Category Archive: Neighborhood Development
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Historic status for ex-factory site crumbling
By Sandra Tolliver
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 24, 2004The owner of the former Nabisco bakery in East Liberty has asked the city to withdraw a nomination to designate the building a historic site because the property owner was not party to the request.
The Historic Review Commission bylaws, however, say a nomination can be withdrawn only by the nominator, although a building’s owner has the right to speak at a public hearing.Both the Regional Industrial Development Corp. (RIDC), which owns the building, and the Young Preservationists, which nominated it for city historic status, will send representatives to the commission’s July 7 meeting.
Robert Stephenson, president of RIDC, said historian Lu Donnelly should have contacted his organization to discuss the idea before nominating the former Nabisco factory. Donnelly filed the nomination on behalf of the Young Preservationists as a member of the group’s advisory board.
“I think it’s very rude for people to take it upon themselves, without discussion, to go forth and make a nomination like that,” Stephenson said.
In a June 14 letter to the city’s Department of Planning, the RIDC president had asked the historic-preservation staff to withdraw the nomination.
“We certainly weren’t trying to ruffle anybody’s feathers,” said Deborah Gross, vice chair of the Young Preservationists.
She said the organization still believes the Nabisco plant is a valuable part of Pittsburgh’s history.
“It’s significant architecturally. It’s significant in terms of national industrial history,” Gross said. “It’s certainly a visual landmark and a real place-making piece of architecture for the East End.”
Nabisco built the factory in 1918 and operated it until 1998. A second operator, Bake-Line Group, reopened the plant as a bakery for four years but closed it in March.
RIDC — a private, nonprofit economic-development corporation — continues to evaluate proposals for the building’s re-use, Stephenson said.
“We’re trying to do something with the property, and it will be done in a first-class, quality fashion,” Stephenson said, declining to comment on specifics of any proposals. “The bakery concept is still being somewhat looked at.”
Historic designation by the city does not affect a building’s use but does require approval by the Historic Review Commission if a property owner wants to alter a building’s exterior, change signage or demolish a building.
Sandra Tolliver can be reached at stolliver@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7840.
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Historic status sought for Nabisco
By Sandra Tolliver
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, June 14, 2004As factories go, the Nabisco bakery in East Liberty was a trend-setter, built to advertise the quality of the packaged cookies and crackers that helped foster America’s fondness for convenience foods.
The brown brick building, with Mellon Park as its front lawn, dominates two blocks in East Liberty. It is a neighborhood landmark that provided thousands of Pittsburghers with careers before its closing by Nabisco in 1998 and, after a four-year revival by Bake-Line Group, again this spring.Now the Young Preservationists Association has nominated the building for historic designation by the city’s Historic Review Commission. The structure is part of Pittsburgh’s industrial past and stirs sentimental memories for residents who awoke to the smell of cookies baking, one group member said.
“When Nabisco was there, I’d walk out of my house in the mornings and go, ‘Wow, if only the whole city could smell like this,'” said Miriam Meislick, who lived a block away. “You’d walk around hungry all day.”
The designation must be approved by the city’s Historic Review Commission and Planning Department, along with city council. Though the nomination has just been filed, Maria Thomas Burgwin, of the Planning Department’s historic preservation staff, said the factory meets five of the 10 criteria for historic structures. It must meet only one in order to qualify for the designation. If the designation were approved, the Nabisco plant would join 68 other buildings designated as historic by the city.
“Most buildings like this are just overlooked. We take them for granted. When there’s been a lot of extra thought and detail put into a building like this, we should notice,” said Lu Donnelly, a historian and adviser to the Young Preservationists.
The Regional Industrial Development Corp. bought the building after Nabisco’s departure and does not want historic designation to limit its options for the site, said Bill Widdoes, project manager.
“If for some reason there’s a use or proposed use that comes in that requires the building to be demolished, it would prohibit that,” Widdoes said. “We don’t have any such plans now, but if that kind of use comes along, we couldn’t pursue that. Right now, we need all our options.”
Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, said his organization supports the Nabisco nomination.
“It’s a handsome plant, in a prime location, and we are very much hoping that a new use will be found for it,” Ziegler said. “The listing would at least give us all a chance to comment on future plans and draw public attention to it.”
National Biscuit Company built its Pittsburgh plant in 1918 as part of a nationwide expansion that followed successful branding of its products. Nabisco hired an in-house architect because the company’s president, Adolphus Green, wanted his factories to have style and dignity that would inspire worker loyalty, Donnelly said.
Architect Albert G. Zimmermann’s Nabisco designs were featured in American Architect magazine in 1912 and 1916.
