Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Structure to be razed
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, December 8, 2005The Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission Wednesday agreed to allow part of a historic three-story building off Market Square to be demolished, though its unique facade will be preserved.
Although it is not known who designed the 130-year-old brick building at 439 Market St., it and an adjacent “twin” are the only structures remaining in the region that have decorative cast-iron window heads and sills, according to Cathy McCollom, chief program officer for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
The commission voted unanimously to allow the city, which owns the Downtown building, to hire a contractor to tear down the structure’s buckling rear wall and gut the interior. Most of the roof already has collapsed, which caused it to become structurally unsound.
“From a building inspector’s perspective, I would recommend total demolition — it’s an accident waiting to happen,” said commission member Ron Graziano, who heads the city’s Bureau of Building Inspection.
Graziano and the rest of the seven-member board supported a proposal by the city’s engineering and construction department to shore up the building’s side walls with bracing and construct a temporary roof and rear wall that would be replaced once a development plan is in place for the area.
Graziano suggested that board members who raised concerns about the look of the temporary rear wall not be “too picky” since any permanent changes would have to be approved by the commission. The commission is responsible for approving exterior designs to any buildings in city historic districts that are visible from public rights of way. The rear of the building is along Graeme Street.
Landmarks and the historic preservation group, Preserve Pittsburgh, supported partial demolition of the building. Landmarks, which previously offered to take over a number of Market Square buildings so they can be preserved, recently offered the city a no-interest loan of up to $75,000 to help pay for the work.
That should be more than enough. Al Kovacik, of the city’s engineering and construction department, said the partial demolition and reinforcement work would cost between $29,000 and $42,000. The cost for tearing the whole building down is estimated at about $55,000.
“With the approval of this plan, the city can spare a historic facade and save money at the same time,” Kovacik said.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or .
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Architectural historian was true Pittsburgher
By Jerry Vondas
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 3, 2005While Walter C. Kidney was renowned as one of the foremost architectural historians in the country, in his adoptive city of Pittsburgh he was known for his philanthropy and humility.
“Walter knew the breadth and range of the history of architecture worldwide,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Walter also knew Pittsburgh’s buildings in great detail and could place their significance against that sweeping backdrop.”
Mr. Kidney, of Mt. Washington, an architectural historian with the foundation, died Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005, at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, Oakland. He was 73.
He had the ability to analyze and summarize buildings in an erudite, yet witty way, Ziegler said.
Jack Miller, director of gift planning for the landmarks foundation, said Mr. Kidney’s expertise touched a broad range of people.
“Walter received a call from a woman who wanted to know what kind of windows she should place in a house that Walter figured had no historical significance.”
Miller recalled how Mr. Kidney, who lived on Mt. Washington, would ride the incline every morning to Station Square to the foundation offices.
“There was nothing pretentious about the man who wrote 20 books that are considered the bibles of historical architecture,” Miller said. “(Probably) very few people on the incline realized who he was.”
The summers he spent at his grandmother’s rooming house in Oakland helped to spark his interest in architecture. Mr. Kidney frequently said that the eclectic architecture of the neighborhood — including Greek Revival (Mellon Institute and the Masonic Temple) and the neo-Gothic (the Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh) — was inspiring.
Born in Johnstown, Cambria County, and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Kidney was an only child. His father taught both English and Latin.
After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Haverford College in Delaware County, Mr. Kidney worked at Random House in New York City, where he wrote definitions for the Random House Dictionary.
In the early 1950s, James D. Van Trump — who, along with Ziegler, established the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation — observed Mr. Kidney’s diligent research at the Carnegie Library in Oakland.
“Jamie said that there seemed to be a very interesting person doing research in the art, music and Pennsylvania rooms of the Carnegie,” Ziegler recalled. A subsequent meeting with Mr. Kidney began a long-lasting personal and professional relationship.
“Through the years, Jamie was so impressed with Walter’s expertise that Walter was the only one that Jamie would entrust his manuscripts for editing,” Ziegler said.
