Category Archive: Preservation News
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Small Movie Theaters Trying to Find a Niche in a Megaplex Era
Thursday, June 17, 2010By Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe seat folds down, the lights dim and the screen brightens. For most, the movie theater is a familiar experience.The Motion Picture Association of America, which collects detailed figures about movie trends, found that more than two-thirds of the U.S. and Canadian population saw a movie at a theater in 2009 and most people saw an average of 6.5.
Is it 2010 -- or 1939? It's hard to tell from the marquee above The Strand on Main Street in Zelienople. In the early 1980s, The Strand closed its doors, but it reopened last year.
In 2010, the movie theater experience, generally speaking, is the multiplex one. Small neighborhood movie theaters are dwindling, most pushed out by the rise of the multiplex and the fall of the weekly movie-going culture.
Nationwide, the numbers are not good for small theaters. When the motion picture association put out its 2009 report, the United States had 6,039 theaters. Of those, 75 percent were multi- or megaplexes, meaning they have at least eight screens; 21 percent were miniplexes, having two to seven screens; and only 4 percent were single-screen theaters.
A few of these small theaters in the Pittsburgh area are bucking the trend and staying open. Some — the Denis Theatre in Mt. Lebanon, for example — are trying to reopen and stake a place in their community’s future.
But bucking the megaplex is not easy; the past few months have seen the closing of several Pittsburgh-area movie theaters, such as the Squirrel Hill Theater and the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont, which had just reopened in August.
It’s survival of the fittest, and when it comes to community movie theaters, only a few are surviving.
Movies, radio once only choiceThere was a time when the community movie theater business was a booming one. Ed Blank, a film critic at the Pittsburgh Press for 25 years, can remember when it was not unusual for five to seven movie theaters to be within walking distance of his East End home.
In the late 1940s, when Mr. Blank began going to the movies, Americans were starting to buy television sets, but going to the movie theater remained a popular pastime.
“It’s very hard to get a grasp of this now, but they were where you went for the evening, if you weren’t going to listen to the radio,” Mr. Blank said.
But the passing decades, evolving technology and changing market desires resulted in declining numbers of local movie theaters. Television enabled people to watch programs at home, multiplexes gave moviegoers more options under one roof and VCRs allowed people to watch movies on demand.
So, the small movie houses started to die out.
The Strand, ZelienopleOne of the casualties, initially, was The Strand Theater in Zelienople. An Italian couple opened it in 1914, designating half of the building a fruit market, the other half a theater. It thrived for decades but could not compete with the rise of the multiplex and the VCR. In the early 1980s, The Strand closed its doors.
In 2001, Ron Carter was driving through Zelienople when he saw the old theater, in a state of decay, sporting a for-sale sign. Someone, he thought to himself, should do something.
He became that someone. Mr. Carter formed a board of directors, started a nonprofit and began the process of resurrecting The Strand. A combination of private donations and federal and state grants added up, and after two years of renovations, The Strand reopened in 2009.
It’s a happy ending worthy of a Hollywood script, but keeping the one-screen cinema open remains a challenge.
“We don’t try to compete with the multiplexes,” Mr. Carter said. “We focus on classic films, vintage films, as well as our live programs.”
A couple weeks ago, the theater ran a silent-film festival with musical accompaniment, the same type of show the theater presented when it opened in 1914.
The Strand is still learning as it goes, Mr. Carter said, trying to figure out what movies and performances people will pay to attend. Running The Strand as a nonprofit also involves educating people about the benefits of the traditional movie theater experience.
Denis Theatre, Mt. LebanonWhen Anne Kemerer talks about movie theaters, her face lights up. There’s no better way to watch a movie, she said, than to watch it in a theater with people who are laughing when you laugh and crying when you cry.
It’s a comfort place for her, she said, and fundamentally a communal experience.
