Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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City foundation to honor Miller Academy
By Anthony Todd Carlisle
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 16, 2002When Miller Academy opened in 1849 as the first black public school in Pittsburgh, slavery still was sanctioned, James Polk was president and the Hill District was in its infancy as a residential community.
As the Hill has evolved, so, too, has Miller African Centered Academy. And because of its longtime presence in the community, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will present the academy, part of Pittsburgh Public Schools, with an honorary historic landmark plaque during a 2:45 p.m. ceremony at the school, 61 Reed St.Cathy McCollom, the foundation’s director of marketing and operations, said Miller students made the case for a historical marker by staging a play that detailed the academy’s history.
“It was the first time this ever happened,” she said. “They did all the research and put on a kind of play that talked about the history of the school and how they felt about the school. They sold us. They did a beautiful job.”
Fifth-grader Ladrina Riley, 12, said the work was worth it. “I feel proud that we are representing our school and showing how good it is. The school has been established for a long time.”
The current facility is the third school to stand on the Hill District site. It was designed in 1905 by John Blair Elliott in the classical style. An auditorium and gymnasium were added in 1939, designed in the art deco style by Marion Markle Steen.
McCollom said that while the historic designation carries no legal weight, the foundation should be notified if the building undergoes major changes.
Rosemary Moriarty, the academy’s principal, said the marker is a source of excitement for the school and its students. That the youngsters played a lead role makes it even better, she said. The academy is home to 252 students in kindergarten to grade five.
“They were so passionate,” Moriarty said. “I learned that children can really be convincing when they believe in something.”
Pittsburgh Mercy Health System also helped the school gain recognition. Since 1987, Mercy has been involved with a mentoring program at the school for students in grades three to five. This year’s project involved learning about the school building, its history and architecture and its significance in Pittsburgh.
Carol Lennon, who works in Mercy’s mentoring program, said the project was empowering for the youngsters. “For the students , they understand and appreciate that they have the power and ability to influence and make change.”
Moriarty said allowing the students to see themselves and their world differently has been the school’s main focus, which has been designated as an African-centered school by Pittsburgh Public Schools for the past four years.
The school’s student population is 98 percent black, and mainly comes from low-income families throughout the city.
“They are learning that African-Americans did not just exist at the time of slavery, but they come from wealth and strong heritage,” Moriarty said. “It’s important that they understand they come from a people who had a purpose and who excelled in all areas.”
Anthony Todd Carlisle can be reached at acarlisle@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7824
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Preserving, improving Pittsburgh with Art Ziegler
By Bill Steigerwald
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 11, 2002Four decades ago, Arthur Ziegler was a grassroots activist fighting to preserve Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods from the rampaging bulldozers of urban renewal.
Today, as president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, he is a major player in the city’s development and preservation scene.
In addition to developing Station Square into the city’s premier tourist draw for out-of-towners in the late 1970s, his group has been nationally acclaimed for preserving architectural landmarks and for restoring inner-city neighborhoods without dislocating their residents.
Ziegler played an important role in challenging — and ultimately improving — Mayor Murphy’s original, primitive plan for redeveloping Fifth and Forbes avenues Downtown. And this week his group joined with Preservation Pittsburgh to nominate the Mellon Arena for city historic designation, a move which, if enacted, would make it difficult to demolish the 41-year-old landmark. I talked to Ziegler by telephone Wednesday.
Q: Knowing what you know about the historical preservation business in this town, what are the odds that the Mellon Arena is going to be standing five years from now?
A: The odds I can’t predict. What we are asking for is simply time to see if any feasible new use can be found for the arena. If none can be found, I don’t think it will be standing. But if we can find good uses, I think it will be.
Q: What, realistically, can it be used for without competing with a new arena next door?
A: I’m assuming that it has to be uses that do not compete. That the Penguins need their new arena and they need it exclusively, so we have to find altogether different uses for this building.
We proposed one already to be studied, having it as a maglev stop for downtown Pittsburgh. If maglev is built, it would make a fantastic train station and intermodal center. It could have two floors that could be developed for restaurants or entertainment, themed perhaps — African-American or nationalities.
Q: Could it end up being used for a sports museum, a jazz museum, shopping?