The first of Mr. Kidney’s many books was “The Architecture of Choice: Eclecticism in America 1880-1930,” published in 1974.
One of his recent publications, “Hornbostel in Pittsburgh,” documents the more than 70 projects that Henry Hornbostel designed in the Pittsburgh area.
Although Mr. Kidney had been freelancing for the landmarks foundation for a number of years, he decided in 1980 that it was time to join the staff.
In the ensuing years, Mr. Kidney also worked with Pittsburgher Magazine, writing feature articles — primarily on local architecture and geographical city profiles — and editing copy. One of his more provocative articles in Pittsburgher was his “Problems and Possibilities on the South Side.”
“Landmarks became Walter’s family,” Miller said. “He’s donated his annuity to Landmarks. He also made funds available to Haverford College, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera and the Architectural Archives of Hunt Library at Carnegie Mellon University.”
Mr. Kidney donated his large collection of classical and operatic records to the music department at Carnegie Library, Miller said.
Among Mr. Kidney’s numerous historical and architectural memberships, he was a member of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, a group founded in 1939 to perpetuate the memory of river workers and the preservation of river history.
There will be no visitation. A tentative date of Jan. 22 has been chosen for a memorial service.
Jerry Vondas can be reached at jvondas@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7823.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Historian knew his architecture locally and worldwide
By Jerry Vondas
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, December 2, 2005While Walter Kidney was renowned as one of the foremost architectural historians in the country, in his adoptive city of Pittsburgh he was known for his philanthropy and humility.
“Walter knew the breadth and range of the history of architecture worldwide,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Walter also knew Pittsburgh’s buildings in great detail, and could place their significance against that sweeping backdrop.”
Walter C. Kidney, of Mt. Washington, an architectural historian with the foundation, died Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005, of sepsis at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, Oakland. He was 73.
Ziegler said Mr. Kidney had the ability to analyze and summarize buildings in an erudite, yet witty way.
Jack Miller, director of gift planning for the landmarks foundation, recalled how Mr. Kidney’s expertise touched a broad range of people.
“Walter received a call from a woman who wanted to know what kind of windows she should place in a house that Walter figured had no historical significance.”
Miller also recalled how Mr. Kidney, who lived on Mt. Washington, would ride the incline every morning to Station Square to the foundation offices.
“There was nothing pretentious about the man who wrote 20 books that are considered the bibles of historical architecture,” Miller said. “(Probably) very few people on the incline realized who he was.”
The summers he spent at his grandmother’s rooming house in Oakland helped to spark his interest in architecture. Mr. Kidney frequently said that the eclectic architecture of the neighborhood — including Greek Revival (Mellon Institute and the Masonic Temple) and the neo-gothic (the Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh) — was inspiring.
Born in Johnstown, Cambria County, and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Kidney was an only child. His father taught both English and Latin.
After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Haverford College in Delaware County, Mr. Kidney worked at Random House in New York City where he wrote definitions for the Random House dictionary.
In the early 1950s, James D. Van Trump — who, along with Arthur Ziegler, established the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation — observed Mr. Kidney’s diligent research at the Carnegie Library in Oakland.
“Jamie said that there seemed to be a very interesting person doing research in the art, music and Pennsylvania rooms of the Carnegie,” Ziegler recalled. A subsequent meeting with Mr. Kidney began a long-lasting personal and professional relationship.
“Through the years, Jamie was so impressed with Walter’s expertise that Walter was the only one that Jamie would entrust his manuscripts for editing,” Ziegler said.
Throughout his career, Mr. Kidney published 20 books, beginning with “The Architecture of Choice: Eclecticism in America 1880-1930,” published in 1974.
One of his recent publications, “Hornbostel in Pittsburgh,” documents the more than 70 projects that Henry Hornbostel designed in the Pittsburgh area.
Although Mr. Kidney had been freelancing for the landmarks foundation for a number of years, he decided in 1980 that it was time to join the staff.
In the ensuing years, Mr. Kidney also worked with Pittsburgher Magazine, writing feature articles, primarily on local architecture and geographical city profiles, and editing copy. One of Mr. Kidney’s more provocative articles in Pittsburgher was his “Problems and Possibilities on the South Side.”
