Category Archive: Preservation News
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Places Around Pittsburgh: Exactly Enough
“Shingle Style” is a label invented by Vincent Scully, and the New England and Philadelphia examples he chose for his book of that name tend to be bold and sculptural, the shingles giving texture and sparkle to towers and other sweeping, curved forms. But a house at 328 Morewood Avenue shows a rather boxy form whose quiet modifications have their own artistry. Both shingles and brickwork have been painted elephant gray, as was fashionable in the 1960s, and a basement garage has eliminated the original entrance steps: but undo these things in your mind and see how the shingles have been laid, especially over the second and third floor window heads in the manner of string courses, and the presence or absence of reveal in the various openings, and you have a sense of artistry through means neither too lavish nor too meager: exactly enough. -
Vernacular Architecture
Walter C. Kidney
December, 2001“Vernacular,” granted, is an awkward term: four-syllabled, academic, viewing the subject from outside and above. But is may be the best word we have. In an Old World context, we would speak of “folk architecture.” To build in te vernacular is to respond to an objectively-stated building program in a direct, practical way, using building systems and materials ready to hand. It is not intended to be high-style architecture, and involves no major distortions or expenditures for artistic effect. Yet it can contain refinements of proportion, detailing, and finish, and can bear ornament.
If the builder of such a place is unschooled in architecture as a fine art, instinct or luck may still lead him to create a building enjoyable to the inhabitant and the passer-by, and special as a place, as an element of its neighborhood. Furthermore, architects have supplied design formulas to adopt and adapt: Palladio comes to mind at once, supplying bases for organizing a façade.
A strong vernacular is a blessing to a community: one that can cope with the cupcake-box proportions of a modern warehouse or factory, or the storage-locker multiplicity of an apartment house, or the mere habit of aluminum siding. Masterpieces are always welcome, but a good street or a beautiful urban hillside depends on many quiet good works, an adherence to a high standard of mediocrity.
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Strange Interlude in Architecture
Walter C. Kidney
December, 2001Recently, Landmarks called renewed attention to Sacred Heart Church, in Shadyside, by holding its Awards of Merit ceremony there and by giving one Award to the Church itself.
Begun in 1924 and with church construction finished in 1954, Sacred Heart virtually signaled the end of the Eclectic period of Pittsburgh architecture: a period that had begun in 1883 with H.H. Richardson’s designs for the Courthouse and Jail. The seven intervening decades, when Eclecticism developed, flourished, wavered, and began a slow deterioration, produced most of the buildings we are apt really to like. And yet, it has been under a 50-year cloud, assaulted as uncreative, fakey, even immoral, and was in time forgotten to architectural history.
Eclectic architecture can be thought of as an architecture of costumes, and in this circumstance lay its strength and its weakness. Whatever steel, concrete, or hollow tile slumbered beneath the surfaces of a building the surfaces were no mere coverings but rather an expression of the building’s role in society and the mental associations this evoked. Thus, a house might be Tudor or Colonial, or vaguely Old World while not alluding to any one place or time. A church might be Gothic, Romanesque, Colonial, or even Baroque. A school was likely to be Tudor––or Colonial. A shop, on the other hand, or a theater say, was apt to stress the cosmopolitan, to be Beaux-Arts or Art Nouveau or, in time, Moderne. In conservative Pittsburgh, architects approached the apartment house––an affair of strangers under one roof––with either manorial pretensions or an air of continental European smartness.
