Category Archive: Landscapes
-
North Side gets behind Commons cause
By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, September 14, 2007The North Side’s Allegheny Commons — designated as public grazing lands a year before George Washington became the nation’s first president — today celebrates a small but significant first step in a proposed $16 million revitalization guided by a master plan.
A four-acre parcel at the southwest corner of East Ohio Street and Cedar Avenue has undergone $400,000 of upgrades, part of a pilot project demonstrating improvements that could come for the 80-acre West Park.
“This is a way for us to take a section of the park and do a whole lot of improvements and see how it looks,” said Christina Schmidlapp, part-time development director of the project since 2004, working from the offices of the Northside Leadership Conference.
“It will be a living advertisement of what we want to do, and for us to see if it makes sense for us to make a park like they did in the 19th century.”
Located a quarter-mile from the Allegheny River across from Downtown, the green space was designated as public grazing lands, or commons, surrounding the borough of Allegheny in 1788, according to the Allegheny Commons Steering Committee. It was beautified as a park for Allegheny City in 1868, annexed to Pittsburgh 40 years later and incorporated into the city’s park system. Allegheny Commons is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and is a city historic district.
Community groups in 1999 convened a public meeting to discuss upgrading the park, and by 2002 other stakeholders — including Allegheny General Hospital, the Aviary and the Children’s Museum — helped develop a master plan. Local businesses, including insurance company Babb Inc., the Steelers and Citizens Bank, helped to fund the salary of Schmidlapp, who will move into a money-raising mode. Alida Baker will become project director.
Money for the improvement has come from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Buhl Foundation, and the city Public Works Department, which provided $200,000 and labor to rebuild walking paths and upgrade lighting. The planting of 70 trees and other landscape care in the park was paid for by the Laurel Foundation, the Allegheny Foundation and the Garden Club of Allegheny County.
Walking through the park on a brilliant September afternoon, Tonia Davis said Thursday she has noticed the improvement in the five years since she moved to East Allegheny Commons. The park is better maintained and has become a gathering spot for children’s parties.
“It’s a beautiful place,” said Davis, a home health worker and part-time Wendy’s restaurant staffer. “When I moved here, it was nothing but drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs. I didn’t want to come out of my house. I’m proud to live here now.”
A ceremony is scheduled in the park at 4 p.m. today. The master plan can be found at www.pittsburghnorthside.com.
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.
-
Private-public partnership resurrects old Bedford getaway
By Jack Markowitz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 9, 2007They’re using the word “miracle” around Bedford these days.
It’s a nod to the revival — after 22 years of near-death experience — of the Bedford Springs Resort, the venerable vacation spot with gleaming front porches that seem to go forever and a history that stretches back 203 years.Presidents slept there. But a glorious past can carry a hotel only so far if everything else is falling apart. The “Springs’ ” new owners, a half-dozen sophisticated investors from out of state, have bet $120 million that this piece of the past has a future.
They see a very modern aggravation — airport delays and hassles — nudging upscale Easterners to do their vacations and conferences, weddings and weekends, closer to home. Within two or three hours’ easy driving from Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia, in fact.
In that market area of millions, Bedford Springs means to compete with the best. Namely, the Greenbrier in West Virginia, the Homestead in Virginia and other high-prestige — and high priced — watering places for the well-heeled and the politically and corporately influential.
So look for weekday room rates of $249 a night and up ($350 on weekends), golf rounds at $105 for hotel guests, $115 for drive-ins ($70 after 3 p.m.), and sumptuous but pricey breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Not to mention concierges, valet parking, masseuses and white-gloved bellmen.
None of which would have been possible without the help of taxpayers.
Some $40 million in state and federal help has lifted the grand dame of Keystone State travel destinations to its legs again. “The hotel is probably better than it has ever been,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, which helped in the rescue.
“She sat there empty and forlorn for 22 years,” says Bedford historian-architect Bill Defibaugh. “I expected every day to get a call, ‘They’re tearing her down.’ ”
It all goes to show what money can do. Plus vision, patience, taste and, well, tax dollars.