“Landmarks became Walter’s family,” Jack Miller said. “He’s donated his annuity to Landmarks. He also made funds available to Haverford College, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera and the Architectural Archives of Hunt Library at Carnegie Mellon University.
Mr. Kidney donated his large collection of classical and operatic records to the music department at Carnegie Library, Miller said.
Among Mr. Kidney’s numerous historical and architectural memberships, he was a member of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, a group founded in 1939 to perpetuate the memory of river workers and the preservation of river history.
There will be no visitation. A tenative date of Jan. 22, 2006, has been set to coincide with his Jan. 24, birthday.
Jerry Vondas can be reached at jvondas@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7823.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Newspaper is a symbol of owner’s commitment to community, philanthropy
By Marisol Bello
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 1, 2002The River City Brass Band’s 25 brass players and three percussionists jam throughout western Pennsylvania, introducing listeners to their lively repertoire of classical music, popular tunes and marches.
In the Mon Valley during the last 12 years, the Government Agency Coordination Office, an assistance program sponsored by California University of Pennsylvania, has helped small manufacturers to win more than 9,000 government contracts worth more than $445 million and to save or create almost 15,000 jobs in the region.
And in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood section, the Rev. Marie Jones rebuilt her 15-member Baptist church 10 blocks from her home after vandals burned down the wooden clapboard church she led in Westmoreland County.
Three disparate groups in different parts of the Pittsburgh area. But one tie bonds them together: They’ve all benefited from the Scaife family tradition of community involvement.
“I’ve never seen them, I’ve never met them,” said Jones, who at 75 still preaches from her new church every Sunday. “But they’ve been so kind and merciful.”
The Scaife family tradition of philanthropy has been forged not only through charitable foundations that donate millions of dollars to local causes, but also through one of the region’s fastest growing newspapers lucky alternative to its older, staid competitor.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s meteoric growth from a 1,000-circulation daily newspaper into an award-winning daily with more than 400 employees, four bureaus and three editions, is a testament to the commitment of its owner and publisher, Richard M. Scaife.
Ten years ago, in the wake of a bitter strike that led to the demise of one of the city’s two daily newspapers, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was born.
Scaife, descendant of a family that helped establish Pittsburgh’s manufacturing legacy, wanted to establish a new legacy as publisher and founder of the region’s No. 1 newspaper. He is adamant that a community with only one newspaper is impoverished.
His impact on southwestern Pennsylvania, however, spreads beyond the newspaper’s circulation.
The charitable efforts of Scaife and his family reach into the most unexpected places, building on a foundation laid in the first half of the last century by his father and mother.
The impact over the last six decades is almost incalculable. While the Scaife contributions for public policy initiatives are well-publicized, the family has donated millions upon millions to little-known causes throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area.
Over the last four years alone, Scaife, through three family foundations, has contributed more than $11 million to more than 50 organizations and efforts throughout western Pennsylvania.
The foundations the Allegheny Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Carthage Foundation have helped groups that participate in everything from sponsoring summer programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs to renovating the historic public libraries in Homestead and Braddock.
The newspaper also has its own foundation. In the last two years, Trib Charities has donated almost $55,000 to six local organizations, including Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Pittsburgh Firefighters Association.
From his 39th-floor office overlooking Downtown’s main attractions the Point, Station Square, Mt. Washington and PNC Park Scaife said his efforts are rooted in a desire for good government for a region with so much to offer.
“It is good government to have a city not about to go bankrupt,” Scaife said. “I want to create an environment where jobs are being created and people are moving into, and not out of, the area.
“Ideas have meaning,” he continued. “I’m trying to give people a choice with ideas and what’s best for this country.”
A tradition that spans six generations
The Scaife family has been an integral player in Pittsburgh history, going back to six generations of Scaifes when Jeffrey Scaife, Richard Scaife’s great-great-great grandfather, opened a tin, copper and sheet metal factory in 1802. The factory became the oldest manufacturing company west of the Alleghenies.