“If you think about factories at that time period, most of them were big, red brick mill buildings with no decorative style, just utilitarian,” Donnelly said.
The Nabisco plant had showers and locker rooms for employees, fireproof stairways, and large windows providing natural light. The original building stands seven stories, with two eight-story towers. Additions were built in 1928 and 1948.
The factory is among dozens of buildings in Western Pennsylvania identified by the Young Preservationists as potentially historic. The group, formed in 2002, has more than 50 members. Its vision is “a future in which young people are at the helm of historic preservation,” according to its Web site.
“It just seems like there’s so many people now who don’t really seem to care about saving our historic buildings, who say, ‘It looks kind of old. Let’s just demolish it and put up a subdivision,'” said Sean Capperis, an intern with the group. “I grew up in a subdivision, and it’s so sterile.”
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Criteria for historic designation
A building must meet at least one of 10 criteria to receive historic designation from the city:
1. Location at a significant historic or prehistoric site.2. Identification with one or more people who significantly contributed to the cultural, historic, architectural, archaeological or related aspects of the city, state, region or country.*
3. Exemplification of a distinguished or unique architectural type, style or design.*
4. Identification as the work of an architect, designer, engineer or builder whose work is historically significant.*
5. Exemplification of important planning and urban design techniques.
6. Location as a site of an important archaeological resource.
7. Association with important cultural or social aspects or events in history.*
8. Exemplification of neighborhood development or settlement significant to cultural history or traditions.
9. Representation of a cultural, historic, architectural, archaeological or related theme expressed through distinctive areas, properties, sites, structures or objects.
10. Unique location and distinctive physical appearance represents an established and familiar visual feature.*
* Criteria touted for Nabisco plant
Source: City of Pittsburgh Department of Planning
Sandra Tolliver can be reached at stolliver@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7840.
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A crown jewel where a duke and count played
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, April 8, 2004Historic preservationists have taken the first steps toward protecting the famed New Granada Theater, on Centre Avenue in the Hill District, from demolition or major alterations.
Built in 1927, the building is the principal surviving work of Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger, an important African-American architect. Only a few of Bellinger’s buildings survive today.“Even though the New Granada has been closed for decades, people still talk about it,” said Esther L. Bush, chief executive of the Urban League of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh’s seven-member Historic Review Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to proceed with the process of designating the New Granada Theater as a City of Pittsburgh Historic Structure — a measure proposed by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
A series of public hearings by the Historic Review Commission, the city Planning Commission and City Council must be conducted before council can vote on granting the designation.
“The New Granada is not only a part of Pittsburgh’s cultural heritage, it has the potential of being part of this city’s future,” Bush said. “If it’s developed, it can become another cultural attraction.”The theater was built as the Pythian Temple, a lodge for a group of African-American construction workers known as the Knights of Pythias. In the 1930s, the building was sold to the owner of the Granada Theatre, located several blocks up on Centre Avenue. When the movie house was moved to the current location, the word “new” was tacked onto the marquee.
In its heyday, the 11,341-square-foot New Granada Theatre was a major draw for live entertainment and movies. Jazz greats Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington performed there.
“The building is in very bad shape,” said Mulugetta Birru, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority. “It’s going to take a lot of money to rehab it.”
Representatives of Hill Community Development Corp., which owns the theater, could not be reached for comment.
Councilman Sala Udin, whose district includes the Hill, said the designation could be a draw for proposed redevelopment along several blocks of Centre Avenue.
“Obviously it will take a developer with some vision to turn that theater into something that is commercially successful,” Udin said.
Udin said he believes a mix of new housing, storefronts and restored buildings could help revive the neighborhood.
“I would like to see the storefronts built so we can consolidate the businesses in the area and create some momentum outward,” he said.
Efforts to develop the area stalled last year after a Las Vegas developer selected by the city failed to deliver on a master plan for the proposed project.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com.
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Some old schools are seeking new purpose
By Maggi Newhouse
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, February 23, 2004South Hills High School is a cold, hollow place.
The plaster is peeling, the hardwood floors are buckling and rain water streams in through the porous roof.
The massive building in Mt. Washington, which opened in 1916, once drew so many students from Pittsburgh’s southern communities that graduation programs had to be split over two days. It is one of more than a half-dozen district-owned schools that closed during the past 20 years due to declining enrollment.
School officials now face the daunting challenge of trying to persuade community groups and developers to restore and reuse these deteriorating buildings.
After two decades of futility, the district last month transferred the rights to South Hills High to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, hoping that city agency will have better luck.
