Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Mayor tours Market Square, cites improvements
Thursday, September 06, 2007
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteLike countless politicians before him, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl ventured into the Original Oyster House in Market Square yesterday, but not for the fish sandwich or the political glad-handing usually served with it.
Instead, the stop was part of a lunchtime walking tour during which Mr. Ravenstahl talked to merchants, shook hands with diners and pedestrians, and assessed progress in making the city’s oldest public square more visitor friendly.
The mayor said he was pleased with what he saw, from the square’s cleaner look to more people using it.
He attributed the improvement in part to a concerted effort by the city to beef up police presence and to crack down on illicit activity, including drug dealing, in the square.
“It was neglected for a period of time. The criminal element and the negative element felt comfortable here. We’re trying to move that out and trying to make this a priority,” he said.
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership also has spearheaded improvements, purchasing 75 tables and 200 chairs to help restaurants expand their outdoor dining. Some of those dining areas have been extended into the street to provide more room.
In addition, the partnership also has added a farmers market and concerts on Thursdays to generate more activity. Trees have been pruned to open up the square and create more light. This fall, propane heating lamps will be added to allow for continued outdoor dining.
The mayor said he sees “good progress” in efforts to transform the square into a destination for visitors and residents alike.
“We’re really trying to bring the ‘market’ back to Market Square and I think our short-term success is evident and what we need to do is to continue that in order to have long-term achievement,” he said.
Mr. Ravenstahl said the city wants to build off the momentum created by the construction of the Three PNC Plaza skyscraper on Fifth Avenue and the redevelopment of the G.C. Murphy Building that abuts the square to create a more dynamic area.
He also said an experiment to remove buses from Market Square this summer has been successful for the most part and likely would become permanent.
The Port Authority has said that it is anticipating that buses would be removed permanently next spring or summer.
Several merchants told Mr. Ravenstahl that the improvements represented a good start after years of neglect.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” said Rick Faust, the Oyster House general manager. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but the people have felt more safe in Market Square than they have in years past.”
He said the added police presence, the Thursday events and the rerouting of the buses from the square have helped business.
“The police presence down here has been more than adequate. There’s always room for more,” he said.
Mr. Faust added he would like to see the square promoted more as a destination and to become more a focal point for events.
Another merchant, Ron Gargani, half-owner of the Buon Giorno Cafe, said he is planning $450,000 to $550,000 in improvements to his property, including restoring the building facade to its original 1918 look, in anticipation of the redevelopment Downtown.
“I feel it’s going to happen. The future is now,” he said.
He said the move of the Arts Festival from Point State Park and the Thursday events in the square increased his business by 40 percent this summer.
Washington County developer Millcraft Industries is expected to start construction on the G.C. Murphy redevelopment before the end of the year. The building will house the new home for the Downtown YMCA, 30,000 square feet of retail space, and 46 apartments.
First published on September 6, 2007 at 12:00 am
Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. -
Larimer bakery tax plan advances
Thursday, September 06, 2007
By Ann Belser,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteAllegheny County Council’s economic development committee has advanced the proposed tax breaks for redeveloping the old Nabisco site on Penn Avenue in Larimer, but without giving the plan its blessing.
Council has been asked by the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority to approve $10 million in tax increment financing for Walnut Capital Development Inc.’s Bakery Square project.
That money, which uses future tax proceeds to pay off development bonds, includes $5 million toward making roads around Penn Circle two-way and installing new traffic signals, and $5 million for development of an 849-space parking garage.
Robert Rubinstein, URA director of economic development, said the bonds will be backed with tax revenue from the site on which Walnut Capital Development plans to build office and retail space in addition to the garage and another 350 parking spaces. The tax increment financing does not apply to a 120-room hotel planned for a site next to the former bakery.
The committee, while sending the plan to council for a vote, did so without recommending that the council pass it. Councilman Bill Robinson, D-Hill District, said he was concerned about statements by the developers that he believes have not been documented.