Over the years, the company added steamboat work and other metalwork products as it passed down the line to Richard Scaife’s great-great grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather and eventually his father, Alan M. Scaife.
Alan Scaife, and his wife, Sarah, strengthened the family’s extensive community involvement. Alan Scaife served on the University of Pittsburgh’s board of trustees and on Magee Hospital’s executive committee.
Sarah Scaife, meanwhile, founded the Sarah Scaife Foundation in 1941 to assist traditional charitable efforts, such as the Children’s Zoo, the Pittsburgh Zoo and tree-planting initiatives throughout the city’s 88 neighborhoods.
The family’s philanthropic bent often placed it in the center of history.
It was the Sarah Scaife Foundation that provided the original risk capital that allowed Dr. Jonas Salk to build his laboratory and conduct his research into a polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh. The foundation gave the doctor two grants, totaling $35,000, in the late 1940s and early 1950s that led to the discovery that eradicated polio.
In 1958, Richard Scaife took over the family’s philanthropic reins.
He became chair of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, shifting its focus to public policy organizations and initiatives. He created the Allegheny Foundation, which became the vehicle to do most of the community work that the Sarah Scaife Foundation no longer funded.
During Scaife’s early work with the foundations, the seeds of a partnership that would eventually transform part of the city were planted between him and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. History & Landmarks’ efforts in urban renewal and preservation complemented Scaife’s commitment to conservation and his love of history.
In the 1960s, History & Landmarks began work on mass urban-renewal programs throughout the city. Swaths of Manchester, the Mexican War Streets and the South Side were rehabilitated.
Scaife’s foundations provided the start-up money for renovations, demolitions and low-interest loans to low-income residents who wanted to buy or repair their homes.
Arthur Ziegler, executive director of History & Landmarks, said it was the first urban-renewal program that did not displace residents. The money provided by the Scaife foundations was integral to their efforts, Ziegler said.
“The grants continued to help us enlarge and expand the projects,” he said. “They provided the first funding for inner-city urban restoration work.”
The successful pairing led to the next big project: recreating Station Square.
In the mid-70s, the Scaife foundations, along with History & Landmarks, became interested in a project to reuse an existing rail station. Station Square was the ideal candidate.
Scaife donated more than $11 million in start-up money to History & Landmarks to develop the project. Today, Station Square is a booming economic generator for the city of Pittsburgh. It is one of the projects Scaife is most proud of.
“Not a dime of federal and state money went into that project,” Scaife said. “And unlike other projects, Station Square pays taxes to the city.”
Since then, the foundations have also provided funding to restore the once-grand libraries in Homestead and Braddock.
The reach of Scaife’s civic involvement extends to the arts and nature as well. Groups funded by the foundations represent Scaife’s interests, including education, the arts, culture and historical preservation.
Continuing a tradition begun by his mother, Scaife donated works of art to the Carnegie Museum. In 1974, he donated a new wing to the Carnegie and filled it with his mother’s art collection.
The Trib celebrates 10 years
In 1970, when the owners of the almost 100-year old Greensburg Tribune-Review wanted to sell the newspaper, Scaife bought it for about $5 million and became its publisher.
Twenty-two years later, a vicious strike hit Pittsburgh’s two competing newspapers, leading to the demise of the afternoon paper, The Pittsburgh Press.
Scaife thought a community with only one newspaper was impoverished, so he turned to the company’s president, Ed Harrell and said, “Start a newspaper in Pittsburgh.”
“I’m a newspaper junkie,” Scaife said. “I think the people of this region need a choice. Compare it to being in a supermarket. How would you like having one choice of ice cream or one choice of soda? Pittsburgh is fortunate to have the choice of more than one newspaper. Most cities don’t offer that choice.”
Scaife’s love of newspapers goes back to when he was 9 years old and recuperating from injuries he suffered after falling off his horse. “I had a lot of time on my hands,” he said.