Here’s one item. To give a new generation of guests an unspoiled view — and no noise, fumes or trucks, across elegant lawns and gardens — a half-mile of U.S. Route 220 was relocated behind the hotel. The traffic is now in a deep, $11 million highway cut that never would have happened without friends in Harrisburg and Washington.
Still, someone had to bring money. His own.
Meet Mark Langdale, 53, of Dallas. He’s the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, a friend and appointee of President Bush, and a real estate investor. From afar, he spotted a then-dying, dust-gathering hotel a decade ago. And never let up gathering partners, political allies and financial tools.
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks (which saved Station Square in its home city decades ago) threw a big life ring. It acquired the hotel’s outside. Right — just the outside.
That’s the historic facade of tall columns, old glass and white porches — the building’s skin. History and Landmarks legally owns all that by way of an “easement,” a legal contract by which the historic look of a National Historic Landmark should never be lost.
By giving up the easement, Langdale and his group, Bedford Resort Partners, acquired a $23 million federal income-tax credit aimed at historic preservation. Then they sold that as a market investment to Chevron, the California oil giant, to put into the reconstruction. As many as 400 skilled tradespeople have reworked the property for almost two years.
Result: The hotel, some of it dating from 1804, is practically new inside — in a stronger outside. The four-story architectural wedding cake lies four miles south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Bedford interchange, just outside the 3,500-population county seat.
“Basically, we took the hotel back to the structure,” says Keith Evans, managing partner of Bedford Resort Partners, who oversaw the big fix. An associate jokes: “Keith said, ‘Take it upside down and everything that falls is gone. So we have new walls, new floors, ceilings, heating, plumbing and air-conditioning.”
Evans said it’s fair to say the place was “gutted.” To make larger guest rooms, now 216 of them (vs. 721 at the giant Greenbrier and 486 at the Homestead), walls were knocked down and about 60 old rooms sacrificed. Deteriorated timber was replaced by steel beams. Great white outdoor columns were sent to Altoona and Scranton for $75,000 rebuilds. But century-old, wavy window glass was kept; 19th century brides etched initials in it with their wedding diamonds.
“This ceiling was just hanging down,” said Cheryl Funk, marketing director, of the top-floor ballroom (capacity 300) three floors up from a soaring lobby of angled stairs and footbridges. Five restaurants, a huge kitchen (and several satellite kitchens), an antique-rich library, porches with painted rocking chairs — What would a grand old hotel be without them? — and long vistas of furniture and decor keep visitors walking and gawking.
More than a half-dozen presidents have visited the place, including Pennsylvania’s own James Buchanan, who used it as a summer White House before the Civil War. Others on the register included Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan (while California governor).
The first post-revival wedding was in late August with 225 guests. Extra help was sent in by Texas-based Benchmark Hospitality International, contract operator of this resort and more than 30 others. The first new guests in a generation arrived July 12 without any “grand opening.” It seemed more important to get 275 resort employees up to speed for a “world-class destination luxury resort.” That’s the goal, not an easy one.
The Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and the Homestead, in Hot Springs, Va., plus Nemacolin Woodlands in Fayette County and the Hotel Hershey near Harrisburg are viewed as the elite competition for individuals, corporate meetings, special events and, hopefully, congressional and other government retreats.
“The luxury segment is one part of our industry that’s continued to grow,” said Todd Gillespie, Bedford Springs’ vice president of marketing and sales. He said four groups already are signed for 2008 — and one as far out as 2011.
No numbers are being released, but “we’re very optimistic about the early results,” Evans says. “Bookings have been very good.”
Word-of-mouth from the hard-to-please can be elusive. An early guest from Rochester, N.Y., told a reporter the new staff isn’t four-star yet. “It’s beautiful around here, but they’ve got to get the kinks out,” she said.
But Helen Ferry, Dorothy Ritchey and Marcia Davis, all from small Bedford area towns, thought the restoration exciting and the food “delicious.” They bused in on a senior citizens weekday tour with buffet lunch (fare: $26.50). “Before they started working on it,” Ferry says, “you’d come up here and think somebody dropped a bomb.”
