Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Region’s renaissance shines through as another span is lit
By F.A. Krift
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, June 13, 2008For Mark Bibro, the Hot Metal Bridge is more than a way to get to opposite shores of the Monongahela River.The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation chairman says it’s a symbol of Pittsburgh’s industrial past, and a connection point for the city’s future in research jobs and riverfront redevelopment. Illuminating the bridge Thursday night was another sign of the changes Pittsburgh continues to make as it reinvents itself.
“Suddenly, we’ve created high-tech jobs that will be here forever across the bridge,” Bibro said as he pointed to the Monongahela River’s north side. “On this side, it’s the place to go in Pittsburgh.”
Gov. Ed Rendell told electricians to “light up the bridge” by its South Side exit, and red, yellow and orange lights turned on, completing a $150,000 Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation decorative lighting project on the century-old bridge.
Cities are built on feeling as much as substantive measures like improved schools and balanced budgets, Rendell said. Illuminating bridges like the Hot Metal Bridge shows how Pittsburgh continues to renew itself, he said.Anthony Owens, 42, of Overbrook stopped his bike ride to watch the ceremony. After years away from his hometown, he returned to Pittsburgh in 2004 and couldn’t believe how the South Side’s shore had changed from steel mills into a retail spot. Lighting the bridge was a validation of the transformation, he said.“It’s amazing,” Owens said. “I’m a fan of what’s happened here.”
The colors on the bridge are supposed to represent the liquefied metal that once traveled on the Hot Metal Bridge. Ladle cars took the molten metal from Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. blast furnaces on the Monongahela’s north shore to south side open hearth furnaces. Now, people on foot, on bicycles and in cars travel to the SouthSide Works living, dining and entertainment center.
“Today, ideas are transported across this bridge via young people on bikes,” said Christine Fulton, vice president of external relations for Soffer Organization.
The Hot Metal Bridge connects SouthSide Works at South 29th Street to Oakland’s Second Avenue and spans 321 feet and 4 inches from bank to bank. It crosses the Monongahela 3.1 miles upstream from Point State Park’s fountain.
Using the bridge makes good use of an artifact from Pittsburgh’s smoky steel-based past, History & Landmarks Foundation President Arthur Ziegler said, while the city progresses toward pushing service industry growth and riverfront redevelopment.
The incandescent tubular lighting trims the entryways of the vehicle bridge, which was originally the railway bridge. The adjacent bridge actually was the crossing used to carry molten metal between facilities, but the twin spans now are commonly referred as the Hot Metal Bridge.
The bridge opened two lanes to vehicles in 2000. In 2007, the downstream bridge was opened for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation previously lit the Smithfield Street Bridge and the Roberto Clemente Bridge decoratively.
“We want to light all the bridges here,” Ziegler said. “We’re the ‘City of Bridges.’ This is a good one to do because we were trying to enliven the entrance from Second Avenue into the South Side.”
Pittsburgh has 446 bridges, more than any other city in the world. Thirty span a river.
A $125,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development at Rendell’s request primarily funded the Hot Metal Bridge project. Additional funding came from the Soffer Organization, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Wellington Power Corp. and the History & Landmarks Foundation
F.A. Krift can be reached at bkrift@tribweb.com or 412-380-5644.
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Last bell at Schenley: Historic high school closes
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, June 11, 2008Students left Schenley High School on Tuesday more with a sense of resignation and eagerness for the summer than sadness for their school’s storied past.“You may not see any depression today, but I think in September it’ll hit us,” said activities director Joe Ehman.
As the last bell sounded at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday, freshmen, sophomores and juniors hugged each other, snapped photos in the hallway and said good-bye. Seniors had their last day of class Friday. In tribute, they scattered 92 roses — one for each year of the school’s existence — on its front steps.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” said Tariq Stephens, 16, a sophomore from Beltzhoover. “But I know at the end of the day it’s going to be crazy, because it’ll be the last time I see the inside of this building.”
The 1,127 Schenley students still do not know whether the Oakland school will close. The city school board will vote June 25 on a recommendation by city schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt to shut it down.Roosevelt has said the district cannot afford the $76.2 million cost of fixing the building’s mechanical systems and removing its asbestos.
Whether it closes or is renovated, Schenley students who will be in grades 10-12 in the fall are being assigned to Reizenstein School in East Liberty.
There was little evidence yesterday to indicate that Schenley was closing for good. One sign on the floor said, “Schenley we’ll miss you.”
“For a school that’s closing, it’s very quiet,” said Assistant Principal Nina Sacco. “It’s very peaceful.”
Sacco owes her very life to Schenley. Her grandparents met as Schenley students in the school auditorium.
