks Director of Real Estate and Special Development Projects, Eugene Matta, has been working on project plans for months, and is excited to see the work continue. With a team including an architect, a construction expert, an architectural historian and a landscape designer, Matta explains that the team’s plans are much more than just aesthetic recommendations. “Although their work is historic in nature, they also make recommendations for the future development and maintenance of the campus buildings and landscapes that are consistent with the original concepts but adapted to today’s reality.”
Matta adds that the team will also consider issues that are holding the global spotlight. “Relevant issues of today such as sustainability, health of our ecosystems and the environment in general affect us all, but mostly the young people preparing themselves for tomorrow’s challenges.”
Work on the project started last October, as team members focused on historical research for all four college campuses. The team has already completed some work on California University’s campus, and will continue their visits over the summer and into the fall semester.
As the ‘conservation team’ continues their work on plans to maintain local history on the ever-changing Cal U campus, Eugene Matta hopes that campus-community members will speak out on their opinions and ideas.
The ‘conservation team’ includes historic architect Ellis Schmidlapp, Construction and Rehabilitation expert Tom Keffer and Horticulturist and Landscape Designer Ron Block. If you have any questions, suggestions or would even like to lend some help while team is working on campus, you can contact Project Manager Eugene Matta at 412-471-5808, or email him at eugene@phlf.org
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Tree tenders
By Allison M. Heinrichs
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, April 16, 2008Pittsburgh’s streets are about to become a lot shadier.Officials announced a TreeVitalize Pittsburgh initiative this morning aimed at planting thousands of trees along city streets.“Pittsburgh has started to re-envision itself as a green place, and there’s been a lot of emphasis on green buildings here,” said Marijke Hecht, director of TreeVitalize, a partnership among Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the city, county and state. “But trees are also a vital part of our green infrastructure.”
TreeVitalize, in conjunction with the city’s Shade Tree Commission, planted 15 trees of various origins in Lawrenceville on April 5.
“The truth is that Pittsburgh’s street tree population has been neglected for decades,” said Diana Ames, chair of the Shade Tree Commission. “Prior to the inventory, the last time there was a significant investment in our street tree population was in 1950.”Members of the Shade Tree Commission, which was re-established in 1998 by Mayor Tom Murphy after being dormant for more than 80 years, took a street tree inventory three years ago. Instead of the 45,000 trees they thought were in the city, members said the inventory found 31,000 trees — and 10 percent were dead or diseased.
The Shade Tree Commission outlined an $8 million plan geared toward improving street tree care and tree diversity, but a lack of funds has hampered its efforts.
The commission received help in 2006, when the nonprofit Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest formed. Since then, the group has raised $1 million for pruning and maintenance, trained 80 “tree tenders” and participated in tree plantings. It plans to plant trees at eight Pittsburgh Public schools for Arbor Day next Friday.
“As old trees die or get diseased, we need to constantly be replacing them. There should be a diversity in our tree population,” Friends director Danielle Crumrine said.
TreeVitalize provides young trees suitable for city streets. Some are selected because they won’t grow tall enough to interfere with overhead wires, while others are more tolerant of salt and traffic.
The Friends group brings tree tenders to volunteer at plantings and help make sure trees receive extra care while they’re young.
“The first two to three years of a tree’s life are really important,” Crumrine said. “Having tree tenders on the ground mulching and pruning is critical.”
Ames, who also is Friends’ board president, said the group hopes to establish an endowment to help offset pruning costs when trees get too big for tenders.
City crews have performed the equivalent of $30,000 in work, digging holes to prepare neighborhoods for tree planting, said Dan Sentz, a city environmental planner.
“There are several reasons trees are important,” he said. “It used to be people just looked upon them as aesthetic features, but they’re good for energy conservation, storm water management, air pollution control, and there are also social benefits and property value benefits.”
THE CASE FOR TREESTrees offer several benefits to an urban environment, including:
Cleaner air quality: Leaves filter the air, removing dust and absorbing other pollutants such as carbon dioxide, ozone and sulfur dioxide, and then give off oxygen.