Ms. Kemerer’s love of movies and belief in the movie theater is not a casual interest — it’s her full-time job. Since 2008, she has focused on resurrecting a small cinema on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon.
The Denis Theatre shut its doors in 2004 in a state of disrepair. Ms. Kemerer, executive director of the nonprofit Denis Theatre Foundation, is determined to see it reopen, which means $750,000 must be raised by June 30, when the purchasing option for the building expires.
Once the foundation owns the building, the renovation process can begin, which means raising more money to open one screen, start showing movies and re-introduce people to what Ms. Kemerer believes is the irreplaceable movie theater experience.
She envisions a three-screen theater that will show art films and also be used as rental space during non-movie hours, for training sessions, auditions, and film education.
As they near the June 30 deadline, the campaign has raised nearly $400,000, including a $100,000 grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. They’ve also been promised a $155,000 grant from an anonymous foundation, if they can match that amount by the end of the month.
A ferocious winter postponed a major fundraiser for the theater twice, and when it finally was held, six inches of snow stranded some people at home. But no one asked for a refund, and the fundraiser brought in $32,000. It’s a sign that people, particularly South Hills residents, are getting behind the concept of a Main Street theater once again taking its place on Washington Road, Ms. Kemerer said.
“Virtually everyone I talk to wants it to succeed,” she said. “Virtually no one doesn’t want it to happen.”
On June 30, she’ll know whether the theater has made it to its first fundraising goal, to buy the theater.
Ms. Kemerer is confident the Denis will succeed.
“The Dormont and Squirrel Hill closing down was a wake-up call to people that Main Street theaters require the passion and commitment of everyone around them,” she said.
Ambridge Family TheatrePassion and commitment sometimes go a long way to keep a small theater open. In Ambridge, for example, Glenda and Rick Cockrum have been running the Ambridge Family Theatre for the past 11 years, since Ms. Cockrum, who had worked as an assistant manager with Carmike Cinemas, persuaded her husband to help her buy the one-screen theater.
They both work other jobs to support themselves, and by the end of the year, the theater manages to pay its own bills, she said.
But it’s a genuine family business where their daughter learned to count by working behind the concession stand.
The Oaks, OakmontRandy Collins, manager of The Oaks Theater in Oakmont, is working toward creating a special identity for his theater.
“We have to adapt,” he said.
The Oaks still shows a lot of first-run movies, Mr. Collins said, but it’s trying to capitalize on the movies that sell well in its market and exploring events that could capture the imagination of its audience, such as opera series and concert events.
Not all happy endingsTravel east to Latrobe, and a similar business model has not worked out. The Zimmerman family has been in the movie theater business for 50 years, though their focus is a drive-in. Five years ago, Lee Zimmerman decided to expand to include an indoor theater, the two-screen Latrobe Family Cinemas.
But the indoor theater never attracted enough patrons, perhaps because it was close to a multiplex, and in five years, Mr. Zimmerman lost $150,000 on the deal. Early this month, the family closed the indoor cinema to return their focus exclusively to the drive-in. Mr. Zimmerman said he’s not sure what will happen with the building.
It could be torn down like the old South Hills Cinema on West Liberty Avenue in Dormont, which is being razed to make way for a CVS pharmacy. Or it could sit empty like the Hollywood, also in Dormont, waiting for a new owner.
The Hollywood was, for a short time, a success story. A nonprofit based in Franklin, Ind., discovered it and poured time, money and effort into opening the single-screen theater again.
It remained open for less than a year.
Last month, Bill Dever, of the nonprofit, the Motion Picture Heritage, decided that the Hollywood, with meager attendance numbers, was no longer viable. It had gotten to the point that he was throwing good money after bad, he said in a phone interview, and he decided to close it.
A few weeks before announcing the theater would close, Mr. Dever was pessimistic about the state of the Hollywood and about the state of community movie theaters in general.
“What I see is, quite simply, that the whole idea of movie-going is going to be centralized in the home environment, and the whole idea of community film watching is going the way of the dodo,” he said.