Although classes have ended for students, teachers will be in school through the end of the week.
Kelly McKrell, an English and drama teacher, mulled her feelings in a room full of props such as a giant jukebox and an oversized pharaoh’s head, relics of the school musicals she has directed.
“It’s going to be difficult for me on Friday,” said McKrell, a Schenley graduate. “That’s the last day I walk out of this building and never come back. I don’t know how I’m going to walk out.”
Ehman has the unenviable task of returning to alumni all the memorabilia they gave the school over the years. “It’s just a big mess,” he said.
A couple from Kansas, graduates from the 1950s, came by recently to retrieve the wife’s megaphone and cheerleading uniform.
Schenley Principal Sophia Facaros, patrolling the halls, reminded a student to remove his earphones. She was so intent on making sure that students behaved properly that she did not have time to feel much of anything.
“There isn’t one ounce of emotion in me right now, because the job is too big to allow anything else to come into it,” she said.
Luke Trout, 17, a junior from Morningside, decided he was not leaving the school without a souvenir. He removed a framed picture of a rocket from the cafeteria wall “just to have something to remember Schenley.”
“What are they going to do,” he asked, “suspend me?”
As the clock wound down, security guard Marsha Comer hugged students good-bye.
“I can’t cry,” she said. “I love them. They’ll be okay.”
When the final bell rang, some students whooped their approval.
Then they trudged down the steps past the wilted roses.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Passionate engineer saved Duquesne Incline Dies
By Karen Zapf
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, June 9, 2008For David Miller, an unexpected drive to work from his Mt. Washington home led to his campaign to save a Pittsburgh transportation landmark.
David H. Miller of Upper St. Clair, formerly of Mt. Washington, died Saturday, June 7, 2008. He was known for his campaign to save the Duquesne Incline. - submitted
One day after Thanksgiving 1962, Mr. Miller returned home shortly after leaving for his Gateway Center office and announced he would have to drive because the Duquesne Incline was shut down, recalled his wife, Ruth Miller. That incident triggered an interest in the incline and its viability that became a passion for the rest of his life, she said.
David H. Miller of Upper St. Clair, formerly of Mt. Washington, died Saturday, June 7, 2008, in the health center in the Friendship Village of the South Hills retirement community in Upper St. Clair. He was 87.
His efforts got the Incline back in operation, Ruth Miller said.
Mr. Miller and his wife founded the Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline, the nonprofit organization that owns the incline and has kept it going since July 1963. Mr. Miller was president of the organization until September, when he began experiencing health problems, Mrs. Miller said.Mrs. Miller said her husband was passionate about reviving the Duquesne Incline because it was an important mode of transportation for many people who lived in the Duquesne Heights section of Mt. Washington. The incline rises 400 feet in its 793-foot span, carrying passengers between the top of Mt. Washington and West Carson Street. The organization’s Web site says that when the incline opened in 1877, the “funicular railway” was one of four inclined planes carrying passengers and freight to the residential area that had spread along the top of what originally was known as “Coal Hill.”
The incline uses two original 1877 cable cars, each holding up to 25 passengers.
Mr. and Mrs. Miller became involved with the incline in 1962 when the former owner, the Duquesne Inclined Plane Co., had shut it down. Mrs. Miller said the incline needed expensive repairs including new sheaves or grooved pulleys.
“It was terribly inconvenient for the Heights,” Mrs. Miller said. “We went door-to-door in the community and raised nearly $20,000 (for the repairs).”
Jim Presken, chief operating officer of the society, said Mr. Miller’s many years of community service inspired him to become involved in volunteer work. The two met through a mutual friend who works on the incline.
Mr. Miller’s other areas of civic involvement included serving on the board of the Pittsburgh Public Parking Authority and the Historic Review Commission.
“I never volunteered before meeting Mr. Miller,” said Presken, 55, of Mt. Oliver. “But I saw his tireless commitment, and he inspired me.”
Presken said he sees his mission as keeping the Duquesne Incline going in Mr. Miller’s honor.
Mrs. Miller described her husband as a quiet man and “very deliberate, as befits an engineer.”
The couple enjoyed traveling throughout Europe, particularly England, throughout their 63-year marriage.
Mr. Miller was raised on Mt. Washington and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1942 with a degree in civil engineering. He enlisted in the Navy’s civil engineering corps and helped build air fields in the South Pacific Islands during World War II.
Ruth Furman and David Miller met in grade school and were married in 1945. Mr. Miller joined the engineering department at Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., where he worked until his retirement in 1985, his wife said.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Miller is survived by a nephew, a niece, and five great-nieces and great-nephews.