Mr. Robinson wanted details of a $50,000 promise that Walnut Capital made to the community. Mr. Rubinstein said $35,000 would be used for job training and $15,000 will be used to spruce up part of Larimer Avenue.
Mr. Robinson said he wanted to know which community groups the developer had agreements with and what those agreements were.
Maurice Strul, a business development specialist from the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development, said he had not had time to get answers since Mr. Robinson first raised the issue last week.
“If he represents the district and he has concerns, he has a right to those concerns,” Councilwoman Jan Rea, R-McCandless, said.
Mr. Rubinstein said after the meeting that the money going to the community for job training and neighborhood improvements was being paid by the developers and not from public money.
The overall project is estimated to cost $105 million to $125 million and is planned for property where the Nabisco bakery stood for 80 years before it closed in 1998. It was taken over by Atlantic Baking Group in 1999 and cookies were again baked there, but in 2004 the company that had become Bake-Line filed for bankruptcy and closed the bakery for good.
The tax increment financing plan has been placed on council’s agenda for Tuesday.
First published on September 6, 2007 at 12:00 am
Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699. -
Historic Brentwood restaurant to be razed
By Genea Webb
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 6, 2007The borough of Brentwood will be losing a vital piece of its history this fall.
The Point View Restaurant, formerly the Point View Hotel, on Brownsville Road, will be razed to make way for a three-story medical building to be occupied by Brentwood Medical Group.According to former Brentwood Councilman Ed Haney, the building, which originally was an inn built in 1832, served as a stop for former Presidents Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor and James Buchanan. The Point View was a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping to Canada.
“The floor of the basement was dirt. There was a tunnel that led under Brownsville Road,” said Lions Club Secretary, Mary Cavataio.
Dr. Dushan Majkic, one of the partners of Brentwood Medical Group, said the newly built facility would help the group of doctors serve the community better.
“It’ll be a positive thing for Brentwood. We have lots of positive things to offer to the community and we’re very excited to offer full medical services to the community,” Majkic said.Council Vice President Jay Lieb agreed.
“I think any new construction is good for the community and the location for the medical building is ideal,” Lieb said.
Majkic and his partners plan to sale the existing medical building at 3028 Brownsville Road.
A plaque signifying the importance of the Point View will be erected somewhere on the site of the new medical building. Demolition of the Point View will occur some time this fall. Construction of the medical building is expected to take six to eight months.
The group held its meetings in the Point View until it closed last year.
“We were very happy there and everyone felt comfortable there,” said Cavataio, whose group held its meetings at the Point View until it closed last year. “We used to have our annual Mother’s Day breakfast there.”
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Neighbors pressing for historic designation for former North Side porn theater
Thursday, September 06, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe city’s Historic Review Commission yesterday heard a Central North Side preservationist’s case for designating the Garden Theatre a city landmark, ahead of any action a developer might take to alter it.
The theater, which had shown porn movies for more than 30 years, closed in February. It is now in the hands of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which is considering proposals from developers for the Garden and a score of blighted buildings along the intersecting corridors of North Avenue and Federal Street.
“It’s the last of the nickelodeon-style movie theaters left in the city” with its interior intact, said David McMunn, president of the Mexican War Streets Society. The Mexican War Streets is a historic district that stops shy of including the Garden and the rest of Federal-North.
Mr. McMunn handed commission Chairman Michael Stern a stack of letters in support of his proposal and said, “All the neighborhoods would agree that it’s something we want to save for the next generations.”
After the meeting, he said, “Our neighborhood understands it’s a precious piece, but there are people who think, ‘Adult movie theater, take it away.’ That would be like tearing down Ford’s Theater because Lincoln was shot there.”
The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on the merits of the building’s historic status at a 1 p.m. Oct. 3 hearing in the Robin Building on Ross Street, Downtown. The commission voted to give the Garden preliminary determination status to protect it until a final decision is made. City Council has the final word.
Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, said he backs the proposal.