A new “spa” wing has been built for body-pamperers, with guest rooms topping $300 a night. The outdoor-pool complex overlooks a first-rate view: the restored 18-hole golf course that occupies a valley between hills veined with hiking trails. Bringing the 6,785-yard golf course back to the 1924 Donald Ross design was an $8.5 million labor. Look for serpentine bunkers, tufted hillocks, wetlands, wildflowers and meandering Shober’s Run.
Restoration work in the hotel aims for the high-ceilinged look of the resort’s pre-World War I heyday around 1905. But underpinning the charm are amenities geared to at least a half-decade in the future, Gillespie said: elegantly tiled bathrooms, iPod docking stations and high-definition flat-screen TVs behind the doors of antique-looking chests.
And, of course, year-round occupancy. The old hotel closed in winters.
Historian Defibaugh, whose antique photos decorate the long corridors, said Bedford folks never quite lost hope after the hotel’s depressing 1986 shutdown. “Developers came in with high hopes but very little money,” he said.
Wonderful what a major investment will do, though. Along Pitt Street, downtown Bedford’s main stem, merchants see signs of contagious rebirth. “I know three businesses that say they would not have opened had it not been for the Springs,” says Kim Foreman, owner of the Green Harvest Co., a cafe and bakery.
“I’m planning a third fitting room, the weekends have become so busy,” says Elaine Housel, owner of Elaine’s Wearable Art, a clothing and jewelry retailer. “Women on vacation can only sit around for so long. They’re coming to town to shop.”
There are reports of higher home prices around Bedford, but Todd May, at Johnson Real Estate, cites a “certain amount of speculation on business properties in town,” retirement-home buying by Baltimoreans, who like the lower housing costs across the Pennsylvania border, and some new industries opening.
Sharyn Maust, managing editor of the Bedford Gazette, says of the hotel’s revival: “Obviously it’s great, but I like old buildings.” Some of her readers have written angry letters, disapproving of public funds going to entertain wealthy out-of-towners. “In effect they’re saying ‘I’ll never see any benefit from this,’ ” Maust says.
At this point, the resort is no bonanza for local and school tax collectors. It’s cocooned in its own state-delineated “Keystone Opportunity Zone.”
That’s a sweetener for investors. It was laid out when the idled hotel was desperately seeking a savior in 2001. Thanks to the Opportunity Zone, no real estate or personal property tax has to be paid for 10 years, through 2010. The hit wouldn’t be heavy in any case. Annual real estate tax only would be about $32,000. That’s on a laughably low assessed value of $394,000 and “fair market value” of $2.3 million. Considering all that’s been invested, a future shock seems inevitable.
The resort’s new owners number six partners: Langdale, Evans and John Ferchill, head of the Ferchill Group, of Cleveland, and three of his associates. Ferchill is a veteran developer of historic properties, like 99 percent-occupied Heinz Lofts on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Here’s how $120 million was put together, according to Timm Judson, chief investment officer of Felcher. Owners’ equity of $10 million; historic tax credit of $23 million, the History and Landmarks easement; $28 million in state grants under the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program; another $11 million in PennDOT funds for highway relocation; a $40 million senior mortgage held by Marshall Investment Group, of Minneapolis; and a $9 million second mortgage by Hudson Realty Capital, of New York.
Using public funds to subsidize private enterprises is a perennial issue for debate. State and federal laws favor it for historic property. But well-placed friends help.
Two lawmakers have long backed efforts to keep Bedford Springs alive: U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Everett (and his father, former Rep. Bud Shuster, a kingpin among public works promoters in Congress), and former state Sen. Robert Jubelirer, R-Altoona, who lost a re-election bid after helping to engineer an the since-rescinded legislative pay increase in 2005.
The Ferchill Group’s Judson says there’s no way the resort’s revival could have happened without the state’s $40 million-odd input (in grants and PennDOT funds), a third of the total cost.
Says Evans: “Many people tried for a long time to get it done and they couldn’t. The state had a great treasure that had not been open for 20 years, and it now has a viable new employer bringing in tourist dollars that did not exist before.”
Pittsburgh Landmarks’ Ziegler agrees — when it comes to the architecturally irreplaceable: “It’s so hard to do these buildings on a market basis,” he said. “As for subsidizing, it just couldn’t be done without it. And keep in mind, these owners have their own money in. They have a mortgage. I think it’s little short of a miracle.”