A: Yes. It could end up being anything. We think the people from the Hill District should be deeply involved in leading this effort, and it should involve all the surrounding land, to weave the Lower Hill and the city back together. Maybe this building could be the principal address.
Q: Fifty years after the city wiped it out. I guess there’s irony there — also indictments there, but that’s another story.
A: I’d agree with all of that.
Q: So in other words, the arena could be changed considerably inside and still hold on to its historical value.
A: I’m assuming it cannot be a sports arena, that we have to find altogether new uses for it. But it is an incredible structure. It’s unique.
Q: It’s almost like a work of art now.
A: It’s interesting also that Edgar Kaufmann, who really was the proponent behind moving the Civic Light Opera there (in the 1960s), is represented. His legacy to Pittsburgh is two fabulous early-modern buildings, Fallingwater and the Civic Arena.
Q: Switching over to Station Square, which you once had quite a hand in, is it still healthy and evolving in a good way?
A: Yes. It has had a transition here, as the hotel was totally renovated and had another 100 rooms added. The new buildings are going in and will open I think in July or August.
There’s going to be a new food court in the shops building and hopefully a direct connection from the shops right to the incline – right from inside the building, up an elevator and across Carson Street into the incline. I think you’re going to see a great revitalization there.
Q: What about Plan C in Downtown at Fifth and Forbes? Are you optimistic that it is going to be done in the right way?
A: I think everyone is together on the plan – the city, the merchants, us. I have heard no dissents from the plan.
Q: Not counting eminent domain?
A: Right. Eminent domain has been put to the side.
Q: Does the plan lack anything?
A: I think the plan is really good.
Q: And it includes residential, retail, keeps the local merchants there?
A: It has all the residential we proposed in our plan (three years ago), both new buildings and loft buildings. It has a market house, which we need Downtown, and new retail and restored retail.
Q: What’s your synopsis of what has gone on over the last three or four years at Fifth and Forbes?
A: I think the winners are all of us, because we now have a plan that all of us believe in. I think the problem was that so often Pittsburgh planning is not grassroots in origin. It tends to be top-down. And here, I think that top-down and grassroots finally came together and we have a good, solid plan.
Q: I’m looking here at an article that says that big malls are dying – super malls, anyway – and that American shoppers are seeking more offbeat, unique shopping options. Have we lucked out. Is Plan C going to appeal to this new trend?
A: I think it’s very timely. People are back looking at downtowns as they have existed in the past. That’s what they seem to want. They’re back to main streets like Carson Street. Carson Street is an enormous success, without any public subsidy and, in fact, without any real planning.
Q: I always say that the places people would want to live in are the places that planners have not touched – South Side, Bloomfield, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside … .
A: That’s right. It’s all the places that are grassroots, that respond to a genuine market … . And they all have residential all around them.
Q: You started out as a grassroots guy. Are you still a grassroots guy? You’re more of a player now.
A: Well, I know that what we try to do is play on behalf of the community. It’s the same with the Civic Arena. What we’re saying is, “Let’s not have the Penguins or Landmarks lead this thing. Let’s have the interests of the Lower Hill lead this, and Downtown interests, and come together on a plan that we all think will work.”
Q: So you are obviously learning from the mistakes of the past.
A: That’s right.
Q: If you could turn the clock back 40 or 50 years, what’s the most important thing you could have done to stop or change some decision that would have kept something around that isn’t here now?
A: I wish we could have started 10 years earlier and stopped the urban renewal plans of the ’50s and ’60s, including the Lower Hill, Allegheny Center, East Liberty.
I think that those demolitions wiped out potentially vital ingredients in the city and did a great deal of permanent harm. They focused on the cores, and removed the hearts of these areas.
I think we’ve got to address — and we have the opportunity with the Lower Hill — how to get them going again. There’s good work going on in East Liberty now to get it back into the physical configuration it once was.
Bill Steigerwald is the Trib’s associate editor. Call him at (412) 320-7983. E-mail him at: bsteigerwald@tribweb.com.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © The Tribune-Review Publishing Co
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Pittsburgh Laurels & Lances
Laurel: To Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and Preservation Pittsburgh. The groups have joined forces in seeking a historic landmark designation for Mellon (nee, the Civic) Arena. The Penguins, the 41-year-old building’s primary tenant, want to tear it down to build a mixed-use complex. The ‘Guins hope to build, with public help, a new hockey arena.
But Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler says the arena, which features what once was the world’s largest retractable domed roof, is worth saving for other uses – if they can be found. He’s right.
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Improvements planned for Gilfillan Park, homestead
By Vince Guerrieri
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 30, 2002Upper St. Clair officials are working with the historical society to draw more people to Gilfillan Park and soon, Gilfillan House.
Commissioners approved a resolution outlining a cooperative relationship with the Upper St. Clair Historical Society to address parking and traffic concerns at Gilfillan House as well as build a visitors’ center in Gilfillan Park.Margaret Gilfillan died last year at age 100, and had lived at the Gilfillan home at the corner of Washington and Orr roads for 98 of those years. She willed the home and the 15 acres it sits on to the historical society with the idea of turning it into a historical site.
The house is already recognized by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation as an important building in Allegheny County history. Previously, the Gilfillans gave about 60 acres to the municipality, which became known as Gilfillan Park.
Municipal Manager Doug Watkins said the township will develop a site plan for the home and its outbuildings, as well as the park and a proposed visitors’ center at the park.
“I think we have some pretty focused visions that we’d like to see,” Watkins said.The historical society has been working to renovate the home, but President Jean Brown said that unexpected obstacles have come up, giving the example of a bathroom restoration that led to floor repair. She said restoration was going on, but slowly.
Of course, visitors will not be allowed in the home until a parking lot is made and some traffic problems are addressed. Municipal officials are looking into expanded turning lanes and a left turn signal.
“We can’t open until we get the parking,” Brown said.
For the full story, read Wednesday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Vince Guerrieri can be reached at vguerrieri@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5607.
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Busway as HOV lane refused
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, April 12, 2002The West Busway could relieve the Downtown congestion caused by the Fort Pitt Tunnel closing by allowing access to car poolers, according to a Downtown agency’s recommendations.
“The agonies of the Fort Pitt closing are showing up as unmanageable congestion in the triangle,” said George White, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation transportation chairman and former head of the University of Pittsburgh’s Transportation Systems Research Center. He sent his recommendations Thursday to several elected city, county and state officials.
“If you provide relief to both ? using the West Busway and Tenth Street Bypass ? you’ve got it licked.”
Port Authority and PennDOT previously have discussed allowing HOV traffic on the busway as a way to alleviate problems during the Fort Pitt Tunnel closing, but agreed to shelve the proposal because of safety and cost concerns, said Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove.
“It was their decision which we concurred with,” Grove said. “The idea was discussed for a couple of years about using the West Busway as an HOV. There were safety concerns. The West Busway was not designed to be used by vehicles.”
However, White contends that the use of the busway by HOV traffic ? vehicles with two or more people ? and the reopening of the Tenth Street Bypass would clear the Downtown streets that have clogged since the outbound Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel closed early Saturday.
White chairs the agency’s transportation committee and formerly headed the University of Pittsburgh’s Transportation Systems Research Center. He sent his recommendations yesterday to several elected city, county and state officials.
PennDOT detours over the Liberty and West End bridges have worked well since the closure. However, getting to them has been tricky, especially from Downtown.
PennDOT had earmarked more than $1 million for Port Authority to use for an HOV system on the busway. At some point, the agencies decided to use the money instead to provide more bus service during the tunnel project.
“The earmarked money was shifted from HOV to putting in additional buses,” said PennDOT spokesman Dick Skrinjar. “The consensus opinion was the money would be better spent by using additional buses in the conventional system.”
White argues use of the West Busway would work better.
“You would double the number of cars each hour going across the Mon River,” he said. “Anybody going farther than Carnegie on I-279 has a beautiful route for bypassing the jam in the triangle.”
The Tenth Street Bypass has been closed by the Sports & Exhibition Authority during the David L. Lawrence Convention Center project. It blocks traffic from flowing from Fort Duquesne Boulevard into the Strip District.
Along with the traffic detoured by the Fort Pitt Boulevard closing, many drivers find they have to cross the triangle to get to the Boulevard of the Allies and the Parkway East. White said the authority’s closing of the bypass, which provides access to Smallman Street in the Strip District, is not necessary.
“They don’t have to do that,” he said. “They use it to store stacks of materials and position cranes. It’s convenient for them to use it as a front yard to construction.”