Friends will be received from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Brusco-Falvo Funeral Home, 214 Virginia Ave., Mt. Washington. Graveside services will be private.
Karen Zapf can be reached at kzapf@tribweb.com or 412-380-8522.
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Riverview Park’s shelter rededicated with emphasis on history
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, June 8, 2008Riverview Park’s Chapel Shelter has a brand-new look that, well, looks old.”It really never looked like this before,” said Christine Dixon, who lives in Observatory Hill and has rented the shelter several times for family reunions.
The 114-year-old shelter, which was renovated over the past 2 1/2 years, was rededicated on Saturday during Riverview Park Heritage Day, which included a parade, pony rides, a pie-eating contest and tours of Allegheny Observatory, which sits on the grounds. The dedication ceremony included the release of several dozen doves.
The shelter had been built as a church and was moved to the park in 1894. The renovation work replicated dormers and the steeple.
“It went through years of dilapidation. The work on it has been outstanding,” said Richard Reed, chairman of the board of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, one of the project’s major sponsors and funders.The $1.2 million renovation updated restrooms and added ramps to make the building handicapped accessible.“The building looks great. It’s wonderful to have it rehabilitated,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who grew up next to the park, which offers sweeping vistas of the city.
“This is my park. I think it’s overlooked compared to the other three large city parks,” he said.
The project was funded by the Regional Asset District, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the city of Pittsburgh.
“This is an example of good things happening on the North Side. Our parks are the most democratic space in this city,” said Darlene Harris, a Pittsburgh City Council member whose district includes the park.
Rick Wills can be reached at rwills@tribweb.com or 724-779-7123.
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Bethel AME marks 200th birthday
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, June 2, 2008Katie Everette Johnson’s pastor asked her to accompany him to a meeting with then-Pittsburgh Mayor David L. Lawrence because she took meticulous notes.It was a difficult assignment, recalled Johnson, now 85, of Schenley Heights.To make way for the Civic Arena, Lawrence said, the city would have to tear down the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Hill District, where Johnson had attended services for 14 years.
“Why our church?” she said, recalling the emotions of that meeting.
The Rev. John D. Bright, pastor, pleaded in vain to save the historic church, Johnson said. The building was razed in 1956.Bethel AME Church, which served as a station for the Underground Railroad, will celebrate its 200th birthday next week.
The birthday means a lot to the congregation, said the Rev. Nathaniel Colvin, pastor. Many remember the pain of losing their church to the wrecking ball, he said. Bethel AME will sponsor a week’s worth of events beginning Sunday.
“When you talk about losing a building, a church building, it’s like losing a family home,” Colvin said.
Bethel was the first African Methodist Episcopal Church west of the Allegheny Mountains and is the oldest black congregation in the city. Its roots were planted in 1808 in a house on Front Street, Downtown.
Chartered in 1818, the church would be located in a number of buildings over the next two centuries. Bethel started the area’s first school for black children in 1831 and was host for the state’s first civil rights convention in 1841.
“The African-American church, particularly a church like Bethel AME is like the glue that holds the soul of the community together: offering hope and the sobering truth of the challenges of putting life together in a world like ours today,” said Sarah L McMillen, assistant professor of sociology at Duquesne University.
The church served as one of the main stations of the Underground Railroad, a secret network that helped fugitive slaves reach sanctuary in free states or Canada years before slavery was abolished in the United States.
“We are very proud to know the African Methodist Episcopal Church has been in the community this long. It has endured the days of slavery and other hardships,” said the Rev. Robert Vaughn Webster, bishop of Bethel AME’s 3rd District, which includes Ohio, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.
Many families stuck with the church, one of the oldest in the district, through its moves. Bethel’s oldest member is 107 years old.
“The fact that this congregation has continued services for 200 years in several church buildings in several locations indicates the continuity of the African-American culture in Pittsburgh, its deep roots and its continuing new generations,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.
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Shadyside tour benefits History and Landmarks scholarship fund
By Bob Karlovits
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, May 25, 2008Ten years ago, David Brashear began a scholarship program that he hoped would foster an appreciation for Pittsburgh among younger generations.This year, Brashear and the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation are sponsoring a tour that will showcase sites to “help show the understanding of what makes Pittsburgh so great,” he says.The tour is part of the Landmarks Scholarship Celebration June 3 at Andrew W. Mellon Hall at Chatham University, Shadyside.
The event will feature the awarding of scholarships and comments from Brashear; Esther L. Barazzone, president of Chatham; and Arthur P. Ziegler, president of the History and Landmarks group.