“Oh yes,” he said, “it’s the anchor of that corridor, and it will become a major ingredient in the North Side’s collection of nationally significant cultural institutions.”
Built in 1915, the Garden is a mix of styles, with a classical exterior of terra cotta detailing, a 1930s-era vertical neon sign and a 1950s-era marquee and canopy. The original canopy was copper. Inside, wall sconces and chandeliers remain intact, and the rewind room, the splicing room and the 1950s-era projectors are all in place, Mr. McMunn said. “It’s like a time capsule.”
The building suffered extensive water damage from a leaky roof, but the Quantum Theater started the cleanup, preparing the theater for its June production of “The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.”
The Garden shares a block with an even older Masonic Hall, one of the first built, and an apartment building designed by Frederick Osterling, the illustrious late-1800s/early-1900s architect who also designed the Armstrong Cork factory in the Strip, the Arrott Building on Wood Street and the Union Trust Building on Grant Street, among many.
The Garden was fought over for years in court by the URA and the New Garden Realty Corp. Appeals stopped short of the U.S. Supreme Court in February when the URA negotiated a deal for $1.1 million.
The state Supreme Court had affirmed a lower court’s ruling in December that the URA did not violate the theater’s state or federal free-speech rights in its effort to seize it by eminent domain.
The URA had amassed all the buildings it wanted for redevelopment around it.
Mr. McMunn said the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, a partner in the URA’s redevelopment plans, favors the theater remaining a theater or other entertainment venue.
First published on September 6, 2007 at 12:00 am
Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. -
Neville Plantation cooks Colonial
Thursday, September 06, 2007
By Gretchen McKay,
Pittsburgh Post-GazettePlenty of today’s cooks plant gardens in their back yards so they can enjoy fresh vegetables and herbs. Yet back in Colonial times, only the well-to-do could have afforded the so-called kitchen garden.
Eighteenth-century houses lacked both running water and hoses, of course, so homeowners would have had to rely on slave or servant labor to fetch and carry those heavy buckets of water from a nearby stream or catch drain. Ditto with keeping the garden beds free from weeds.
Adding to the cost were the plants themselves. As Rob Windhorst, president of Neville Historical Associates, points out, most seeds used by Colonists had to be shipped from Europe and were extremely expensive. The fact, then, that Woodville Plantation — the Virginia plantation-style home that Revolutionary War hero John Neville built in Collier in the late 1700s — boasted a kitchen garden with four large beds speaks volumes about his wealth.
Not that his servants planted anything fancy, of course. Strictly utilitarian, the gardens — planted in a continuous rotation so that something was always ready to harvest — contained the basic building blocks of Colonial cooking: root vegetables, melons and beans along with herbs such as lemon balm and lovage, a close cousin to celery.
Two hundred years later, the gardens are once again bearing fruit, having been sown since 1997 with a variety of veggies and herbs gleaned from heirloom seed projects. Many, in fact, are strains of the original plants that Mr. Neville and his family would have enjoyed on their dinner table so long ago.
On Sunday, the public gets a chance to see how these foods would have been harvested and cooked when the plantation opens its doors for its first Harvest Day.
This late in the season, many of the garden’s offerings are long gone. But it’s still full of early Jersey Wakefield cabbage, a compact, tear-shaped cabbage that fit easily in market baskets, and long Chantenay carrots, a French variety that was good for winter storage. There’s also plenty of horehound, a licorice-like medicinal herb, along with lemon balm, mint and chamomile.
Among the more unusual 18th-century dishes that will be demonstrated using traditional methods (i.e., cooked over an open fire in cast-iron pots and pans) is a meatloaf-like “forced” cabbage adapted from Hannah Glasse’s 1745 cookbook, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.” Docents also will prepare fried carrot puffs, a sweet, doughnut-like side dish.
Woodville Plantation’s Harvest Day Celebration takes place Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at 1375 Washington Pike, Collier. Admission is $5 for adults and $10 for families. For more information, visit www.woodvilleplantation.org or call 412-221-0348.