The authority plans to completely reopen the bypass in March 2003. Calls left with the authority seeking comment yesterday were not returned.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © The Tribune-Review Publishing Co
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Plan C: More weasel words
Thursday, April 4, 2002
Call it Tom Murphy’s big “but.”
The mayor of Pittsburgh went before the scriveners, microphones and cameras Tuesday in his first extended comments on the Plan C Task Force’s blueprint to redevelopment the Fifth-Forbes corridor.Within a month, at least one private developer is expected to be hired to begin work on the $363 million Downtown rehabilitation plan; others will follow. The Urban Redevelopment Authority has been told to expand its grants for facade improvements. Building inspectors have a new charge to make sure that buildings are up to code.
That’s all well and good. But then there’s Mr. Murphy’s big “but” – eminent domain.
“We have not authorized eminent domain,” he said. “So when we approach a building owner now, we will be negotiating with them amicably in attempting to come to a fair price without the threat of eminent domain there. We are ruling it out right now, but (emphasis ours) I can’t speak for the future.”
Oh, what weasel words!
Here’s the translation: We’ll play nice – for now. But if property owners don’t like our price, or if they don’t want to sell – POW! It’s called the cudgel of eminent domain, and the mayor obviously still considers it his trump card.
Tom Murphy once forswore the use of eminent domain in any Market Place progeny. He reneged. Now he offers up some weaselly verbiage that should make every independent property owner in the Fifth-Forbes corridor do one thing and one thing alone:
Hire an attorney.
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Murphy says eminent domain not a threat at present time
By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, April 3, 2002Without completely ruling out its use, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy said the city will attempt to implement the Plan C Task Force proposal for redeveloping Downtown without using eminent domain.
“We have not authorized eminent domain. So when we approach a building owner now, we will be negotiating with them amicably in attempting to come to a fair price without the threat of eminent domain there,” Murphy said Tuesday in his first public comments on the proposal. “We are ruling it out right now, but I can’t speak for the future.”The mayor also outlined a plan for moving forward with the task force’s recommendations and said he hopes to name a developer within two months.
The task force, made up of government officials and private stakeholders, unveiled a strategy for redeveloping the Fifth-Forbes corridor last month. The group had urged Murphy to go back on a November 2000 pledge not to use eminent domain, saying it would take too long to redevelop Pittsburgh’s tired retail core without using the controversial technique.
Murphy’s statements brought at least temporary relief to opponents of eminent domain, a legal tool governments can use to take property for a public purpose.
“As long as we’re not using eminent domain, I can support the plan,” said Patty Maloney, one of three Plan C Task Force members who signed a minority opinion against using eminent domain. She owns the Card Center on Wood Street.
Scott Bullock, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, said he was encouraged that “some progress has been made with the mayor,” but said Murphy did not go far enough in making his pledge not to use eminent domain. The Washington, D.C.-based institute has said it would defend any Fifth-Forbes property owner who wants to fight eminent domain proceedings.
“Mayor Murphy should pledge not to use eminent domain in the Fifth and Forbes area now and forever,” Bullock said. “Leaving the door open, even a little bit, will create uncertainty for property owners and will actually discourage investment in the area, because people will not know for sure whether the city will come after their property.”The task force was formed after Murphy’s plan, Market Place at Fifth & Forbes, unraveled in 2000. The mayor charged the 13-member group with forming a consensus on redeveloping Downtown. Among the chief criticisms of his first plan were its failure to preserve historic buildings, the use of eminent domain and what was seen as a limited housing component.
Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Mulugetta Birru, who will play a key role in any redevelopment plan, said it will be “very difficult” to get a developer to undertake the project without eminent domain.
“That’s the mayor’s commitment and, therefore, there is no eminent domain in place. All of us support his decision,” Birru said. “Eminent domain assures the developer we can get control of the properties. Now the question is whether or not we can find a developer to invest all that money and be willing to take the properties as we’re able to buy them.”
Without eminent domain, Murphy and Birru said, one property owner who holds out for more money can derail portions of the project.
City Councilman William Peduto said he would have supported using eminent domain in the plan.
“I see it as a tool that can be used when one person or one group tries to stop the will of the community or holds out for an unreasonable amount of money,” Peduto said. “If council gets to the point where we have to make that call, I hope the body will rely on common sense.”