The competition
The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
250 miles south of Pittsburgh and southwest of Washington, D.C.
• Acreage: 6,500.
• Opened: 1778.
• Rooms: 721, including suites, guest houses.
• Rates: Per night : traditional room, $379 to $489. Higher level rooms, suites: $529 to $900.
• Golf courses: Three, per player round: $195, after Oct. 21, $130.
• Fact bites: 26 presidents have visited. A $50 million renovation completed last April. 112,000-square-foot underground bunker can be toured. Built “top secret” for Congress in case of Cold War blowup, it was never used.
• Details: 1-800-624-6070, www.greenbrier.com.
The Homestead, Hot Springs, Va.
250 miles south of Pittsburgh, 210 miles west of Washington, D.C.
• Acreage: 3,000.
• Opened: 1766.
• Rooms: 483, including suites
• Rates: Per night, $225 to $450; with meal packages, $310-535; golf packages, $620 to $1,120.
• Golf courses: Three, rounds per player depending on course, $120 to $245.
• Fact bites: 23 presidents have visited. Golfer Sam Snead had early experience as a pro here. Spa massages at $150, $220 for 50-minute and 80-minute rubs respectively.
• Details: 1-800-838-1766, www.thehomestead.com.
Bedford Springs Resort, Bedford, Pa.
100 miles east of Pittsburgh, 135 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
• Acreage: 2,200.
• Opened: 1804 (on spring property purchased 1796).
• Rooms: 216.
• Rates: Introductory rates per night: $249 up.
• Golf courses: One, 18-hole round per player, $115, $70 twilight (after 3 p.m.)
• Fact bites: Seven presidents (some say nine) have visited. A 36-star flag behind registration desk flew at Civil War’s end. Indoor pool in a classic 1905 Grecian “temple” is spring-fed, heated.
• Details: 1-866-623-8176, www.bedfordspringsresort.com.
Contractors
A partial list of Pennsylvania “midwives” to the rebirth of Bedford Springs:
Reynolds Construction Inc., Harrisburg, general contractor; Miller Electric Construction Inc., Allison Park, electrical systems; G.N. McCrossin Co., Bellefonte, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and foundation of the spa wing; Rob-Bern Associates Inc., West Mifflin, carpentry; W.G. Tomko & Sons Inc., Finleyville, plumbing; L.R. Constanzo Co., Scranton, windows and columns; Hemlock Hills Landscaping Co., Altoona, interior landscaping (flower boxes, potted trees etc.).
Jack Markowitz can be reached at jmarkowitz@tribweb.com.
-
Bedford Springs course put back on map
By Rick Starr
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, July 22, 2007Many golf courses would be proud to claim either Donald Ross or A.W. Tillinghast as its designer. Bedford Springs Resort Old Course displays the work of both architects from the “Golden Age” of golf course design.
The classic 18-hole course, which just reopened for public play, offers a rare chance to not just study their hole designs, but play them.
Bedford Springs is back on the golf destination map following a $120 million renovation and restoration of the links and 216-room hotel by Bedford Resort Partners, Ltd.
Green fees range from $110 to $135.
The resort reopened July 12 after being closed for almost two decades. It was virtually abandoned in 1986, just two years after the Department of the Interior designated its hotel and spa as a National Historic Landmark.
Located about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, Bedford Springs Old Course now welcomes a new generation of golfers.
While the hotel dates to 1804 (Vice President Aaron Burr was one of its original guests), golf didn’t arrive on the scene until 1895.
Spencer Oldham built the original 18-hole layout, complete with geometric designs such as the S-curve and donut bunkers, which have been restored on the third hole.
In 1912, while cutting it back to a nine-hole layout, Tillinghast designed a classic little 130-yard par-3 hole (now the 14th hole) which he named “Tiny Tim.”
Ross kept “Tiny Tim” intact when he redesigned the course in 1923. Even Ross couldn’t improve on Tillinghast’s use of mounding, wetlands, a creek, pond and tight bunkering on the short hole.
“Tiny Tim” stretches from 108 to 138 yards, and Tillinghast later wrote about the 13 little mounds on the left, referring to them as the “Alps.”