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Book recounts 100 years of Westmoreland county courthouse
By Jennifer Reeger
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, September 3, 2007If history had repeated itself, the Westmoreland County Courthouse wouldn’t be ready to celebrate its centennial.
Instead, the majestic domed structure on Main Street in Greensburg would look more like something that came out of the 1970s.The previous three courthouses built on the same site had been deemed too small and were torn down.
But in the 1960s, when the powers that be were discussing whether to tear down the current courthouse or just build an expansion onto it, preservation prevailed. The courthouse annex was dedicated in 1979.
“Thank God we do have this beautiful building,” said Mike Cary, professor of history and political science at Seton Hill University and an editor of a book on the courthouse’s history. “People remember Greensburg — they remember that dome when they see it from a distance, and it’s somehow inspirational for people.”
The courthouse, completed in 1907 and dedicated in 1908, will be celebrated in upcoming events and a book, “This American Courthouse: One Hundred Years of Service to the People of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,” scheduled to be released Sept. 14.
The centennial celebration entered its planning stages in 2002, when Judge Daniel Ackerman put a committee of academics, government officials and historians together.
“I thought this was an event that should not be missed,” Ackerman said. “… I can’t think of any (courthouses) that overall are more beautiful than this building. I always have said, ‘It’s like going to work in an art museum.'”
At the heart of the celebration is the book, edited by Cary and Tim Kelly, chairman of the history department at St. Vincent College.
During the past four years, they gathered historic photos of the courthouse and asked local people to contribute chapters to the book.
“It’s really been very much a community effort, probably more so than most books are,” Kelly said.
Of course, one chapter delves into the history of the current courthouse and the four others in Westmoreland County’s history.
The first, in Hanna’s Town, served from 1773 until the town burned in an Indian raid in 1782. For a few years, court was held wherever there was space, until a board-and-log-structure was built in what is now Greensburg in 1786.
By 1794, the courthouse was torn down for a larger replacement that wouldn’t be finished until 1801. Court was held in local taverns in the meantime.
The two-story brick building, which cost $5,000, would be replaced in the 1850s by a larger, Greek revival building with a small dome and columns.
That building, too, proved too small, and in 1901 it was torn down in favor of the current courthouse, which was completed in 1907.
The building, designed by architect William Kauffman in the Beaux-Arts style and constructed of light-gray granite from Maine, cost $1.5 million.
The book delves into that history as well as the history of the jail, which used to be attached to the courthouse.
It also discusses the building’s architect and architecture — which was controversial because some considered it too ostentatious, Cary said.
There are broader chapters on the changing role of judges and the history of the Westmoreland Bar Association. One chapter focuses on the social context of what was happening in the area at the time of the construction.
Another looks into the multiple uses of the courthouse.
Kelly said the book not only delves into the specific history of the building but gives “a broader read of social climate and the lives and the activities of people who came to the courthouse.”
He said the book is complemented by historical photos and modern pictures taken by attorney and amateur photographer Mark Sorice.
“It’s the sort of thing you could thumb through and never read a word and be happy,” Kelly said.
The book will be unveiled at a black-tie optional gala event on Sept. 14 at the courthouse.
Susan Mitchell Sommers, professor of history at St. Vincent College who chaired the courthouse centennial committee, said members of the Bar will offer tours of the courthouse, while judges and row officers will talk about their roles.
The tours will include, if the weather cooperates, the first public access to the courthouse dome in about 25 years.
Guests will be able to stroll through the courthouse and view the opening of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts juried exhibition, “History Through Art.”
The show will run through January, which marks 100 years since the courthouse dedication.
The culmination of the centennial celebration will be a free open courthouse event on Jan. 26.
“We’re hoping to get as many people into the courthouse as we can because I talk to neighbors and other people who you would have thought would have been here at one time or another and they haven’t,” Ackerman said. “It’s sort of a shame that so many people haven’t.”
Jennifer Reeger can be reached at jreeger@tribweb.com or 724-836-6155.