The couturiers of such buildings had conspicuous advantages over their Victorian predecessors. Eclecticism coincided with travel to Europe to study and sketch; with the coming of architectural schools in the United States; with the appearance of journals and books illustrating “precedents” in photographs and measured drawings; with professional organizations local and more wide in territory; and with choices of structural systems and decorative materials unknown here before. Eclecticism was an occurrence rather than an ideologically-driven movement, a matter of architects looking back to the Victorian period and thanking God it was over rather than attempting to give forms a priori to the future. If you look back on the seven Eclectic decades, you see an architecture that began fussy and uncoordinated, executed in materials that seemed resigned to such matters as Pittsburgh soot; and became lighter, simpler, more sensuous in its colors and textures, and more integrated in its details. It might be lushly elaborate, like the Cathedral of Learning, but the many details were acting more and more as parts of a unity as time progressed. For a while, domestic architecture displayed an addiction to quaintness, expressed in little towers and gabled entrances, crazy brickwork, battered slates. One may look at the houses of a 1920s suburb and wonder if such fantasy architecture was intended to blur the edges of reality for a people forbidden to relax over a Scotch or two after the business day. Apart from this Mother Goose domestic architecture, though, there was a trend toward simplification that the Depression probably furthered: Stripped Classicism for institutions, a bland Georgian for houses, a rather simplified Gothic for the churches. The 1930s witnessed completion of grand projects of the pre-Depression years, true: locally, the Cathedral of Learning, the Mellon Institute, and the East Liberty Presbyterian Church come to mind at once as lavish works of construction carried over.
Whether the price of materials and workmanship devitalized Eclecticism, or Modernist polemics, or some kind of inbred effeteness, it became a weak thing after 1940. All the Palladian windows and gables of the builders have added up to nearly nothing; they aim to be genteel, but lack taste, let alone inspiration.
Yet Eclecticism in some form is apt to return. Post-Modernism used Classical devices in an “ironic” way, and business architecture today seems to be given over to arbitrary composition and superficial ornamentation. More literacy where historical devices are involved might bring on a revival of styles and quasi-styles such as the economical ‘30s knew, if not the ampler ‘20s.
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Pittsburgh’s Clemente Bridge is first to get a lighting sponsor
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Mike Bucsko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Duquesne Light Co. yesterday agreed to pay for decorative lighting on the Roberto Clemente Bridge.
It’s the first of what the city hopes will be a long line of benefactors paying to light more than a dozen bridges that line Pittsburgh’s three rivers Downtown.
During a news conference at the Renaissance Hotel, DQE Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Morgan O’Brien said he was unsure of the project’s cost because it would depend on the lighting design chosen. Duquesne Light is a subsidiary of DQE, a Moon-based holding company.
Riverlife Task Force Co-Chairman John G. Craig Jr. estimated the cost for the design, installation and lighting of the bridge to be $300,000 to $500,000.
Craig, who is editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said electricity would be the smallest expense.
The lighting project is a combined effort of the Riverlife Task Force, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh.
The planned illumination of the Clemente Bridge will include lighting along the top and bottom of the span so the design and form of the structure will be visible to pedestrians on the Allegheny River walks, as well as to motorists and pedestrians on the bridge, said Haldane Hilbish, the lighting designer.
Though the design is not completed, only fine-tuning remains, Hilbish said. The goal is to have the lighting in place by the April season opener for the Pirates at PNC Park, he said.
The bridge, formerly known as the Sixth Street Bridge, will not have a string of lights like the Smithfield Street Bridge but will be illuminated by white metallic lighting similar to street lights that will accent its structure, Hilbish said. The lighting will be installed along the vertical steel suspenders that hang from the bridge’s main supports, as well as from supports beneath the structure.
The lighting design selected for the Clemente Bridge will be duplicated on its so-called “sister” bridges at Seventh and Ninth streets, once sponsors are found to pay for the lighting, Hilbish said. The goal is to have uniformity in the illumination because the bridges are identical, he said.
“We don’t want to create a carnival Downtown,” Hilbish said.
The Clemente Bridge and its two sibling bridges were built in the 1920s. It is the fourth bridge at that location since 1819, said Arthur Ziegler, executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Craig called the lighting of the Clemente Bridge a “demonstration project” that could be used as the kickoff for efforts to light the 14 bridges that ring the Downtown area.