Bedford Springs superintendent David Swartzel said Ross’ work is obvious on holes No. 4 through 9, which follow the flood plain of Shober’s Run, one of the states Gold Medal trout streams.
“We created a lot of habitat for trout during our construction,” Swartzel said.
While only 6,785 yards from the back tees, Bedford Springs Old Course features five par-5 holes, and five par-3 holes.
The signature par-4 sixth hole, known as Ross’ Cathedral, is cut out of a deep stand of oak and hickory.
“You could pick that hole up and put it down in Ashville, N.C., and you wouldn’t know the difference,” Bedford Springs golf pro Ron Leporati said. “Beautiful is the only word to describe it.”
Architect Ron Forse, whose Forse Design team specializes in golf course restorations, rebuilt every course feature at Bedford Springs, from the bunkers to the bent grass fairways, greens and tees.
“It’s all new, but it’s not a new style of architecture,” Swartzel said.
Forse also reinstated Ross’ original closing holes, which had been replaced by a driving range.
Bedford Springs is the 37th Ross design and 11th Tillinghast layout which Forse has restored.
“These strategic courses are forever enjoyable for every golfer’s ability,” Forse said.
About Donald Ross
No course designer had a greater impact on the American golf landscape in the first half of the last century than Donald Ross.Born in 1872 in the north Sottish coastal town of Dornoch, he arrived in the United States in 1899 to build the Oakley Golf Club near Boston.
Before his death in 1948, Ross built or designed 413 courses, and his work still can be seen across New England, the midwest, and southeast coast.
Over 100 national championships have been played on his courses.
Courses considered to be among his best include Pinehurst No. 2 in Pinehurst, N.C., Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Mich., Inverness Club in Toledo, Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y., and Seminole in North Palm Beach, Fla.
Given the constraints of train and car travel, Ross never saw some of his courses. He did many designs from topographic maps and blueprints which he studied in his cottage behind the third green at Pinehurst.
As Ross often said, “Golf should be a pleasure, not a penance.”
Design features
Following is a list of design features which Ross repeated in many of his golf courses:• Very little walking required from one green to the next tee.
• Short par-4s built on uphill ground.
• False fronts and openings to the front of greens to invite run-up shots.
• Fallaway slopes next to greens.
• Deep trouble over the green to punish bold golfers.
• Greens (pushup construction) sloped with the terrain for drainage.
• Subtle breaks hidden in greens.
Source: Donald Ross Society
Local connections
Following is a list of area courses designed in whole or in part by Donald Ross:• Edgewood Country Club
When Ross designed the 18-hole layout for the private club in 1921, he had to factor in the typical hilly terrain near Pittsburgh.
A total of 13 holes have drop offs behind or alongside the greens.
Edgewood, which was founded in 1898 as one of the first golf clubs in the country, took advantage of its 100th anniversary to go back to many of Ross’ original designs.
Ross’ work clearly can be seen in Edgewood’s par-3 12th hole. A slightly uphill tee shot of about 175 yards must clear the false front of the green and find the right level, or bogey quickly comes into play.
“Once you get to the green, that’s when the strokes happen,” Edgewood pro Pete Micklewright said. “It’s really a classic Donald Ross design.”
Arthur Hills redesigned the areas around Edgewood’s clubhouse in 1990.
• Immergrun Golf Course
The public course in Loretto is owned and operated by St. Francis University and has never been redesigned since Ross built it in 1917. The nine-hole layout was built as part of industrialist Charles M. Schwab’s estate. He attended the college before moving on to become president of Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.
Golfers interested in playing a Ross design can pick up a bargain here – it’s only $8 for a walking round on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Rumors abound at Immergrun, but it’s not true Ross designed it for a left-handed golfer. (It’s true Schwab kept champagne cool in the spring house beside the ninth green, where he would pause with guests before finishing the round.)
• Rolling Rock Club
The private club near Ligonier was originally a nine-hole course designed by Ross in 1917.
Brian Silva designed nine new holes in 1997.
The course is not overly long – Ross’ front nine measures 3,066 yards – but makes up for it with its greens.
In typical Ross fashion, the greens are fast, well contoured and difficult to lag.