There have been success stories.The old Latimer junior/senior high school on the North Side, which closed in 1982, was sold to a developer who converted the classrooms into the School House apartments and preserved many of the original features of the 106-year-old building, including the stairways and classroom numbers, said building manager Sarah Beck.
The Carriage House Children’s Center purchased Wightman Elementary School in 1986, six years after it closed. It now uses the basement and first floor of the Squirrel Hill facility for its preschool and full-day programs and leases the second floor to nonprofits.
Carriage House Executive Director Natalie Kaplan said the center has spent about $1.5 million to renovate and bring the building up to code, but also saved many distinctive features, including a third-floor gymnasium and several stained glass windows.
“It’s very exciting,” Kaplan said. “People come from out of town all the time and say ‘I went to school here. Can I walk around?'”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Executive Director Louise Sturgess said that many city schools were built with quality materials, in prominent locations, to demonstrate the value of education to the community.
“The buildings were built to be permanent, to be symbols to the community that education is important,” she said.
That’s exactly what the Rev. Tim Smith sees every day from his office at Keystone Church of Hazelwood.
Next door, on a hillside overlooking Hazelwood, stands Gladstone Middle School.
Smith remembers its hallways being filled with people after the school day had ended. They came for computer and adult literacy classes, YMCA programs and athletic events.
When the district closed the 90-year-old school in 2001, many of the community programs went with it, Smith said.
“It was a place to go for a lot of kids who didn’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “It was pretty devastating, in my opinion.”
Smith heads the Gladstone Task Force, a group created by the Hazelwood Initiative. They have petitioned the school district to help pay for a $60,000 study looking at options for Gladstone.
There’s even hope for South Hills High School.
Jim DeGilio, a member of the Mt. Washington Community Development Corp., said a number of developers are moving forward with plans to buy the building and make it into a combination residential and commercial site.
DeGilio said it would cost about $20 million to repair and convert the 3.4-acre property.
While officials say they try to work with community groups interested in the properties, it often takes years for projects to move forward.
The poor condition of South Hills High, which closed in 1985, prompted school board members last month to ask the staff for recommendations.
“It’s unlikely we’d have something as drastic happen in most of these other buildings, but we would still want to move more expeditiously (on those schools) than we did on South Hills,” said district Chief Operations Officer Richard Fellers.
Fellers said his staff plans to have recommendations on other properties by late spring or early summer.
Fellers said a staff member is assigned to each school to make sure the building and surrounding grounds are maintained. Each school also is on the district’s security system.
“We do continue to look after them,” he said, noting the district still has to pay for utilities and general supplies to maintain the buildings.
School board member Randall Taylor said he would like to see something happen as soon as possible with the former Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts building in Homewood.
The 96-year-old building, a former elementary school, closed last year when the district opened the new CAPA school Downtown.
Taylor said he has been talking with community groups and other people about trying to develop a community center geared toward families, but that could take years.
His fear is that people will vandalize and tamper with the building now that it is empty.
“The schools are protected when the kids are there,” he said. “Now that they’re gone, all bets are off.”
Maggi Newhouse can be reached at mnewhouse@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7997.
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South Fayette officials, residents agree on need for open space at Boys home site
By Patrick Ponticel
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Wednesday, February 04, 2004South Fayette officials want to take a decidedly careful approach to residential growth, saying they are well aware of what indiscriminate development can do to suburban farms and woodlands.
That was evident at a special meeting recently about the old Boys Home property, a 214-acre farm off Battle Ridge Road near Oakdale that the township owns. The 50 residents and officials of South Fayette indicated a strong preference for preserving most, if not all, of the land.
“Minimal development and more preservation” should be the guiding mantra of South Fayette in its general approach to growth, resident Don Smith said. Regarding the Boys Home property, he said, “If there is going to be development, it should be controlled development.”
His wife, Amy, added, “The first priority should be no development.”
The Smiths’ comments were representative of most residents, although a few found much appeal in the idea of the township selling a portion of the property to pay for improvements to the Boys Home gymnasium.
The building is sound structurally, but a major renovation would be required for it to serve as a community athletic or meeting center. Commissioner Sue Caffrey, who serves on the board of the South Fayette Conservation Group, said she had no preconceived notions about what to do with the property overall. But as for the gymnasium, she hopes it can be renovated. Selling a portion of the property to pay for it is an option.
Residents were encouraged by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation President Arthur Ziegler to mail additional comments to the township by Sunday. By Feb. 19, township and foundation officials will put together a proposed plan.
They have hired the consulting firm of LaQuatra Bonci Associates to, among other things, compile a natural resources inventory of the Boys Home property.
With this information, the company prepared several maps outlining how the property could be developed in conservation-friendly ways to accommodate a limited number of homes.