So he read a lot. He read every newspaper he could get his hands on from all over the country and around the world, comparing the style and content of each one. “It was a hobby. I even named my horse News Girl.”
His passion for newspapers reached its height on Dec. 17, 1992, when the first edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review hit the newsstands and began its decadelong challenge to be the region’s dominant newspaper.
It started with a circulation in the city of just over 1,000 copies.
The mostly young staff of about 15 worked out of a converted three-story warehouse in Station Square. At first, they shared the first floor with other businesses, but eventually the paper took over the entire building.
“It was a pioneering adventure,” said Eric Heyl, who began working for the paper a month after it started operating. Today, he is the paper’s nationally recognized, award-winning humor columnist.
“We were doing something that had really not been done before in modern journalism,” he said. “There was no book to fall back on and that was part of the charm.”
The editorial staff consisted of seven reporters and one city editor. There was no copy desk and reporters had no access to wire services and most of the modern amenities journalists take for granted. But the group had heart.
“We practiced guerrilla journalism. The point was to hit them where they aren’t and get the stories they weren’t writing or were too lazy to get,” Heyl said of the competition.
“I could not have envisioned an operation like this,” Heyl said in the expansive North Shore office the Trib calls home today. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I don’t think can be duplicated today in American journalism where newspapers are shutting down, not starting up. ”
Jim Kubus was the paper’s only full-time photographer at the time. He remembers how he and a string of freelancers processed film in a broom closet in the men’s room. Whenever a female photographer worked in there, she hung a homemade sign on the door alerting anyone who wanted to use the restroom, “Woman in darkroom.”
Slowly, the paper grew. Attractive subscription deals for new readers, targeted marketing in the city and suburbs, and aggressive reporting began to cement the paper’s position in the region.
In 1997, the Trib went high-tech with a 13-acre $43 million press facility called NewsWorks in Marshall Township. The new plant was essential to the paper’s growth. The new presses allowed the paper to print color on virtually every page.
Two years later, the Pittsburgh Trib moved to its new newsroom and business offices, the sprawling third-floor office at the old Clark Candy Co. factory on the North Side. It was quite a change from the fledgling operation that bustled in Station Square.
“We went from this penny-in-the-fuse-box situation, where it was like, ‘Let’s do this to get by,’ ” Kubus said. “We went from that to cutting-edge technology. Our paper was the first in the region to be all digital in photography.”
Over the last decade, the Trib built a tradition of journalistic excellence, as more of its writers and editors won local, state and national honors for hard-hitting news stories.
Special investigative reports, such as Pittsburgh’s financial crisis, the area’s unguarded nuclear and chemical plants and the state’s financially troubled lottery, have added to the newspaper’s goal of presenting readers with local, timely, in-depth issues.
Last year’s report on “blood money” investments in questionable foreign companies persuaded the state to re-examine its pension funds. And state lawmakers opened their office expenses to public scrutiny after the Pittsburgh Trib revealed no accounting existed for $1.5 million in state tax money spent by western Pennsylvania House members.
“The biggest challenge faced by the Tribune-Review is habit, but we’re succeeding in home sales, and new people moving into the community are buying the Tribune-Review,” Scaife said. “Ultimately, we want to control this market. We want to be the No. 1 source of news in Pittsburgh.”
Scaife philanthropy today
Today, the Sarah Scaife Foundation is worth about $300 million, the Allegheny Foundation about $40 million, and a third foundation, the Carthage, which funds only public-policy groups, about $25 million. The range of organizations they’ve touched is wide indeed.
Take the North Side’s River City Brass Band, which for 12 years has been a beneficiary of the Allegheny Foundation. Over the last four years alone, the group has received $200,000.
Marilyn Thomas, executive director, said the grants are integral. They help with operating costs and have no strings attached.
As a result, the band is able to perform more than 100 times a year in eight communities, from Homestead to Upper St. Clair, and in cities around the country. The band not only plays old favorites and marches, it commissions new works and has recorded several CDs.
In Hazelwood, the Rev. Jones and her New Hope Baptist Church had little hope for a new church after vandals burned down the white wooden-clapboard building in Westmoreland County where she held services for her 15 parishioners.