“I’d put our greens up against any in the country,” assistant pro Stephen Witcoski said.
Rolling Rock’s par-3 third hole features another Ross signature – hidden bunkers. The three massive bunkers are not visible from the tee.
More info: www.donaldrosssociety.org
Rick Starr can be reached at rstarr@tribweb.com or (724) 226-4691.
-
4 schools in region to share preservation grant
By Mary Pickels
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, July 20, 2007Four area schools of higher education will share in a $200,000 Getty Foundation grant aimed at preserving the individual campuses’ historic buildings and landscapes.
Each of the four schools — Seton Hill University, Washington & Jefferson College, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and California University of Pennsylvania — also contributed $10,000 to the effort.The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation announced the Campus Heritage grant. A foundation team will begin studying the schools this month, concluding in March 2009.
“The benefit is they get a very complete analysis of their historic buildings,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Even if they are in perfect condition, they get a plan for future maintenance; recommendations for restoration; disability (improvements); and landscaping — down to how to prune a bush properly that might have been there 50 years.”
The individual reports, Ziegler said, can assist the schools with fund-raising to implement specific plans.
According to the Getty Foundation Web site, each of the schools exhibits a range of design in its academic buildings, distinctive campus planning and landscapes, and individual structures that represent American architectural history both locally and nationally.“They all have historic buildings, and/-or historic landscapes,” Ziegler said. “They are small in size, not likely to apply individually. And they are within easy travel distance for our team. And they were very cooperative. … We went to several and said: ‘In our view, you would qualify.’ These four were very enthusiastic.”
Seton Hill’s winding entrance drive is lined by 80 sycamore trees that are 100 years old, spokeswoman Becca Baker said. She called its historic buildings “a campus treasure.”
“Once we receive the conservation plan for Seton Hill — which will detail the PHLF’s recommendations for the preservation, conservation and continued use of our historic buildings — we plan to incorporate the recommendations into our campus master plan,” Baker said.
McMillan Hall, built in 1793, and Old Main, built in 1836, are Washington & Jefferson College’s flagship buildings, said Kristen Gurdin, director of foundation and legal affairs. McMillan Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“One of the unique features of Old Main is that it has two towers,” Gurdin said.
After the Civil War, Washington College and Jefferson College united because of the loss of student soldiers. The towers represent the two schools.
“One of the benefits (of the study) will be the strategic assessment of the campus all at one time,” Gurdin said.
IUP’s Sutton Hall and Breezedale Alumni Center, and California’s Old Main, are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places — a consideration in their candidacies for the Getty grant, Ziegler said.
“During this final year of the Campus Heritage initiative,” said Getty Foundation Director Deborah Marrow in a news release, “we are pleased to fund the preservation planning for four of Pennsylvania’s historically important campuses.”
Two years ago, a similar grant was awarded to Allegheny College, Geneva College, Slippery Rock University and Grove City College. The earlier round of grants included funding from the Allegheny Foundation, said Ziegler.
Mary Pickels can be reached at mpickels@tribweb.com or (724) 836-5401.
-
Dormont rejects developing park site
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 7, 2007Some Dormont residents and borough officials said Tuesday they’re happy that plans were scrapped for commercial development on land occupied by the community’s park and pool.
“I am pleased to have this behind us,” said John Maggio, president of Friends of Dormont Pool, a group formed last year to raise money to repair the 87-year-old landmark.“The people overwhelmingly did not want development in their park,” Maggio said. “This was about putting a strip mall in a park that has the whole history of our community in it.”
Late Monday, borough council voted unexpectedly and unanimously to end consideration of two proposals in which developers would have paid for community recreational facilities in exchange for commercial development rights.
One developer offered to renovate Dormont Pool in exchange for putting townhouses and retail space in the park. Another offered to build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
Mayor Thomas Lloyd urged council to put the matter to rest Monday.
“I did not want this hanging over us,” Lloyd said yesterday. “There has been too much animosity over this issue, so hopefully, this will no longer be the focus of every council meeting.”
Since January, when residents learned that Lloyd, borough manager George Zboyovsky and council President Linda Kitchen had been meeting with developers interested in the park land, opponents of such projects have packed council meetings.