Fred Bonci, a principal in the company, emphasized that the purpose of the maps was to illustrate a general and more progressive approach to residential development. They were not designed, he said, as recommendations for how the Boys Home property should be developed. “That?s up to you,” he told the crowd. “These are simply ideas that can be used throughout the township.”
Several of the maps featured small clusters of small-lot homes with the majority of the property remaining open space. Others featured nonclustered homes on larger lots, the idea being that the property could be developed to a large extent but preserved to open space via easements.
Joe Hackett, of LaQuatra Bonci, said that in the township’s current zoning ordinance, land preservation was not a consideration. Were the township to sell the Boys Home property, he said, a developer could turn it into something that looks like one of the many “cookie-cutter” housing plans that have sprung up.
Caffrey said the township was updating the zoning ordinance to, among other things, put an end to tree-clearing residential development. Although many municipal zoning ordinances impose requirements for open space preservation, it is most generally the least desirable and least “developable” part of a property ? steep slopes, for example ? which developers will “dedicate” to open space, Bonci said. Ziegler and Bonci emphasized that, elsewhere, developers were beginning to realize that homeowners like having higher value open space bordering their properties.
The meeting was the second in a series to let residents express their preference for how the Boys Home property should be handled. The next meeting will be Feb. 19 in the conference center in the South Fayette Township High School.
(Patrick Ponticel is a freelance writer.)
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South Fayette residents prefer more preservation, less development on Boys Home land
By Patrick Ponticel
Pittsburgh Post Gazettte
Wednesday, January 21, 2004South Fayette officials want to take a decidedly careful approach to residential growth, saying they are well aware of what indiscriminate development can do to suburban farms and woodlands.
That was evident Thursday night at a special meeting about the old Boys Home property, a 214-acre farm off Battle Ridge Road near Oakdale that the township owns. The 50 residents and officials of South Fayette indicated a strong preference for preserving most, if not all of the land.
“Minimal development and more preservation” should be the guiding mantra of South Fayette in its general approach to growth, said resident Don Smith. Regarding the Boys Home property, he said, “If there is going to be development it should be controlled development.”
His wife, Amy, added, “The first priority should be no development.”
The Smiths’ comments were representative of most residents, although a few did note that there is much appeal in the idea of the township selling a portion of the property to pay for improvements to the Boys Home gymnasium.
The building is sound structurally, but a major renovation would be required for it to serve as a community athletic or meeting center.
Commissioners Chairwoman Sue Caffrey who serves on the board of the South Fayette Conservation Group said she has no preconceived notions about what to do with the property overall. But as for the gymnasium, she hopes it can be renovated. Selling a portion of the property to pay for it is an option.
Residents were encouraged by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation President Arthur Ziegler to mail additional comments to the township by Feb. 1. By Feb. 19, township and foundation officials will put together a proposed plan.
They have hired the consulting firm of LaQuatra Bonci Associates to, among other things, compile a natural resources inventory of the Boys Home property.
With this information the company prepared several maps outlining how the property could be developed in conservation-friendly ways to accommodate a limited number of homes.
Fred Bonci, a principal in the company, emphasized that the purpose of the maps was to illustrate a general and more progressive approach to residential development. They were not designed, he said, as recommendations for how the Boys Home property should be developed.
“That’s up to you,” he told the crowd. “These are simply ideas that can be used throughout the township.”
Several of the maps featured small clusters of small-lot homes with the majority of the property remaining open space. Others featured nonclustered homes on larger lots, the idea being that the property could be developed to a large extent but preserved to open space via easements.
Joe Hackett of LaQuatra Bonci said that in the township’s current zoning ordinance, land preservation is not a consideration. Were the township to sell the Boys Home property, he said, a developer could turn it into something that looks like one of the many “cookie-cutter” housing plans that have sprung up.
Caffrey said the township is updating the zoning ordinance to, among other things, put an end to tree-clearing residential development. Although many municipal zoning ordinances impose requirements for open space preservation, it is most generally the least desirable and least “developable” part of a property (steep slopes, for example) that developers will “dedicate” to open space, Bonci said.
Ziegler and Bonci emphasized that elsewhere, developers are beginning to realize that homeowners like having higher value open space bordering their properties. Thursday’s meeting was the second in a series to let residents express their preference for how the Boys Home property should be handled. The next meeting will be Feb. 19 in the conference center in the South Fayette Township High School.
(Patrick Ponticel is a freelance writer.)
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Carnegie Tables Historic District Ordinace
October 22, 2003
Council tabled action Oct. 14 on a proposed ordinance that would create and regulate historic districts in the borough.