Cleaner water and less polluted run-off: Trees reduce flooding by allowing water to seep into the ground slowly and preventing it from overwhelming sewer systems. According to a University of Georgia study, for every 5 percent of increased tree cover, stormwater is reduced by 2 percent.
Cooling cities: Trees alleviate the effects of heat by shading homes, streets and cars while releasing water vapor that cools hot air. This reduces energy consumption for air conditioning.
Enhanced community life: Trees create shady places for children to play and neighbors to talk, screen unsightly areas and support wildlife.
Increased economic growth: Trees lower energy bills and increase property values. According to a University of Pennsylvania study, trees increase home prices by 9 percent.
Source: Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest
LACK OF DIVERSITYFive types of trees make up the majority of Pittsburgh’s street trees
• Norway maple
• Red maple
• Callery pear
• Littleleaf linden
• London planetree
Source: Davey Resource Group
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached ataheinrichs@tribweb.com or 412-380-5607.
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Steps leading to Panther Hollow fixed
By Richard Byrne Reilly
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 1, 2008A flight of steps leading from Anderson Playground to Panther Hollow in Schenley Park is ready for walking.
“The steps were made of sandstone, and over the years had become deteriorated and dislodged. It wasn’t safe to use them,” said Phil Gruszka, director of parks management and maintenance at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.
The work was completed by the conservancy and the city’s Department of Public Works. The $33,000 cost was picked up by a donor.
Panther Hollow includes 80 acres of trails, streams, woodlands and a lake in Oakland. Bikers and runners can frequently be seen using the series of trails that crisscross the park.
Repairing the steps is just one phase of a larger project in which the conservancy and volunteers restore other areas of the park, including removing non-native species that have disturbed the area’s ecology, and grading trails that have been washed out by storms. That project is expected to take several years.
Workers will construct a wildflower meadow adjacent to the Schenley Park pool. The meadow will help absorb excess rain and stop erosion that flows down the slope during rain, Gruszka said.
Fixing the steps “makes a major trail connector safe and usable,” Gruszka said.
Richard Byrne Reilly can be reached at rreilly@tribweb.com or 412-380-5625.
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Getty II – Campus Heritage Grants, 2007
Eugene Matta
PHLF News
March 7, 2008Under the auspices of the J. Paul Getty Foundation’s Campus Heritage Grants 2007 program, conservation work continues at California University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Seton Hill University and Washington & Jefferson College.
PHLF’s team of experts includes a historic architect, horticulturist and landscape designer, architectural historian, and an expert in the construction and rehabilitation of historic buildings.
The work is further supported by PHLF’s administrative staff including its Information Officer and Project Manager.
The collection of four colleges, which includes two private colleges and two public universities, is a significant cross section of the cultural and architectural history of Western Pennsylvania’s academic heritage.
Preservation plans for these institutions are being completed with significant participation by the academic and local communities and will broaden the understanding of the importance of these regional resources and spread the preservation and conservation message throughout the region.
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RiverWalk makes old new again
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 12, 2008Having one of the nation’s leading advocacy groups for environmentally friendly “green building” as a new tenant means a lot to Mark Stephen Bibro.
He’s general manager of RiverWalk Corporate Centre, a massive, 102-year-old complex on Pittsburgh’s South Side — for years known as the Terminal Buildings.
The Green Building Alliance is scheduled to open its headquarters there at the end of this month, putting a deeper stamp on the transformation of the nearly 1-million-square-foot complex, once said to be the largest warehouse between New York and Chicago.
“People walk in — particularly those who have not been here for a long time — and expect to see an old warehouse, but when they open the door, their first comment generally is, ‘Wow,’ ” said Bibro.
Since he took over day-to-day management duties about seven years ago, the tenant roster has swelled from about 25 to more than 90, bringing occupancy to 75 percent.
That includes many non-warehouse-type tenants, such as the Green Building Alliance, which intends to make its offices a showcase for recycled materials and other sustainable products.“It really has a lot of important features for us,” said Jeaneen A. Zappa, deputy director of the Alliance. “It’s a historic building and it allows us to show that green building can be done in an existing space and not just a new building, which is a common misconception.”