But the focal point of the celebration will be a self-guided tour of three sites in the Woodland Road area at the heart of Chatham’s campus. With wine, hors d’oeuvres and docents at each site, the tour will stop at:• A Tudor Revival home with 11 fireplaces, stained-glass windows and dramatic woodwork. It was built by attorney Alexander M. Neeper in 1903 and is owned by Louis and Kathy Testoni.
• A home designed by Philadelphia architect Robert Venturi, an advocate of Postmodern style. It was built in 1979-82 by Betty Abrams and her late husband, Irving, as their “retirement pad,” she says.
• The renovated Mellon Board Room, which has replaced the swimming pool in the former mansion of Andrew Mellon, now owned by Chatham University. It was part of a $1.8 million renewal project.
The three sites are viewed as part of what makes Pittsburgh distinct.
“It is a city that is compact, yet it has a lot going on,” says Brashear, a Pittsburgh native who is president of Edgewood Investors near New York City. Each year, the scholarship fund he founded awards grants to students who compete by writing essays that display their appreciation for the Pittsburgh area.
There have been 25 scholarships awarded since 1999. They are for $1,000 for each of the winner’s four undergraduate years of college.
The celebration and tour, sponsored by the David and Janet Brashear Foundation, the Bank of New York Mellon and PNC, is, in some ways, an effort to call attention to the existence of the scholarships, Brashear says Louise Sturgess, executive director of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, says the tour shows off some of the city’s hidden gems.
“We go from the very grand of the Mellon Hall, to a little less grand to the very modern,” Sturgess says of the three sites.
The two homes vary greatly, but both are striking. Abrams confesses that she’s a “frustrated architect” and says she and her late husband wanted to build a dynamic modern home on the site they found in the Woodland Road area.
“If we couldn’t have gotten this spot, we wouldn’t have built this house,” she says about the home, which she hired Venturi to design after interviewing a handful of architects.
The house is at the base of a hillside that surrounds it on three sides and once was the location of a pool and creek. Abrams says she and her late husband raised the spot of construction 10 feet to be above the water, but the water disappeared after construction. A stone bridge remains, but it spans nothing.
Because of its “retirement pad” nature, the home only has two bedrooms, but it has an indoor lap pool and a large family room next to a kitchen-bar area. It is an example of the flexible-space school of design that Venturi and Abrams conceived before the notion became popular.
“I love to entertain, but I am also the cook,” Abrams says. “So I wanted to be part of the party.”
The home stands out in its use of color, from sky blue in the family room ceiling to the teal-inflected shades of the exterior. It is illuminated with skylights and massive side windows that allow natural light even on gray days.
The Tudor home owned by the Testonis is from 80 years earlier and has a different kind of appeal. Its entranceway, for instance, leads to a grand staircase in the center, sitting rooms all around and a kitchen with gourmet appliances.
“We sometimes sit on the floor in that entranceway with a glass of wine and just look at the woodwork,” Kathy Testoni says.
The upstairs features four large bedrooms off a large area at the top of the steps. The property, just across the street from the Abrams’ home, also features a carriage house that has been turned into a garage with an apartment above it.
The owners are adding a 6-foot-by-10-foot room off the kitchen that Testoni says will “allow her to look out at the garden without sitting at the island.”
She jokes about being so concerned with maintaining the “integrity of the home” that it took them nine years to decide to have the work done.
Sturgess talks about how the tour came together when Abrams and Testoni, both trustees with the History and Landmarks Foundation, volunteered their homes. The use of Mellon Hall became a logical extension, Sturgess says, because of its location in the mansion of the fabled banker.
The newly renovated hall also provides a gathering spot for the event, Sturgess says, and shows off architecture in a different way. In March 2006, architect Ken Doyno began work on designing a meeting hall where there had been a swimming pool, which was rendered unnecessary because of the university’s new recreation building.
Doyno, from Rothschild Doyno Architects in the Strip District, says the effort became a classic example of “project creep,” with one job leading to another. He explains that it eventually was realized the room could be illuminated with tall windows below tiny light wells from the past.
Framework for those windows and nearby doorways was designed by Japanese woodworker Tadao Orimoto and made of mahogany, Danyo says. He adds that wood could be used only after it was certified to be taken from a forest area deemed environmentally unthreatened.
“The whole project had a very green nature,” he says, pointing out that work on the meeting room was done without affecting the trees on the carriage entrance above it.
The project also created possibilities for masonry work on the exterior and the need for new paths leading through a nearby garden area.
Brashear believes the tour is an event that fits well with the scholarship-fund effort.
“It is a way to shine the spotlight on these great homes and on the scholarship fund,” he says.