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Cathedral of Learning bricks mistakenly cleaned
By Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, August 30, 2007The Cathedral of Learning’s dirt nearly had its finest moment.
After clinging to the 42-story University of Pittsburgh building for 70 years, the black soot almost received its own plaque to recognize evidence of the city’s industrial past.“Somebody has to honor those people who made the city,” said E. Maxine Bruhns, director of the cathedral’s Nationality Rooms, who came up with the idea. “These grimy stones were a perfect tribute.”
University officials agreed to keep a few blocks dirty near the Fifth Avenue entrance when they spent $4.8 million this summer to wash the Indiana limestone exterior, fix mortar joints and replace rusty fasteners. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation planned a marker.
“The new generation of students attending Pitt have no idea this city was the workshop to the world,” said Louise Sturgess, the foundation’s executive director. “The dirt visually lets people know what the air was like, and the air was filled with the gritty soot from all of the industry.”
Bruhns hand-picked the blocks for their markings and high-profile location. Workers built a cover so the area wouldn’t be cleaned, and the school newspaper reported in June that a crew member was assigned to protect it.
But after most of the building had been cleaned and the cover removed, another worker noticed the blemish. Without asking, he washed away the grime — so the blocks look as fresh and bright as the rest.
Overall, the cleaning project turned out better than anyone expected, said Park Rankin, the university architect. It was just an oversight that Bruhns’ blocks were washed, he said.
Still, the damage has been done — or undone.
Standing near the spot Wednesday, Paul Sawyer, 24, a junior from Whitehall, said he forgot all about the formerly dirty facade when he returned to campus this month.
“I didn’t even notice,” he said.
Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or 412-320-7835.
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Bottle Brigade raises money to restore Braddock library
By Kacie Axsom
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, August 30, 2007John Hempel doesn’t drink soda. But the University of Pittsburgh biologist has helped to collect about 6,500, 20-ounce soda bottles to help the environment and raise money for restoring the Braddock Carnegie Library.
Hempel sends the bottles to New Jersey-based TerraCycle as part of its Bottle Brigade program. TerraCycle makes and distributes lawn and garden fertilizer — essentially worm poop, as company publicist Paul D’Eramo puts it.The company gathers the waste matter and puts it in tanks with hot water and extracts nutrients from it, D’Eramo said. They package it in those reused bottles from about 3,800 groups such as Hempel’s.
TerraCycle sends empty boxes that can hold as many as 70 bottles to Bottle Brigade participants, which includes schools and nonprofits. Groups fill their boxes, and twice each year, TerraCycle sends a check for 5 cents per bottle to the school or charity of their choice, and 6 cents per bottle if they have been washed and de-labeled. That means every filled box is worth $3.50 to $4.20 for a charity.
Hempel’s chosen cause is the Braddock Carnegie Library, because he is the vice president of Braddock’s Field Historical Society, which owns it. He and his colleagues at Pitt have placed barrels around their department and have earned about $370 to go toward restoration projects.
That $370 could buy fewer than two seats in the library’s music hall, Hempel said. It’s also about $30 shy of the $400 needed to replace one of the 39 window sashes.“Relative to the amount of money the music hall restoration needs, it disappears in the decimal dust,” Hempel said. “It’s at least a way of bringing in a trickle of money, and it’s satisfying.”
Hempel maintains a personal compost pile and recycles newspapers, bottles, cans and Styrofoam, he said. He also sprays the TerraCycle product on his orchids.
“In many ways, (recycling is) easier than lugging a bag of smelly stuff down to the curb,” he said.
Laurel Roberts is a lecturer at Pitt and has been collecting bottles with Hempel for about eight months. She estimates she’s collected 300 to 400 in that time.
She told her students about the project and where they can find a collection bin, and when she’s out walking her dogs in her Highland Park neighborhood and sees a bottle, she picks it up.
“It’s easy, and it’s actually fun,” Roberts said. “When you find one, it’s almost like a scavenger hunt.”