The church had no insurance on the building and no money to rebuild it. After the fire, Jones preached in the grassy field where the charred remains of the church smoldered.
But after her plight appeared in a story in the Tribune-Review, the Allegheny Foundation, with Scaife’s urging, gave the church $25,000 to find a new building.
“I opened up the letter saying they were giving us $25,000 and I screamed,” she said. She thought it was a joke at first.
Jones was so grateful that for a number of years she sent the foundation’s staff a Christmas card with $1 inside.
In 1999, the church bought for $15,000 a two-story building in Hazelwood that had been a nuisance bar. Jones used the rest of the grant to renovate and paint the deteriorated building, install a new furnace and buy knickknacks at Goodwill, such as the two angels one black, one white that light up when plugged in and the gold-colored candlestick holders that decorate the church.
To this day, Jones doesn’t know how or why the foundation found out about her, or why it gave her the money.
Whoever told them about the church, she said, “was someone who had a Christian heart. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have helped us.”
In the Mon Valley, a different type of effort is at work. The Government Agency Coordination Office, based at California University of Pennsylvania, has helped area manufacturers recover from the steel decline that began in the late 1980s. The office works with those companies to help them win government defense contracts.
As a result, they’ve created and saved thousands of jobs in the depressed Mon Valley and brought millions of dollars to the region. For more than a decade, the Sarah Scaife Foundation has funded the project.
The group is another example of Scaife’s interest in education and in encouraging programs that promote personal responsibility.
Joanne Beyer, who until recently oversaw the Allegheny Foundation, said, “We support the idea that private action and personal responsibility are the key to a better world.”
Marisol Bello can be reached at mbello@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7994.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Grants help churches restore their beauty
By Violet Law
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, November 25, 2005Rain no longer trickles down through the roof during worship services at the Pittsburgh New Church in Point Breeze.
New equipment at Zion Christian Church in Carrick allows Spanish-speaking members to understand and take part in worship services.The stained-glass windows that filter light into the sanctuary of Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland have been restored to their former glory.
In its 10th year, a program by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation that offers grants and technical assistance to houses of worship to maintain their facilities has not only helped preserve historically significant architecture in the region but has strengthened congregations that have wrestled with crumbling structures.
More than 130 grants have been awarded to 88 churches in Allegheny County during the past decade.
The program, which includes historic religious properties grants and technical assistance awards, began in 1996 with seed money from the Allegheny Foundation. A survey by the foundation at the time documented more than 6,000 architecturally significant religious structures in the county.
But most couldn’t qualify for any government grants for repairs because of the constitutional separation between church and state.
“The buildings were growing older, and their needs are increasing,” said Cathy McCollom, the foundation’s chief programs officer. She said that through the grant program, “we’ve been able to build the relationships with churches and watch their progress.”
The grants range from $2,000 to $8,000 and require matching donations from the receiving congregations. For those who have been awarded the grants, many repeatedly, these dollars have made a big impact.
When the Bellefield Presbyterian Church board members solicited bids several years ago to repair all of the Oakland church’s stained-glass windows, they found the price tag — roughly $400,000 — staggering.
But after seven grants, which totaled $20,650, the church’s members have mended the 15 windows that surround the sanctuary. They also received professional advice on masonry work on the sandstone facade.
“The most significant for us is that it has enabled us to keep the momentum going,” said Susan Norman, the church’s volunteer treasurer. The matching donation requirement, Norman said, has kept the congregation focused on budgeting the money where it is most needed and helped it chip away at what seems to be a gargantuan project. “It’s a good way to keep it moving along,” she said.
At Zion Christian Church in Carrick, a portion of one of the four grants awarded paid for a translation broadcasting unit, which helps Spanish-speaking members — who account for at least one-fifth of the church’s attendance — to follow the sermons and announcements.
With an $8,000 grant in 2004, the members of Pittsburgh New Church have patched up the long-deteroriating slate roof and don’t have to use buckets to catch the drops from the sanctuary. The new $8,000 grant will help repoint the masonry and fix the steeple.