Council member Jennifer Prion requested the ordinance be tabled until she can obtain information from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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New designs for Route 28 gains support – Proposals would spare church, industrial park
By Joe Grata,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Thursday, July 17, 2003Alternative designs initiated by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation only six months ago appear to be gaining support for the eventual reconstruction of a two-mile stretch of Route 28 between the North Side and Millvale.
Both options would save St. Nicholas Church, the first Croatian Roman Catholic Church in the United States, although the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese wants to close it, and Millvale Industrial Park, although the owner wants to get rid of it.
Historic preservation groups are rallying around the two sites along the dangerous, congested highway.
At a PennDOT-sponsored open house at the Boathouse on Washington’s Landing yesterday, many of the 300 people who turned out to look at plans and meet with engineers appeared to favor “Alternative 6,” which proposes to rebuild Route 28 essentially where it is, rather than “Alternative 5,” which would place six lanes of traffic on a 30-foot overpass only a flying hubcap away from the stained-glass “rose window” above St. Nicholas’ main entrance.
“No. 6 is a superb plan,” said Jack Schmitt, chairman of the Religious Structures Committee of Preservation Pittsburgh, who said new access and parking would enable the church’s dwindling congregation to grow. “It saves the church, preserves the green hillside and is cheaper” by $40 million.
No. 6 could be even cheaper if it were up to Andrew A. Lang Jr., owner of Millvale Industrial Park, home to a dozen small businesses.
Historic groups want to save that site because one of the buildings housed a brewery in the 19th century.
“There’s nothing historic about it,” Lang said of the building, which is now mostly a warehouse. “It’s been altered and remodeled 15 times. You’d never know a brewery ever existed there. Why does someone else have an interest in saving my place when I don’t?”
Tom Fox, PennDOT District 11 assistant executive for design, said while he may be inclined to accommodate Lang’s wish, federal laws require PennDOT to prove there’s no prudent and feasible alternative to buying and demolishing a historic structure, even though it might cost $20 million to save the one Lang owns.
Plans to rebuild the two miles of Route 28, known as the “death stretch” because of its accident history, have languished for years.
The highway, an extension of East Ohio Street past the Del Monte/Heinz plant, is a narrow four lanes with no divider or shoulders. Traffic bogs down at signals at the 31st and 40th street bridges.
PennDOT proposes spending $160 million to $200 million to reconstruct the stretch, although the timetable does not call for construction to begin before 2008.
Until six months ago, PennDOT’s design options would have eliminated St. Nicholas Church and Millvale Industrial Park and dislocated about 80 households, including some on Eggers Street atop Troy Hill. The plans would have meant constructing up to 20 miles of retaining walls over the two-mile stretch to shoehorn a limited-access expressway between the steep hillside on one side and Norfolk Southern Railway tracks on the other.
Fox credited George White, a retired civil engineering professor who is with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, for coming up with new ideas that have since been modified to conform to the terrain and geometry at the two bridge intersections.
“My take on [the open house] is that the people favor Alternatives 5 and 6,” Fox said. “We’ll study the comments and recommend a final alternative for the draft environmental impact statement and hold a public hearing on it early next year.”
Nos. 5 and 6 would provide nonstop traffic flow on Route 28, as did the earlier plans, although the speed limit with No. 6 would be 40 mph and the horizontal profile would be narrow: a 5-foot sidewalk in front of St. Nicholas, a 2 1/2-foot-wide curb, two 12-foot southbound lanes, a concrete divider, two 12-foot northbound lanes and another 2 1/2-foot-wide curb.
Fox said accidents and breakdowns would stop traffic, as opposed to Alternative 5, which provides 10-foot-wide shoulders in each direction by elevating parts of the highway toward the river, over the railroad line.
White said special legislation could permit PennDOT to acquire half of the 52-foot-wide railroad right of way and build No. 6 as a first-class transportation facility at the present elevation, increasing the frontage at St. Nicholas and keeping the hillside in its natural state.
White said train traffic is so infrequent that Norfolk Southern does not need all of the four tracks passing through the site.
One more entity is planning to weigh in on PennDOT’s plans — the Riverlife Task Force, a group promoting preservation and controlled development along the city’s river corridors.
Attorney Ted McConnell of Kirkpartrick & Lockhart, a Downtown law firm that advises the task force, was at the open house, examining a total of 11 options that were posted on easels around the room.
“We’re concerned about the hillside, the visual impacts and the community impacts of what PennDOT plans to do,” he said. “We’re looking at the alternatives and determining if there are some appropriate mitigation measures that we can recommend.”
Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1985.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette