Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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A crown jewel where a duke and count played
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, April 8, 2004Historic preservationists have taken the first steps toward protecting the famed New Granada Theater, on Centre Avenue in the Hill District, from demolition or major alterations.
Built in 1927, the building is the principal surviving work of Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger, an important African-American architect. Only a few of Bellinger’s buildings survive today.“Even though the New Granada has been closed for decades, people still talk about it,” said Esther L. Bush, chief executive of the Urban League of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh’s seven-member Historic Review Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to proceed with the process of designating the New Granada Theater as a City of Pittsburgh Historic Structure — a measure proposed by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
A series of public hearings by the Historic Review Commission, the city Planning Commission and City Council must be conducted before council can vote on granting the designation.
“The New Granada is not only a part of Pittsburgh’s cultural heritage, it has the potential of being part of this city’s future,” Bush said. “If it’s developed, it can become another cultural attraction.”The theater was built as the Pythian Temple, a lodge for a group of African-American construction workers known as the Knights of Pythias. In the 1930s, the building was sold to the owner of the Granada Theatre, located several blocks up on Centre Avenue. When the movie house was moved to the current location, the word “new” was tacked onto the marquee.
In its heyday, the 11,341-square-foot New Granada Theatre was a major draw for live entertainment and movies. Jazz greats Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington performed there.
“The building is in very bad shape,” said Mulugetta Birru, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority. “It’s going to take a lot of money to rehab it.”
Representatives of Hill Community Development Corp., which owns the theater, could not be reached for comment.
Councilman Sala Udin, whose district includes the Hill, said the designation could be a draw for proposed redevelopment along several blocks of Centre Avenue.
“Obviously it will take a developer with some vision to turn that theater into something that is commercially successful,” Udin said.
Udin said he believes a mix of new housing, storefronts and restored buildings could help revive the neighborhood.
“I would like to see the storefronts built so we can consolidate the businesses in the area and create some momentum outward,” he said.
Efforts to develop the area stalled last year after a Las Vegas developer selected by the city failed to deliver on a master plan for the proposed project.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com.
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Ligonier Valley engineers winning riverfront design
By Marjorie Wertz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 21, 2004The hardest part was getting started. But once they did, the Ligonier Valley High School Budding Builders team constructed a first-place showing in the 2003-04 Westmoreland County Architectural Design Challenge.
Westmoreland County Gifted Coalition and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation sponsored the eighth annual competition. The challenge called for student teams to select an appropriate site for a barge building and construct a model detailing the plans. School teams were given a choice of 10 different sites along the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers in Pittsburgh.
“The students chose to base their model on a site along the Mon River, across from the Technology Center,” at the South Side Works Development, formerly J & L Steel, said Jennifer Brisendine, one of Ligonier Valley High’s four gifted program advisers.
Senior David Poerschke, who served as team leader, has participated in the challenge for three years. He was joined on this year’s team by junior Kelly Morrisey; junior Patrick Sharbaugh; senior Stephanie Pompelia; and junior Abby Orchard.
“In my sophomore year, we were given the challenge to remodel one of the old Carnegie libraries. Last year, we were assigned an empty lot on the North Side and told we could build whatever we wanted,” Poerschke said. “This year’s challenge was more open. We had to come up with a place to start.”
Morrisey, a 16-year-old who has been interested in architecture for several years, said the team labored to develop a concept.
“Once you have a good concept, you build from there,” said Morrisey. “The team discussed the concept of our design for a while.”
“It was a very open-ended assignment and, since I’m a very structured person, it was difficult to get started,” said Pompelia, whose father, Mick, took her on a tour of the South Side bike trail.
“It gave me the idea of incorporating a rest area and information center in the model,” Pompelia added. The model had to be based on the size of an actual barge, 150 feet long by 35 feet wide. The students could build whatever design they wanted, as long as the model remained within the specifications.
“The team came up with a cross between a barge building, an information center, and a rest area for people who use the bike trail along the river,” said Brisendine. “The students really had to think outside the box on this assignment.”
In addition to model construction, the team had to write a report detailing the project and present an oral report to competing teams and judges. Projects were judged on feasibility, creativity, aesthetics, effectiveness of the oral presentation, and teamwork.
The budding builders worked on their project from October to Feb. 10, the day of the judging. Other high school participants were three teams from Belle Vernon Area; three teams from Mt. Pleasant Area; Yough; Burrell; Connellsville Area; four teams from Franklin Regional in Murrysville; Greater Latrobe; and two teams from Ligonier Valley.
Twenty-two middle school teams also competed. They were Laurel Valley; two teams from Burrell; Mt. Pleasant; five Franklin Regional teams; three teams from Greensburg Salem; three teams from Rostraver in Belle Vernon Area; four Penn-Trafford teams; Yough; Valley; and Greater Latrobe.
“We were incredibly impressed with the quality and the time the students put into the projects,” said Louise Sturgess, executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “They come up with the most ingenious use of materials in their models. All the models are beautifully made. It’s incredible what these students can do.”
In the past several years, some of the students’ work has been utilized in renovation projects in the Pittsburgh area.
“In the new renovation plans for the Brookline and Homewood Carnegie Libraries, many of the elements that the students had in their models from several years ago are being incorporated into these renovations,” said Sturgess.
The 2004-05 competition will focus on the Fifth and Forbes area of Pittsburgh, Sturgess said.
“We’ll probably take them downtown in October and have them focus on a building or two and working toward preserving a building,” she added. “Maybe the students can trigger new life in the Fifth and Forbes area of Pittsburgh.”
Marjorie Wertz can be reached at mwertz@tribweb.com or (724) 522-2904.
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Ligonier Valley engineers winning riverfront design
By Marjorie Wertz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 21, 2004The hardest part was getting started. But once they did, the Ligonier Valley High School Budding Builders team constructed a first-place showing in the 2003-04 Westmoreland County Architectural Design Challenge.
Westmoreland County Gifted Coalition and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation sponsored the eighth annual competition. The challenge called for student teams to select an appropriate site for a barge building and construct a model detailing the plans. School teams were given a choice of 10 different sites along the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers in Pittsburgh.“The students chose to base their model on a site along the Mon River, across from the Technology Center,” at the South Side Works Development, formerly J & L Steel, said Jennifer Brisendine, one of Ligonier Valley High’s four gifted program advisers.
Senior David Poerschke, who served as team leader, has participated in the challenge for three years. He was joined on this year’s team by junior Kelly Morrisey; junior Patrick Sharbaugh; senior Stephanie Pompelia; and junior Abby Orchard.
“In my sophomore year, we were given the challenge to remodel one of the old Carnegie libraries. Last year, we were assigned an empty lot on the North Side and told we could build whatever we wanted,” Poerschke said. “This year’s challenge was more open. We had to come up with a place to start.”
Morrisey, a 16-year-old who has been interested in architecture for several years, said the team labored to develop a concept.“Once you have a good concept, you build from there,” said Morrisey. “The team discussed the concept of our design for a while.”
“It was a very open-ended assignment and, since I’m a very structured person, it was difficult to get started,” said Pompelia, whose father, Mick, took her on a tour of the South Side bike trail.
“It gave me the idea of incorporating a rest area and information center in the model,” Pompelia added. The model had to be based on the size of an actual barge, 150 feet long by 35 feet wide. The students could build whatever design they wanted, as long as the model remained within the specifications.
“The team came up with a cross between a barge building, an information center, and a rest area for people who use the bike trail along the river,” said Brisendine. “The students really had to think outside the box on this assignment.”
In addition to model construction, the team had to write a report detailing the project and present an oral report to competing teams and judges. Projects were judged on feasibility, creativity, aesthetics, effectiveness of the oral presentation, and teamwork.
The budding builders worked on their project from October to Feb. 10, the day of the judging. Other high school participants were three teams from Belle Vernon Area; three teams from Mt. Pleasant Area; Yough; Burrell; Connellsville Area; four teams from Franklin Regional in Murrysville; Greater Latrobe; and two teams from Ligonier Valley.
Twenty-two middle school teams also competed. They were Laurel Valley; two teams from Burrell; Mt. Pleasant; five Franklin Regional teams; three teams from Greensburg Salem; three teams from Rostraver in Belle Vernon Area; four Penn-Trafford teams; Yough; Valley; and Greater Latrobe.
“We were incredibly impressed with the quality and the time the students put into the projects,” said Louise Sturgess, executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “They come up with the most ingenious use of materials in their models. All the models are beautifully made. It’s incredible what these students can do.”
In the past several years, some of the students’ work has been utilized in renovation projects in the Pittsburgh area.
“In the new renovation plans for the Brookline and Homewood Carnegie Libraries, many of the elements that the students had in their models from several years ago are being incorporated into these renovations,” said Sturgess.
The 2004-05 competition will focus on the Fifth and Forbes area of Pittsburgh, Sturgess said.
“We’ll probably take them downtown in October and have them focus on a building or two and working toward preserving a building,” she added. “Maybe the students can trigger new life in the Fifth and Forbes area of Pittsburgh.”
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Church had roots in city’s black community
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 14, 2004The Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Hill District has been a cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s black community since shortly after the Civil War.
Ebenezer Baptist, the first black Baptist congregation in Western Pennsylvania to own a church building, has been a driving force in the nation’s civil right’s movement.
“It’s hard for me to think of a church more significant in the African-American community,” said Arthur Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Ebenezer Baptist dates to 1875 when the congregation was formed. The congregation bought a church from the Presbyterians in 1906, and moved about 1930 to the current site at 2001 Wylie Ave.
Its role in the civil rights movement was highlighted by its hosting of the National Urban League’s annual conference in 1932. Later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his first visit.
It was the site of other firsts, too. In 1923, it started using a bus, called the gospel wagon, to drive church members with physical limitations to services — the first black church to do so in the nation, according to Manford Sales, the church’s senior deacon.
Sales says it also was the first black church to install an elevator. That came in 1965.
“Our church is important,” he said. “We’ve only had 10 ministers there.”
The church survived a fire in January 1976 that caused $300,000 in damage to the building, just three years after the Rev. Dr. J. Van Alfred Winsett, the current pastor, arrived at Ebenezer Baptist.
In one way or another, the church has touched many lives.
“My dad went to Ebenezer Baptist and used to sing in the choir over there,” said Tim Stevens, the president of the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch. “When I saw the fire (Saturday) morning, the first thing I thought of was my dad.”
Today, the church operates an 11-story senior high-rise, a $5.4 million building with 101 apartments. It also operates its own personal care home and a million dollar Christian life center.
The church is the main meeting spot for numerous community programs, including Head Start, Alcoholics Anonymous, and all scouting groups.
It has a choir, ministers to prisoners, helps students obtain scholarships and learn with the help of mentors. Each year, it reaches out to youngsters through an 11-week summer academy.
“That church was used by so many people,” said Winsett, the church’s senior pastor.
Winsett is heard weekly on Christian radio stations WGBN, Pittsburgh, and WDIG in Steubenville, Ohio. A new sound and video system was installed recently in the church to display scriptures, highlight points in the preacher’s sermon and show announcements.
Today was to be its unveiling.
Clutching her daughter, Deborah Tyler of Garfield stood, crying, watching the embers of the roof spiral into the place where the new video system once stood.
“I had to come and say goodbye to Ebenezer,” she said. “I’m so distraught. This church is, was, so special to all of us. My daughter goes here. Her daughters would’ve gone to church here, too.”
Ebenezer Baptist Church
Important dates in the church’s history:
Church building built by Presbyterians in 1873.
Ebenezer congregation formed in 1875.
Ebenezer Baptist bought a church in 1906.
Host of the National Urban League conference in 1932.
Dr. J. Van Alfred Winsett becomes pastor in 1973.
Fire damages church in 1975, causing $300,000 in damage. Later restored.
Designated historic landmark in 1979.
Sources: Church members and historyStaff writer Vince Guerrieri also contributed to this story.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.
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Some old schools are seeking new purpose
By Maggi Newhouse
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, February 23, 2004South Hills High School is a cold, hollow place.
The plaster is peeling, the hardwood floors are buckling and rain water streams in through the porous roof.
The massive building in Mt. Washington, which opened in 1916, once drew so many students from Pittsburgh’s southern communities that graduation programs had to be split over two days. It is one of more than a half-dozen district-owned schools that closed during the past 20 years due to declining enrollment.
School officials now face the daunting challenge of trying to persuade community groups and developers to restore and reuse these deteriorating buildings.
After two decades of futility, the district last month transferred the rights to South Hills High to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, hoping that city agency will have better luck.
There have been success stories.The old Latimer junior/senior high school on the North Side, which closed in 1982, was sold to a developer who converted the classrooms into the School House apartments and preserved many of the original features of the 106-year-old building, including the stairways and classroom numbers, said building manager Sarah Beck.
The Carriage House Children’s Center purchased Wightman Elementary School in 1986, six years after it closed. It now uses the basement and first floor of the Squirrel Hill facility for its preschool and full-day programs and leases the second floor to nonprofits.
Carriage House Executive Director Natalie Kaplan said the center has spent about $1.5 million to renovate and bring the building up to code, but also saved many distinctive features, including a third-floor gymnasium and several stained glass windows.
“It’s very exciting,” Kaplan said. “People come from out of town all the time and say ‘I went to school here. Can I walk around?'”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Executive Director Louise Sturgess said that many city schools were built with quality materials, in prominent locations, to demonstrate the value of education to the community.
“The buildings were built to be permanent, to be symbols to the community that education is important,” she said.
That’s exactly what the Rev. Tim Smith sees every day from his office at Keystone Church of Hazelwood.
Next door, on a hillside overlooking Hazelwood, stands Gladstone Middle School.
Smith remembers its hallways being filled with people after the school day had ended. They came for computer and adult literacy classes, YMCA programs and athletic events.
When the district closed the 90-year-old school in 2001, many of the community programs went with it, Smith said.
“It was a place to go for a lot of kids who didn’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “It was pretty devastating, in my opinion.”
Smith heads the Gladstone Task Force, a group created by the Hazelwood Initiative. They have petitioned the school district to help pay for a $60,000 study looking at options for Gladstone.
There’s even hope for South Hills High School.
Jim DeGilio, a member of the Mt. Washington Community Development Corp., said a number of developers are moving forward with plans to buy the building and make it into a combination residential and commercial site.
DeGilio said it would cost about $20 million to repair and convert the 3.4-acre property.
While officials say they try to work with community groups interested in the properties, it often takes years for projects to move forward.
The poor condition of South Hills High, which closed in 1985, prompted school board members last month to ask the staff for recommendations.
“It’s unlikely we’d have something as drastic happen in most of these other buildings, but we would still want to move more expeditiously (on those schools) than we did on South Hills,” said district Chief Operations Officer Richard Fellers.
Fellers said his staff plans to have recommendations on other properties by late spring or early summer.
Fellers said a staff member is assigned to each school to make sure the building and surrounding grounds are maintained. Each school also is on the district’s security system.
“We do continue to look after them,” he said, noting the district still has to pay for utilities and general supplies to maintain the buildings.
School board member Randall Taylor said he would like to see something happen as soon as possible with the former Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts building in Homewood.
The 96-year-old building, a former elementary school, closed last year when the district opened the new CAPA school Downtown.
Taylor said he has been talking with community groups and other people about trying to develop a community center geared toward families, but that could take years.
His fear is that people will vandalize and tamper with the building now that it is empty.
“The schools are protected when the kids are there,” he said. “Now that they’re gone, all bets are off.”
Maggi Newhouse can be reached at mnewhouse@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7997.
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A world away, an example set
By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE REVIEW
Sunday, January 25, 2004ESSEN, Germany — On a rainy Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Germans flock to Zeche Zollverein, a collection of red brick buildings that was built in 1932 and was once called the most beautiful mine in the world.
At its peak, 12,000 tons of coal was unearthed at Zeche Zollverein every day, but no coal has been mined since 1986. Today, Zeche Zollverein is a leading tourist attraction in the Ruhr region in western Germany and considered a prime example of converting an industrial site to a multiuse facility.One building houses the Red Dot Design museum, which showcases the best designs of everything from cell phones to automobiles to utensils — everything including the kitchen sinks — all against the backdrop of a five-story building once used to process coal, with much of the original machinery intact. Next door, visitors can catch a meal or a drink in a turbine room-turned-restaurant.
Other parts of the facility include office space, artist studios and, by 2006, a new building will be constructed to house what backers hope will be one of the leading design schools in Europe. On Monday, winners of an International business plan competition presented plans aimed at making the complex self sufficient when government funding amounting to 110 million Euros ($136.2 million) runs out in 2006.
“It would be much easier to build a new building and perhaps it would cost less. But this is only one part of our perspective,” said Professor Dr. Ulrich Borsdorf, director of the Ruhrland Museum, which plans to open a new facility on the site by 2007. “The idea is to reuse the old buildings for a new purpose.”
Whether it’s a former steel mill converted into a nightclub or a former train station that is now a lunch counter, there are scores of examples of “creative reuse” of historic structures in this former industrial region of Germany. Perhaps because so much has been lost — in the nearby industrial center of Dortmund, nearly 95 percent of the city’s buildings were destroyed or damaged by Allied bombers during World War II — there is a deep-seated desire among urban planners here to preserve old spaces and places.“It’s protected as a cultural heritage area. You cannot tear it down,” Borsdorf said.
It’s a stark contrast to Pittsburgh, where almost all of the idled steel mills that once lined the region’s rivers were torn down in the 1980s and 1990s.
“We tried, but we were always turned down,” Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, said of local efforts to do what has been done in Essen and other parts of Europe. “To me, I think it’s tragic that a city with this international reputation as a great steel center did not capitalize on that — just because you build a lively museum doesn’t mean you’re living in the past.”
Even before the Jones & Laughlin mill on the South Side closed, Ziegler had approached officials with the idea of building a restaurant that would give diners a view of the mill’s electric arc furnace in action. The idea was shot down for liability issues, but once the mill closed, Ziegler tried to push forward plans to save some of the mill buildings for museums, restaurants and other uses.
“For some reason the leadership thought we needed a new image,” Ziegler said. “But it doesn’t matter where you live on the planet, if you think of iron and steel, you think of Pittsburgh. If people will go to St. Louis to see an arch, they’d certainly come to Pittsburgh to hear this story.”
All of the buildings on the South Side mill site have since been torn down. Today the city Urban Redevelopment Authority is working on LTV South Side Works, a mixed-use brownfield redevelopment project completely reliant on new construction.
“They’ve spent a great deal of money on redevelopment and boosting its image as something else,” Ziegler said. “But by trying to make yourself into every other place, you fail to distinguish yourself from every other place.”
Casino Zollverein, the restaurant in the turbine room in Essen, is perhaps a close approximation of what Ziegler envisioned for the South Side Works. Rows of tables are perched on former catwalks, and original equipment serves as a backdrop to meals prepared by a chef known for marrying “new” German cuisine with local ingredients.
Other buildings at Zeche Zollverein house artists’ studios, exhibit space, performance venues, offices and Museum Zollverein, a traditional museum that chronicles the history of the mine itself.
But officials charged with redeveloping Zeche Zollverein don’t want the facility to be seen as a tourist attraction, even with the long skating rink next to a battery of idled coke ovens. Dr. Wolfgang Roters, managing director of the private development company overseeing Zeche Zollverein’s transformation, said Saturday that the former coal mine would be a business center that also offered various recreational amenities.
The winning business plans, including one from a team from the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a team from the ESADE Business School in Barcelona, include concrete ideas for business attraction and retention, including a focus on developing a business cluster in Essen centered on the design industry.
A team from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania was among the 11 finalists in the competition.
In its first life, Borsdorf said, Zeche Zollverein was considered one of the pre-eminent coals mines in the world. All of the buildings were built in the Bauhaus architectural style, and the miles of railroad tracks, machinery and refining equipment were coal mining’s equivalent to Henry Ford’s assembly line.
“The machinery allowed for (continuous) mining of coal, which had not been done before. There is a certain architectural beauty, because at other (mines) there are different styles that reflect the succession of time,” Borsdorf said. “But Zollverein was done by two men in two or three years, and therefore I think it merits the title of heritage area.”
No one is quite sure why the 247-acre mine site was spared by Allied bombers during World War II. Borsdorf suspects it was because it was relatively easy to rebuild and restart a levelled coal mining facility, prompting attacks in the region to be focussed more on steel mills owned by Krupp Steel.
For Ziegler and other local historic preservationists, the only remaining hope for preserving at least a portion of Pittsburgh’s steel-making heritage lies in the center of 110 vacant acres along the Mon River. What remains of the Carrie Furnace, which opened in 1884 and closed in 1983, occupies 35 acres of that land.
A bill that has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives and could pass the U.S. Senate this year would pave the way for preserving the site, said August Carlino, executive director of the chairman of the nonprofit Steel Industry Heritage Corp., which oversees the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area in Rankin, Swissvale, Braddock and North Braddock.
The bill would allow the 35 acres that contain the rusting buildings to be preserved and maintained as a national park, while the surrounding 75 acres is being eyed by the Allegheny County economic development department for a mixed-use office and recreational development that would complement the nearby Homestead Waterfront.
Once the legislation is approved, the National Parks Service would have up to three years to formulate a plan for preserving and reusing the site. That plan would need to go back to Congress for approval.
“Hopefully it won’t take that long,” Carlino said. “A lot of the engineering studies are already complete.”
Carlino envisions an interpretive museum taking advantage of some of the latest museum display technologies to recapture some of the power of the former steel mills. The history of Pittsburgh’s role in the industrial revolution, as well as the plights of workers, would be documented as well. But time could be working against the efforts, Carlino said.
“The buildings and furnaces have sat out there for close to 20 years. They’re in a deteriorated state, but not in a state of imminent collapse,” Carlino said. “There are catwalks I would be reluctant to put anybody on, but that’s part of the (Parks Service) plan for the site — how do you circulate people through those structures so that the power of that now-closed mill will be conveyed to people?
“If we succeed, it will be quite remarkable,” he said.
Alfred Krupp’s influence
Pittsburgh had Andrew Carnegie, and Essen had Alfred Krupp.
Perhaps best known to Americans as the steel company that made guns and armaments for Hitler’s armies, Krupp Steel’s influence in Europe at one time rivalled that of U.S. Steel Corp.’s influence in North America.
In recent years, Krupp has merged with Hoesch Steel of Dortmund, Germany and Thyssen Steel, also in Essen, to form Thyssen Krupp Steel.
Krupp built weaponry for four German wars, and it was so formidable by World War II that nearly two thirds of the company’s plants were either destroyed or damaged by Allied bombers. A third generation leader of the company, Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was sentenced to prison by an American military court for the company’s role in arming the Nazi regime.
He was released in 1951 and returned to the firm’s management in 1953. Historians have said the military tribunals were reluctant to hand out overly harsh sentences to industrialists in hopes of speeding up reconstruction efforts.
Even while the Krupp family built a huge private fortune, Alfred Krupp, the second-generation leader of the company and the family member credited with building the company’s prominence in the late 1800s and early 1900s is held in high regard for becoming one of the first European industrialists to offer “womb-to-tomb” benefits. He became one of the first industry titans to offer company health insurance, pensions, subsidized housing for employees and company-owned stores.
Alfred’s father, Friedrich Krupp, founded the company to process English cast steel in 1811. Upon his death in 1826 — when Alfred was just 14 — the company was debt-ridden. Alfred Krupp focused the company on producing the highest quality steel possible, and by 1887, the company employed more than 20,000 workers and Alfred Krupp had earned the nickname “Cannon King.”
In addition to building the first diesel engine and the first steam turbine locomotive, Krupp Steel made wheels and rails for American railroads and produced the steel plating for New York City’s Chrysler Building.
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.
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Group notices architect’s gems
By Ellen James
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, January 15, 2004Pittsburgh architect Henry Hornbostel might be best known for designing the City-County Building, Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and several buildings at Carnegie Mellon University.
But some of his last, and smallest, buildings have gotten attention recently.
In 1936, Hornbostel left his position as an architecture instructor at what then was Carnegie Tech to become director of parks for Allegheny County. There, he designed the golf course clubhouses at North and South parks. The clubhouses recently were designated historical buildings by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
Walter Kidney, architectural historian for the foundation and author of a 2002 book about Hornbostel, said the South Park clubhouse overlooking the 18-hole course is particularly notable. The structure uses Yucatan and Mayan designs, which the architect never used elsewhere.
“I think it’s one of his most audacious works, but kept to one of his smallest buildings,” Kidney said.
Hornbostel traveled to Yucatan, in southern Mexico, in 1917, Kidney said.Hornbostel’s eclectic style relied on elements of modernism along with traditional Renaissance or Grecian influences.
The South Park clubhouse, built in 1938, is a two-story, flat-roofed red brick building with an arch through the middle. Most notable are the figures of golfers, captured mid-swing, built into the structure using layers of brick.
“It’s like a picture was taken of a golfer and frozen into the brick. It’s quite astonishing,” Kidney said.
The North Park clubhouse, built in 1937, is a one-story, brick structure.
“What I think is interesting are the Doric columns in front,” he said. “They are reinforced concrete on the outside, but the inside is sheet metal.
“I think that shows the mischievous side of his personality. When someone may tap on the columns, they’ll be surprised to hear a loud, metal clang.”
Hornbostel was a Brooklyn native who settled in Oakland in 1920, after working on local projects for more than a decade.
He designed 110 area buildings and homes, according to Kidney’s book, “Henry Hornbostel: An Architect’s Master Touch.”
Other projects included the Grant Building, Downtown; Webster Hall, in Oakland; and Rodef Shalom Temple, in Squirrel Hill.
In addition to the golf clubhouses, Hornbostel designed the boathouse at the North Park lake.
The park buildings were swan songs for Hornbostel. He retired to Connecticut in 1939 and died in 1961.
The foundation’s designation of the clubhouses as historical buildings marks them as significant parts of the region’s past, but offers them no special protection from change or demolition.
Jack Lehrman, assistant manager of the South Park clubhouse, said few patrons comment on the building.
“I don’t think many people notice. We’ll point out the figures to them, they think that’s interesting,” Lehrman said. “It’s a nice historical building. Very solid. I think if a bomb got dropped here, it would be the only structure standing.”
Ellen James can be reached at ejames@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5609.
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History & Landmarks Foundation Makes Historic Religious Properties Grants
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Sunday, November 16, 2003Sixteen churches and a synagogue in Pittsburgh and in suburban communities and have received 2003 Historic Religious Properties Grants and Technical Assistance Awards from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The program, now in its eighth year, is designed to help architecturally significant properties that provide social services to their neighborhoods, have viable congregations and can match the grant.
Grants, which range from $1,000 to $5,000, are to be used for architectural restoration projects. Examples of the work include repairing and restoring stained glass, roof repair, exterior painting, and in one case, the restoration of a church dome.
Technical assistance is directed to assisting congregations in prioritizing restoration projects and establishing preventative maintenance programs.
The program is funded by year-end gifts from Landmarks members and trustees and from general funds budgeted by the foundation.
In Pittsburgh, those receiving grants are: Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church and Calvary United Methodist Church, North Side; Bellefield Presbyterian Church and First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh, Oakland; Epiphany Church and the Wesley Center A.M.E. Zion Church, Hill District; First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh, Shadyside; Our Lady of the Angels Parish (St. Augustine), Arsenal; Paole Zedeck Congregation, Squirrel Hill; Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, downtown; and Valley View Presbyterian Church, East Liberty.
Suburban awardees are Calvert Memorial Presbyterian Church, Etna; Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Castle Shannon; First English Lutheran Church of Sharpsburg, Sharpsburg; Old St. Luke’s, Scott Township; St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, McKees Rocks; and Zion Christian Church, Carrick.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review