Last month, Craig Cozza of Cozza Enterprises Inc., of Squirrel Hill, presented his plan, which included retail development on the Dormont Pool site. Jim Aiello of JRA Development Inc., of Lawrenceville, proposed restoring the pool and using land elsewhere in the park for residential and retail purposes.
Neither responded to messages left yesterday.
The vote comes after a year of public agitation over the future of the aging 1.85-acre pool, which needs extensive repair work. Friends of Dormont Pool has raised about $30,000 to pay for the work, estimated to cost $1 million.
Ending discussion about development doesn’t end discussion about how to fix the pool, said Councilwoman Ann Conlin, who opposed commercial development in the park.
Later this month, council members will meet with representatives of Wade Associates Inc., a Harrisburg pool consulting firm the borough hired to study restoration options, she said.
Rick Wills can be reached at rwills@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7123.
-
‘We want the park to stay a park’
By Brian C. Rittmeyer
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, March 5, 2007Dormont residents rallied in winter conditions Sunday in hopes of saving a summertime favorite.
Efforts once aimed at saving the borough’s landmark pool are now set on saving the whole of Dormont Park from the threat of development.“We want to raise awareness and let council know we don’t want them to develop our park,” said Dormont resident Sarann Fisher. “We want the park to stay a park. We don’t want them to develop the park into retail or more residential.”
The roughly 75 protesters who made their way from the pool parking lot to Banksville Road found support from passing motorists, who honked their horns in response to their signs and chants of “Honk your horn, save our park.” They’re expected to take their fight to the Dormont Council meeting at 7:30 tonight at the borough building.
Two developers have made park proposals. One would renovate the 87-year-old pool in exchange for permission to build townhouses and retail buildings in the park. The other would build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
Opponents want the 25-acre park to stay as it is, and they want efforts to repair the pool to continue.
“We don’t need a strip mall down here,” said John Maggio, president of Friends of the Dormont Pool. “We’re hoping they’ll get the message.”
Karen Gottschall, 40, carried a sign saying “No Walgreens,” which is rumored to be an anchor of a proposed development.
“We need more green space, not less,” she said. “The park is the jewel of Dormont.”
“It’s not about the pool anymore. It’s about the park. They want to pave over our park,” she said. “The developers don’t want to save our park. They want to make money. That’s what they want to do, and they want our land to do it. Our council, unfortunately, might let them.”
The pool remains a focus, however. Pete Popowicz, 57, boasted of the 15 pool passes he had on his car and compared the pool to the likes of Kennywood in stature.
“Even though it’s winter now, we talk about how much the pool means to us in the summer,” 12-year-old Samantha Fisher said as snow swirled about her. “It means so much to me. I’d risk coming down here in the middle of a blizzard just to save this place.”
Donna Rosleck, 68, said the park is a landmark, where her family picnics and her two grandsons come to swim and play.
“I don’t want to see the property sold and the swimming pool go,” she said. “If they take all the property, the kids don’t have any place to go in Dormont.”
This is not the first time Dormont residents have rallied to preserve the park. Fifty years ago, residents fought off a plan to build apartments on the land, said Jim Rutledge, 79, a lifelong borough resident.
Rutledge said he’s confident the latest development proposal can be defeated, too.
Brian C. Rittmeyer can be reached at brittmeyer@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7108.
-
Support sought for ‘pure’ Dormont park
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, March 2, 2007Opponents of opening Dormont Park and its landmark 1920s-era pool to private developers will stage a rally Sunday amid fears that borough officials’ consideration of development is undermining efforts to raise money for pool restoration.
“It’s very hard to raise funds when people think the pool might be bulldozed next year,” John Maggio, president of Friends of the Dormont Pool, said Thursday. “Council is being disingenuous and sending mixed messages.”One developer would renovate the borough’s landmark 87-year-old pool in exchange for the ability to do townhouse and retail development in the park. The other would build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
The rally will be at 2 p.m. in the pool’s parking lot at Banksville Road and Dormont Avenue.
So far, the group has raised about $30,000 for refurbishing the pool, Maggio said.
Since last year, the borough has received $287,000 from the state and Allegheny County, money Maggio says could be in jeopardy if the park is opened to development.