“Now we can focus on religious and spiritual things,” said Steve David, who heads the church’s maintenance committee. “We’re not as much about the building as we’re about the congregation.”
Violet Law can be reached at vlaw@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7884.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Students take on architecture
By Bob Stiles
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, October 28, 2005Shannon Page likes ugly buildings.
“I love to make them look pretty,” she said.Page and about 150 other Southwestern Pennsylvania students will get the chance — at least on paper and in a model — to improve the looks of one building, the former Bugzy’s Bagel shop in Greensburg.
The students are participating in the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation’s 10th annual Architectural Design Challenge, which is being held in Westmoreland County for the first time.
“I like to put things together and make things better than they use to be,” Page, a Belle Vernon Area High School sophomore, said of why she takes part in the competition. “And I like to make them more appealing to the senses.”
On Tuesday and Wednesday, middle and high school students from about a dozen school districts, most in Westmoreland County, examined the exterior of the former bagel shop on West Pittsburgh Street. They also toured nearby structures, including the Palace Theatre.
The competition requires the students to come up with a use for the building — one that they anticipate would please and attract the public. They then must redesign the building, depict that revamped structure in a model and present their ideas to a panel of judges.
Judging will be held in February for both the middle and high school students at the Greensburg Garden and Civic Center.
Among the criteria used in the evaluation are the project’s feasibility and the creativity of the students. Other factors are the accuracy of the model and the effectiveness of the oral presentation.
In the competition, the students must keep in mind how their new design would fit in with surrounding structures — the reason for touring the nearby buildings, officials said.
Foundation officials said they brought the competition from Allegheny County, where it previously was held, to Greensburg because of the strong interest shown in the past by Westmoreland County schools.
“These kids are incredible,” said Louise Sturgess, the foundation’s executive director. “What they’re able to do is amazing.”
To attract customers, Page and her six schoolmates are considering turning Bugzy’s into a restaurant with structural features from the 1930s and ’40s.
“And to attract more people, we want to put shops around it,” Page said.
Antique stores, which are proposed for a parking lot that adjoins Bugzy’s, are especially being considered by her group, Page said.
The team that Page was on last year finished third in the competition, with a museum it proposed for Point State Park in Pittsburgh.
“We were close, but we’ve never actually won. Hopefully, this is our year,” Page said.
Sara Yates, 17, a Yough senior who hopes one day to be involved in government, said she isn’t as interested in architecture as she is on the effects of construction on a community and its government.
The competition — her fourth — also is a blast, she said.
“I just think it’s fun,” Yates said. “I like building the model and presenting it. I like public speaking.”
The Franklin Regional team that Andrew Skoff, 14, was on last year finished second in the competition. The freshman is participating in the challenge — his third — because he is interested in architectural engineering.
“I like the planning, the thought process that goes into it,” Skoff said.
His team was considering turning the Greensburg building into a bookstore with a cafe and outside garden.
The students learned about zoning and other building-related regulations from representatives of the Westmoreland County Historical Society, the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, the Greensburg Planning Department and the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture. The officials also shared their views on what Greensburg and its surrounding communities are like.
Linda Kubas, Palace Theatre manager, said the tour of Greensburg’s downtown was to help the students to design a building that conforms to the other structures in the community.
“It’s to blend into the use and the character of downtown Greensburg,” she said of the students’ building.
Greensburg planner Barbara Ciampini told the high school students that Bugzy’s closed several years ago, and the structure previously was used as a bar.
“It was a vibrant corner,” Ciampini said. “It would be great to see that once again.”
Bob Stiles can be reached at bstiles@tribweb.com or (724) 836-6622.
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National Trust will plumb Pittsburgh preserves
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, October 6, 2005The last time the National Trust for Historic Preservation held its annual conference in Pittsburgh, the idea of revitalizing city neighborhoods meant bulldozing old buildings and replacing them with modern structures.