“We have high-tech, low-tech and no-tech,” said Bibro, whose late father was one of a group of tenants and friends of local businessman Dan Lackner that bought the complex in 1963. The building, designed by architect Charles Bickle, opened in 1906 as a state-of-the-art warehouse, modeled after the Cupples Station in St. Louis.
Although the Lackner family’s Paper Products Co., a distributor, is still the largest tenant, with 170,000 square feet, the complex is populated by a diverse mix of companies.
“We have 14 other nonprofits, four commercial printers, four architects, a sculptor and yoga and martial arts studios,” Bibro said.
In addition, there are companies such as high-tech artificial lung device manufacturer A-Lung Technologies Inc., and a group of other creative types such as Steelcoast, a creative agency that provides marketing and communications services to its clients.
“We wanted raw warehouse space, and this was exactly what we were looking for,” said Scott Bowlin, principal and creative designer for the firm, which has a staff of 11 in its 2,500-square-foot space.
“We wanted a distinctive look, and we were able to create that here,” he said of Steelcoast’s office, whose decorative touches include a nonworking gasoline pump and old-fashioned telephone booth.
“This is 1 million square feet, so you can have a sculptor on the same floor as A-Lung, and on the same floor with an architect,” said Bibro. “We also just brought in a paint studio. You can put those all in the same building, and they don’t contradict. They really complement one another.”
Efforts to transform the complex took two different tracks, according to Bibro.
First, a multimillion-dollar renovation upgraded mechanical systems and fire alarm equipment and addressed accessibility issues that weren’t dealt with 100 years ago, he said.
Next came an effort to change image.
“Our image used to be as a good location, but also a truck terminal, dirty, with storage and materials, and trucks going in and out all the time,” he said. “So even though the building was cleaned, and the windows were new, and we no longer had trailer trucks moving in and out, it took people actually coming here for events to say this place is great.”
One initiative that helped was to invite nonprofit groups to hold their monthly board meetings there, and that started the word spreading, he said.
Then, organizations such as the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America and the Visiting Nurses Foundation took advantage of Bibro’s offer for free use of a vacant 60,000-square-foot space on the top (sixth) floor to stage fundraising and other larger events.
That brought thousands of people into the building who had never seen it before, he said.
“SteelCoast is an example of a company that came to an event just because they wanted to support a charity, and they told me a few months later that their goal was to eventually move into our building,” Bibro said.
“Now the building hums 24/7 because all these young techies and other people here work that way,” he said. “You come here at 2 o’clock in the morning and there are always 10 companies working on a project or something like that.”
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907
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Onorato preps new parks organization
By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 14, 2008Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato charged the new county Parks Foundation with repairing and maximizing the potential of 12,014 acres of park land.
“I’m glad that we’re finally here at this point,” Onorato told board members Wednesday at the nonprofit’s first meeting. “We are talking about rethinking the whole park system.”The foundation, formed in September to help clean up county parks while privatizing some operations, includes a dozen members representing regional groups and businesses — from the University of Pittsburgh and the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group to Mascaro Construction Co. and U.S. Steel.
Onorato budgeted $1 million to get the group running and find its executive director. An additional $10 million is available as matching dollars for projects and deferred maintenance the county has neglected for the better part of 30 years.
“It’s a huge number,” Onorato said. “We’ll start picking it off project by project.”
The board’s first projects will address North Park’s boat house, the stables at Hartwood Acres, the South Park fairgrounds and Boyce Park’s activity center, Onorato has said.The idea of forming a park foundation dates back to at least 1998, and was endorsed by then-Chief Executive Jim Roddey and County Council around 2002.
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, a city entity similar to what Onorato has created for the county, has tended to Schenley, Frick, Highland and Riverview parks for several years.
North Park, at 3,000 acres, is the county’s largest park and nearly seven times larger than Schenley Park.
Justin Vellucci can be reached at jvellucci@tribweb.com or 412-320-7847
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Riverfront Park closed to proposals for statues
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 5, 2008A moratorium on new public art and memorials in North Shore Riverfront Park leaves two 93-year-old bronze sculptures without a home.