Bob Karlovits can be reached at bkarlovits@tribweb.com or 412-320-7852.
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Vandergrift Main Street moves ahead
By Rossilynne Skena
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Monday, May 19, 2008Part of the now-vacant building at 143 Grant Ave. is “a time capsule,” said Shaun Yurcaba, Vandergrift Improvement Program Main Street manager.
Inside are two single-bedroom apartments, complete with details and woodwork left unchanged since the turn of the 20th century.
By fall, renters will be able to live there and look out over Vandergrift, the area the VIP has spent the last four years trying to improve.
The VIP is a nonprofit organization that’s facilitating the Main Street program, a community revitalization initiative, Yurcaba said.
This summer, contractors will restore the apartments — one two-bedroom and two one-bedroom. The VIP is getting bids for painting along with electrical and plumbing work.
Yurcaba said the building facade has been partially restored with the help of a $300,000 grant from the Allegheny Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based Scaife Foundation that gives grants to historic preservation projects, made possible through the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
A new roof has been installed and asbestos abatement has occurred, Yurcaba said. The storefront needs to be restored, she said.
“We’re hoping that this building will be an example to others on what they can do to restore and rehabilitate others,” Yurcaba said.
A business will move into the first floor by late summer or fall, Yurcaba said. Plans for the business are being finalized, she said.
Yurcaba said the VIP has seen a couple of businesses relocate to the area and another reopen, although she said the VIP can’t take complete credit.
Carino’s Ristorante, 133 Grant Ave., will reopen next month, and owner Mark Carino said he’s anxious to get back into the business.
The restaurant, which had been in Vandergrift for 20 years, has been closed for about two-and-a-half years. Carino of Vandergrift said the restaurant will be “kind of different this time.”
“It’s going to be more neighborhood-friendly, more price-friendly,” Carino said, describing the previous restaurant as the “white tablecloth” kind.
Carino’s will offer pasta dishes, sauces, sandwiches, salads and appetizers and will be “kind of sports-oriented” with TVs.
Carino said VIP’s revitalization efforts were one of the deciding factors to open again.
“I like what they’re doing. They’re very pro-active. Before they came along, I thought it was stagnant. Now, they’re trying to do things. I can see other people trying to do things also,” he said.
Allan Walzak is president of StrongLand Chamber of Commerce, which represents Vandergrift among other municipalities, backs the VIP.
“It’s very important to us that every community within the chamber has an opportunity to move forward, to grow and develop,” he said. “We are here to help them.”
Walzak also serves as president of the Casino Theater, a partially-restored building in Vandergrift. He said there has been community interest and support of the theater.
Last week, the VIP received an $850 grant from the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau for the program’s farmers market, which will be held Thursdays this summer, beginning July 10, Yurcaba said.
The VIP this month received a $75,000 grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development to pay for the program’s operations, including running programs, keeping the office running and keeping the staff working on projects, Yurcaba said.
The VIP will also receive a DCED grant for $35,000 by fall or winter to help pay for building renovations, she said.
Another DCED grant, the Facade Grant Program, offers money to downtown businesses owners and property owners to rehabilitate their storefronts. The VIP receives this $30,000 grant each year for four years, Yurcaba said. The VIP has this $30,000 to grant to property owners to do renovations, and applications for funds are available at the program’s 132 Grant Ave. office or at its Web site, officialvandergrift.com. As much as $5,000 is available for each facade, depending on the project.
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Printer manufacturer to plant trees in area parks
By Allison M. Heinrichs
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 7, 2008A company that relies on paper is planning to plant 250 trees in Pittsburgh’s parks.Boston-based Riso, which makes digital printers and photocopiers, announced Tuesday that it will begin the plantings this weekend in Riverview Park in the North Side.That planting will commemorate the grand-opening of the company’s North Shore branch, which it opened about a year ago, after nine years in the South Hills.
“Twice a year for the next four years we’re going to do spring and fall plantings in Pittsburgh’s parks,” said branch manager Rick Laird. “We really want to make an impact in Pittsburgh.”
The company plans to plant 100,000 trees in U.S. parks as part of a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.Office Technology Magazine this year recognized Riso as the “most green” office technology dealer because of its focus on environmental stewardship. The company’s copiers use soy-based ink and conserve energy.
All the trees to be planted in Pittsburgh are native to Western Pennsylvania and include cucumber magnolia, American beech, redbud, tulip poplar and serviceberry.
“We’ve lost many trees over the years,” said Phil Gruszka, director of management and maintenance at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. “We’ve found that there are a number of places that currently don’t have trees that should, so we definitely appreciate this.”
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached ataheinrichs@tribweb.com or 412-380-5607.