Raising suspicions
The council’s next voting meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the borough building, 1444 Hillsdale Ave. Borough Manager George Zboyovsky said there are no plans to vote immediately on development proposals.
Still, others are wary of the council’s intentions.
“They have been deceptive every step of the way, so we are very suspicious about what council plans,” said Gary Young, chairman of the Dormont Republican Party. He said he plans to file a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office about borough officials’ dealings with developers Cozza Enterprises Inc., of Squirrel Hill, and JRA Development Inc., of Lawrenceville.
“The council did not follow any kind of process here,” said Young, who faults borough officials for meeting privately with developers and failing to take competitive bids for the project.
The two developers, who made public presentations last month, previously made several presentations to Dormont Mayor Thomas Lloyd, council President Linda Kitchen and Zboyovsky. Other council members said they did not know about the private meetings.
Defending the actions
Thomas Ayoob, the borough’s solicitor, said that the meetings were not improper and no bids have been taken.
“There have been no secret meetings, and no bids have been made or solicited,” he said. “And the general public knows about the two proposals.”
Young, Councilwoman Ann Conlin and others question Ayoob’s representation of Cozza in another development project.
“This just looks awful, whether it’s legal or not. The solicitor should have the best interest of borough, council and citizens at heart, which he does not,” Conlin said.
Ayoob said there would be no conflict unless Cozza’s proposal is picked.
“I have offered no legal advice to borough or Mr. Cozza on this matter,” Ayoob said. “It’s an attempt to raise issues where there are none.”
Rick Wills can be reached at rwills@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7123.
-
Prestigious award may park in Mellon Square
By Allison M. Heinrichs
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, January 20, 2007An unassuming, peaceful piece of green in the heart of Downtown has support from a national historic landscape expert to be honored as a landmark, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has announced.
Mellon Square — a block of green dotted with fountains and sculptures near the Mellon Bank Building — should be given National Historic Landmark status as the oldest-surviving park above a parking garage, said Charles Birnbaum, founder of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington.
“Think about the green roof movement in America. This came before that,” Birnbaum said. “Think about the American fascination with the automobile in post-war America. This fed off that.
“Think about the civic-minded vision that the Mellons had: This is part of the city’s civic philanthropy.”
On Feb. 1, Birnbaum will be at The Pittsburgh Golf Club in Squirrel Hill to discuss Mellon Square’s eligibility for the national designation. His visit is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, which is considering to sponsor Mellon Square for National Historic Landmark status.
“We feel the space is very elegant,” said Meg Cheever, president of the conservancy. “Sometimes we take for granted what is in our own backyard.”
Mellon Square was designed by landscape architect John Ormsbee Simonds, of Kilbuck, who died in 2005. He also designed Equitable Plaza and Crawford Square — all in Western Pennsylvania — and the Chicago Botanical Gardens.
Work on the park started in 1948 and was finished in 1951.
Birnbaum said he is optimistic about Mellon Square’s chances of getting National Historic Landmark status because very little has been changed there.
Simonds directed the park’s restoration in the early 1990s — staying true to his original vision for the park, which he described as “a platform, a structure, an island, a space, a focal center, a civic monument, a gathering place and an oasis,” according to Birnbaum.
John Scholl, a senior principal at Environmental Planning & Design — a Downtown firm that Simonds founded — said Simonds would have appreciated Mellon Square getting landmark status.
“I think it’s very much appropriate, and I’m sure John would be delighted,” Scholl said.
Officials with the National Park Service would evaluate Mellon Square, based on its significance to national history and how much of its original design still exists, said national parks historian Caridad de la Vega. Usually landmarks must be at least 50 years old to get the designation.
“It’s an involved process; there are a lot of steps. You can’t just say: ‘I want to be a landmark,’ and become one,” de la Vega said.
The process usually takes about two years. If Mellon Square gets the designation, it would be among a select few.
“National historic landmarks number about 2,600 or so in America, and it is the highest honor in the U.S.,” Birnbaum said. “Of that, only 50 or so have significance in landscape architecture — so you’re talking about a very elite group.”
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached at aheinrichs@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5607.