The city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority voted Monday to stop considering proposals for sculptures and memorials to be placed in the park, which runs along the Ohio and Allegheny rivers from the Carnegie Science Center to the Ninth Street Bridge.
SEA Executive Director Mary Conturo said the master plan for the park calls for some of the land to remain as untouched “green space.”
Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, wants to place in the park two sculptures that once sat on the entrances to the former Manchester Bridge.
“We would still like to see the portal sculptures from the Manchester Bridge located somewhere near there, as has been discussed,” Ziegler said. “I think it’s still something that should be considered.”
The Manchester Bridge was removed in 1970. The 13-by-37-foot sculptures that sat on it commemorated steel and coal workers, explorers and American Indians.
Three memorials and a public art sculpture sit on the mile-long North Shore Riverfront Park. The memorials honor law enforcement officials, Vietnam War veterans and Korean War veterans. The sculpture near the Carnegie Science Center is “Langley Observatory Clock” by artist R.M. Fischer.
Memorials to World War II veterans and the late children’s television host Fred Rogers are in the works. Once finished there will be six sculptures in the park.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or 412-765-2312.
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East Enders, city officials to talk about doomed trees
By Tim Puko
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 8, 2008The city is offering an olive branch to dozens of East End residents running a grassroots effort to preserve thousands of neighborhood trees.
Public works officials and the executive director of a Pittsburgh environmental group will attend a community meeting Thursday in Squirrel Hill to discuss a plan to trim the city’s tree population. A contractor took a tree inventory in 2005 and the city followed its recommendations by removing about 1,000 dead and defective trees last year, said Public Works Director Guy Costa.
Several Squirrel Hill residents have tried since November to press the city for more information and delay more removals. The city plans to remove 3,075 street-side trees, more than 500 of them in Squirrel Hill and other 14th Ward neighborhoods, this year.
“We’re concerned for the city, not just for our block,” said Francesca Savoia, a University of Pittsburgh professor and Monitor Street resident. “We think this massive elimination of trees may have a devastating impact on the quality of the air, especially if there is no clear plan, no money to replace them.”
Savoia and about two dozen neighbors started meeting and contacting city officials and local community groups after the city sent out postcards alerting them to upcoming tree removals. In addition to air quality, they’re concerned about a potential drop in property values, insufficient money to replace the trees and a lack of honesty from officials, Savoia said.
The 14th Ward has the most trees in the city — 5,993, according to a database created by Davey Resource Group, the Ohio contractor that did the 2005 study.
Savoia is hopeful the meeting at The Children’s Institute in Squirrel Hill will attract 70 people. Costa said he and Deputy Director Mike Gable will be there.
“I’m not against cutting down all the trees that are dead, that definitely represent a risk … but I would like to understand if all of these trees need to be felled,” Savoia said.
They do, according to the city, the environmental group Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest, and Davey Resource Group. The trees to be removed are dead, small, poorly formed, have damage that costs too much to fix or come from an “undesirable or inferior species” such as the tree-of-heaven or white mulberry, as determined by Davey.
The city has allocated $2.3 million for their removal. Some of the trees are among the city’s oldest and have branches vulnerable to breaking during storms, said Danielle Crumrine, executive director of Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.
“There’s a risk that they will fall down and injure somebody,” Costa said. “Now we know they’re a liability for the city, so we need to be proactive and have them removed.”
City Councilman Doug Shields, who represents much of the 14th Ward, said residents likely don’t recall a meeting three years ago about the plan. He wants to get the word out again, and in a better way.
“All of a sudden, the tree-cutting crew shows up on the street and people get upset,” he said. “I think we’ve got to do a much better job telling the story of what it is we’re actually doing and remind people we had this study done, remind people there are issues of public safety involved in this as well.”
Crumrine’s group is helping with tree pruning, and is one of several groups helping to raise about $1.25 million for planting through 2011, Costa said. The city wants to plant 4,200 trees, which would more than replenish the population.
Tim Puko can be reached at tpuko@tribweb.com or 412-320-7975.