City Councilman Sala Udin, who has been instrumental in the effort to light the city’s bridges, called them “engineering marvels and works of art” that should be illuminated for the world to see.
“I will not rest until all the bridges in Downtown Pittsburgh are lit,” Udin said.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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City bridges slated for light-up project
11/27/2001
Tribune ReviewPreservationists, planners and business leaders will gather at the center of the Roberto Clemente Bridge at 11 a.m. today to discuss a joint effort to illuminate the city’s bridges.
“I think it’s just sort of a grand, picturesque scenario,” said Rod Frantz, acting manager of the new Bridge Lighting Initiative. The nonprofit group – a partnership of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the Riverlife Task Force and Duquesne Light – is set to start a fund-raising effort to light all 13 of the city’s bridges over the next six to eight years.
The first to be lit will be the Roberto Clemente Bridge, which Frantz said should be aglow by April or early May. Duquesne Light is covering the undisclosed cost.
The Smithfield Street Bridge is already lit up, but this project will take a different approach to the work, Frantz said.
He said the work will feature lighting of the Clemente Bridge’s superstructure and its underside, plus using a palette of colors to animate the entire bridge, which spans the Allegheny River from the North Side to Downtown.
The group plans to hold public hearings soon and meld recommendations with those of the architects, lighting designers and artists submitting bridge lighting ideas to the Riverlife Task Force.
“We should really celebrate (the bridges), because we have more bridges than any city in the Western world other than Venice, Italy,” Frantz said.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
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Park picnic shelter transformed into visitor center
11/25/2001
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEWA structure in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park that started as a picnic shelter nearly a century ago has undergone a Cinderella-like transformation into a 21st-century gateway for one of the city’s popular nature retreats.
The Schenley Park Visitor Center – the old building restored for a new use – is nearing completion and will be ready for an open-house gala planned for the first weekend in December, said Meg Cheever, president of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.
“We’re thundering down the home stretch,” Cheever said of the $1.9 million undertaking that was launched two years ago.
The center is the second in a series of showcase projects spearheaded by the conservancy, in conjunction with a long-range plan to improve Pittsburgh’s parks system. It is located on Schenley Drive, near the park’s entrance, across from Phipps Conservatory in Oakland.
The conservancy entered a 30-year lease agreement with the city to operate the center.
The open house is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 1-2.
“We’re happy with the way it’s turning out,” said architect Ellis Schmidlapp of Landmarks Design Associates, the Pittsburgh architectural firm that designed the center.
The plan restored the two-story building into a 2,600-square-foot facility that retained the old shelter’s foundations, brick exterior walls, ornamental windows and heavy timber roof construction.
“The challenge always is to put as many uses into the building as possible. It started out life as nothing but a picnic pavilion,” Schmidlapp said.
Now the building will contain a visitor’s center, gift shop, cafe and public bathrooms.
The idea for restoring the structure – Schenley Park’s only remaining original building – stemmed from responses to studies the conservancy conducted in 1998.
“A unifying thread was that people said they loved the parks, but they would stay longer if some of their basic human needs were met, such as clean usable restrooms, a place to get a snack or a drink, and park information,” Cheever said.
The cafe will serve coffee and light lunch fare. A gift shop will sell nature-themed merchandise. An information kiosk will include a trip planner for outings in the park, a calendar of events and a survey to provide information about park use.
Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy praised the project as an outstanding example of investments the city is making in its parks. An avid runner, Murphy said he plans to make use of the center himself during jaunts through the park.
The center will give visitors a home base for exploring the park, said Abbie Pauley, conservancy spokeswoman.
“This building has had a lot of incarnations. It’s really a dramatic transformation. Not only is the building coming to life, but it brings new life to Schenley,” she said.
Constructed around 1904, the building first served as a picnic shelter. Later, it was used as a nature museum and concession stand.
In the early 1930s, the structure was converted into a tool shed. After being used from 1935 to 1940 as home of the Pittsburgh Civic Garden Center, the building fell into disrepair and has remained closed since the 1980s.