Peduto said, however, that he felt the Plan C proposal was an improvement over the mayor’s original plan. He said he felt the expanded housing component and a proposed hotel would add the critical mass needed to support the district, and the Plan C blueprint made more of an effort to preserve historic buildings.
Challenges for the Downtown overhaul don’t end with eminent domain.
When city officials first began discussing Downtown redevelopment plans five years ago, the region was under-retailed. Now, with The Waterfront in Homestead, a new mall at Robinson Towne Center, the expansion of Station Square and plans for a new development between PNC Park and Heinz Field, the Fifth-Forbes district will have heavy competition, Murphy said.
Murphy said he envisions Fifth-Forbes being the Golden Triangle’s centerpiece, bridging the cultural district to other parts of Downtown.
“I think part of the challenge for a developer responding to this request for proposals is answering the question, ‘What’s the niche for this Downtown in the context of all the other investments taking place?'” the mayor said.
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The plan
Mayor Tom Murphy unveiled a five-point plan Tuesday for implementing the Plan C Task Force Downtown redevelopment proposal. He would not speculate how long it would take for the project to be completed.
Among the components of the plan:The city planning department will seek proposals from developers. Murphy hopes to name a developer within two months.
Once a developer is selected, the city will hammer out a financing plan. Murphy said it was too soon to tell whether that plan would resemble the one recommended by the task force, which called for a $360 million development funded mainly with $51.5 million in public money, $39.5 million in corporate and philanthropic donations and $264 million in private investment.
Begin an $8 million, city-funded infrastructure improvement program in the Central Business District, with a focus on reconstructing Forbes Avenue, Smithfield Street and Market Street.
Direct the Urban Redevelopment Authority to expand a grant program for restoring building facades, as well as create new loan programs to allow existing tenants and building owners to improve their properties. The URA would focus its existing loan programs on the Central Business District.
Begin an aggressive program to enforce city building codes in the Fifth-Forbes area.
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.
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Mayor: City will attempt Plan C without eminent domain
By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 2, 2002Without completely ruling out its use, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy said the city will attempt to implement the Plan C Task Force proposal for redeveloping Downtown Pittsburgh without using eminent domain.
“We have not authorized eminent domain. So when we approach a building owner now, we will be negotiating with them amicably in attempting to come to a fair price without the threat of eminent domain there,” Murphy said this morning. “We are ruling it our right now, but I can’t speak for the future.”The task force unveiled a strategy for redeveloping the Fifth-Forbes retail corridor last month. The group had urged Murphy back down from a November 2000 pledge to not use eminent domain, saying it would take too long to redevelop Pittsburgh’s tired retail core without using the controversial technique.
Murphy’s renewal of his pledge yesterday brought at least temporary relief to opponents of eminent domain.
“As long as we’re not using eminent domain, I can support the plan,” said Patty Maloney, one of three Plan C Task Force members who signed a minority opinion against using eminent domain. Maloney acknowledged that the mayor had allowed for some wiggle room to use eminent domain in the future, but said she was pleased overall with comments Murphy made during his 45-minute press conference Tuesday morning.
The task force was formed after Murphy’s own plan, Market Place at Fifth & Forbes, unraveled in late 2000. The mayor charged the group with forming a consensus on redeveloping Downtown. Among the chief criticisms of the mayor’s first plan were its failure to preserve historic buildings, the use of eminent domain, and what was seen as a limited housing component.
Murphy also outlined a five-point plan for moving forward with the task force’s recommendations. Among the components of that plan:
The city planning department will issue a request for proposals to interested developers.
Once a developer is selected, the city will hammer out a financing plan. Murphy said it was too soon to say whether or not that plan would resemble the one recommended by the task force, which called for a $360 million development with $51.5 million in public money, $39.5 million in corporate and philanthropic donations and $264 million in private investment.
Begin an $8 million infrastructure improvement in the Central Business District, with a focus on reconstructing Forbes Avenue, Smithfield Street and Market Street.
Direct the Urban Redevelopment Authority to expand a grant program for restoring building facades, as well as create new loan programs to allow existing tenants and building owners to improve the condition of their properties.
Begin a strict and aggressive program to enforce existing city building codes in the Fifth-Forbes area.
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.