But the collapse of the steel industry in the decades following the trust’s 1961 conference here killed most of those plans.
The city’s economic misfortunes forced Pittsburghers to work with what they had — thousands of turn-of-the-century buildings that, though rundown, were relatively unchanged from the time they were built.
Next fall, thousands of historic preservationists from around the country will get the chance to see how Pittsburgh managed to remake itself without throwing out the old for the new.
“Around the country there is great interest among preservationists to see what the restoration of historic buildings has done to help revitalize inner cities,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
“I think a lot of the people who come here next year will be surprised at the degree to which historic preservation has weaved itself into the fabric of so many neighborhoods,” Ziegler said.
Ziegler, who recently returned from the trust’s national conference in Portland, Ore., submitted the application for the trust to hold its 2006 conference here between Oct. 31 and Nov. 5.
Peter Brink, senior vice president for programs at the National Trust, said Pittsburgh was selected from among seven other Northeastern U.S. cities because of its “impressive preservation story.”
“We are particularly interested in the fact that many of the neighborhoods where historic preservation has occurred was done by and for the residents,” Brink said.
Another area that captured the trust’s attention was the “incredible adaptive reuse” of former industrial and commercial buildings in Pittsburgh, Brink said.
“We’re excited about learning more about how the old post office (on the North Side) was turned into a Children’s Museum, and a former mattress factory is now a theater,” Brink said.
Architect Michael Eversmeyer, chairman of the city’s Historic Review Commission, said interest in restoring older buildings often is driven by the “character” that modern construction often lacks.
“There’s certain visual elements that are very appealing in these old buildings,” said Eversmeyer. “The ornamentation and materials that were used — stained glass, carved woodwork and trim, ornamental plaster and stonework — while available on new buildings, are often financially out of reach for many people.”
The Historic Review Commission initially planned to change its November 2006 meeting so it did not conflict with the trust’s conference but now is considering holding it so attendees can “see how things are done here,” Eversmeyer said.
In addition to an array of programs that will be conducted during the conference at the Pittsburgh Hilton, field seminars will be held in neighborhoods including Manchester, the North Side, the South Side and Lawrenceville and in towns outside the city such as Uniontown in Fayette County.
Preservationists also plan to illustrate failed efforts to revitalize city neighborhoods by plowing under older buildings.
“All we have to do is look at what happened when they replaced the old market house on the North Side with Allegheny Center Mall, or the construction of the high-rises and outdoor mall that killed East Liberty for proof that new is not always better,” said Dennis Freeland, real estate marketing specialist for the North Side Leadership Conference.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Wilkinsburg housing project gains approval
By Sam Spatter
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 29, 2005Another project to improve the housing inventory in Wilkinsburg has been approved by the Allegheny County Redevelopment Authority.
The authority on Wednesday authorized the county’s Economic Development Department to move ahead on the Peebles (Street) Square project, which involves the rehabilitation or construction of 12 to 14 houses in that area.
In July, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation joined with Wilkinsburg Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, in a separate project to revitalize housing in a six-block area near St. James Church, known as Hamnett Place neighborhood.
For the Peebles project, the authority will seek $1 million in acquisition funds from the state and apply to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for about $2 million to assist the developer, Action-Housing, in the project.
“About four of the houses are occupied, two by owners, but the rest are either vacant or boarded-up, or the site vacant,” said Dennis Davin, the Economic Development Department’s executive director.
The overall cost of the program is about $5.6 million, with new houses selling for about $75,000 and rehabilitated houses, $65,000. The authority plans to provide a second mortgage of about $20,000, which is paid only upon resale of the house, he said.
The Hamnett Place neighborhood project includes rehabilitation of six abandoned buildings along Jeanette Street to create opportunities for new single-family housing.
Allegheny County is providing $500,000 for the project, and the History & Landmarks Foundation, and the state, will provide matching funds.
Cathy McCollom, the foundation’s chief programs officer, estimates the cost to redo the initial six properties could range between $90,000 and $130,000 per unit.
Sam Spatter can be reached at sspatter@tribweb.com.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review