Barry Hannegan, director of historic design programs for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, applauded the work to save the original building. The noted Pittsburgh architectural firm Rutan and Russell first designed the building.
“It’s an extremely important early building in the park. It was and is again now a very handsome example of the Arts and Craft style of architecture, and its restoration is a significant recovery for our architectural history here,” Hannegan said.
By spring, the center will offer nature-oriented lectures, slide shows and programming for all ages, Pauley said. Meeting rooms will be available for use in the evenings. The downstairs portion will serve as a substation for police, providing a police presence at all hours.
Sponsors of the project include the Allegheny Foundation, Eden Hall Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Rachel Mellon Walton Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation, Hillman Foundation, Sanford N. and Judith Robinson Family Foundation, the Allegheny Regional Asset District, the city of Pittsburgh and the Neighborhood Needs Program.
Who is Mary Schenley?
Mary Schenley donated 300 acres of land in 1889 to the City of Pittsburgh, which later became Schenley Park.
The former Mary Groghan was the granddaughter of James O’Hara, a wealthy capitalist in early Pittsburgh. While in boarding school in New York at the age of 15, she met and fell in love with Capt. Edward Wyndham Harrington Schenley. They eloped in 1842.
The couple spent most of their married life in England.
Although Schenley had no desire to live in her native city, she made large donations here.
In addition to giving the city property for a park, she presented the Blockhouse, the city’s oldest building, to the Daughters of the American Revolution as a memorial of less peaceful times.
When Schenley died in 1903, her Pittsburgh real estate holdings were worth more than $50 million.
Source: Pittsburgh, by Stefan Lorant
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
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Officials to unveil plans for bridge
11/23/2001
Tribune ReviewCity of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials say they’ll shed a little light next week on their plan to shine some light on the Roberto Clemente Bridge.
The bridge is one of three bright yellow “sister” bridges linking Downtown to the North Side, and the closest of the three to PNC Park.
The Riverlife Task Force, a 40-member, privately funded group looking to promote riverfront development and aesthetics, last month said one of its goals would be to creatively light the city’s bridges.
At a news conference scheduled for Tuesday on the bridge, officials from the task force, city, county, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and Duquesne Light Co. will detail their lighting plans.
The bridge is closed when the Pirates and Steelers play at home and has become a popular pedestrian link to PNC Park and Heinz Field from Downtown parking lots.
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Landmarks Leads Courthouse Restoration Program
11/15/01
For many years, we have been involved in restoration activities at the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in 1888. We published Majesty of the Law, a full length book on the buildings, designed the Courtyard Park, acquired chairs for it, and helped create major explanatory panels for an architectural tourism program. We also completed work with Dr. Frank Liu on the restoration of the furnishings in the Law Library in the City-County Building.
In our current work, we have:
Commissioned architects Landmark Design Associates and painting conservator Frank Welsh to conduct paint analyses of the public hallways so that they can be painted in the original colors
Proposed a reconfiguration of the Gold Room as a County Council meeting roomDesigned and ordered custom bulletin boards to be used for all impermanent signs to eliminate the practice of placing them on the walls.
Commissioned a bench modeled on the original benches that were in the buildings to be placed in the hallways where now assorted, dilapidated chairs are used.
Asked Landmark Design Associates to create a signage system that is based on the historic graphics of the Courthouse and on earlier plans of Peter Muller- Munk Associates that will bring all offices into a handsome graphic conformity.
Obtained a significant grant from the Drue Heinz Trust to establish a museum of the history of the Jail, recently adapted as the Court of Common Pleas building.
We are now working closely with Ed Urban, the Deputy Warden, whose archival collection will be placed on display in new cases we have commissioned IKM Architects to design.
Copyright © 2001 Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, One Station Square, STE 450, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219 U.S.A. All rights reserved. 1-412-471-5808, fax 412-471-1633.