Key to survivalFew would deny that the movie theater business is a difficult one, but some are not so pessimistic.
Screenwriter and producer Carl Kurlander, who teaches in the film studies department at the University of Pittsburgh, recently made the film, “My Tale of Two Cities,” about his return to Pittsburgh from Hollywood.
Pittsburgh, he reminds us, was the site of the birth of the modern movie theater, the Nickelodeon, in 1905.
The key to survival for movie theaters, he said, is reinvention. The movie theater that can reinvent itself, that can create a niche that no other business can fill, is the one that will survive.
“It’s hard for me to believe the city that literally invented the movie theater … is going to give up and not have one,” he said.
The national trendThe United States has 6,039 movie theaters with 39,028 cinema screens. As the industry continues to shift toward theaters with more screens, megaplexes — 16 or more screens — have become the main source of theater growth. The closing of single-screen theaters and miniplexes — two to seven screens — nationwide means that nearly half of the screens in the country are located in multiplexes — eight to 15 screens.
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North Park Lake Workers Dig in Deep
By Bill Vidonic
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 17, 2010For nearly 80 years, North Park Lake was considered the centerpiece of the Allegheny County park, its serene waters welcoming boaters and anglers.
These days, it’s anything but welcoming, essentially little more than a muddy hole as it undergoes a $16 million transformation.
Within a year, if all goes according to plan, the lake will be deeper, bigger and once again host nature lovers from across the region.
Allison Park Contractors, Inc. work to position swamp pads for installing temporary check dams to slow water in North Park Lake. Once considered the centerpiece of the Allegheny County park, North Park Lake is undergoing a $16 million transformation to reclaim its banks and restore its depth. Jasmine Goldband | Tribune-Review
“We had some little setbacks in the winter, but we’re making some good progress now,” said Craig Carney, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We’re still shooting for (finishing) next spring.”
Within the next couple of weeks, workers will begin scooping sediment off the lake bed and into dump trucks. Those trucks will be making 80 to 100 trips a day, Carney said, to an old fly ash dump along Wildwood Road, near the Pie Traynor baseball field.
Carney said motorists, joggers and bicyclists should be aware that the trucks will be in the park.
In all, the corps expects to remove more than 315,000 cubic yards of sediment from the lake.
Stormwater runoff has been dumping sediment into the lake for decades, according to the corps, along with stream bank erosion from portions of Pine Creek and North Fork creek. That shrunk the 75-acre lake to about 60 acres, and cut the depth of the water by more than half in many areas. Some areas of the lake turned into wetlands, and those areas will be protected.
Without the restoration work, Carney said, the lake — albeit in several decades — would degrade entirely into wetlands.
Work to divert North Fork from the upper portion of the lake was completed last week. Pine Creek’s diversion, on the lower portion of the lake, is continuing.
Carney said draining the lake didn’t go as smoothly as first hoped. The lake was drained in September and October, but heavy rains hit in November. Debris that collected at the lake’s gatehouse caused problems in draining the additional water, and that wasn’t fixed until March.
Since then, Carney said, drainage has gone relatively smoothly. Since the beginning of June, nearly 4 inches of rain has fallen. After each storm, workers are able to drain the water within a day or so.
“It’s been a typical spring,” Carney said. “We had a pretty dry late April and early May.”
North Park Lake project: What’s it all about?History: The once-75-acre lake was created in the 1920s. It is located in Hampton, McCandless and Pine.
Project: Sediment had filled the lake, decreasing the lake’s depth and causing problems for boaters and anglers. The lake was drained beginning Sept. 8. Workers will remove at least 315,000 cubic yards of sediment. Once done, the lake will be restored to its original depth of up to 24 feet. North Fork and Pine Creek are being diverted on the northern and southern ends of the lake to drain the lake and allow workers to scoop up the sediment.
Other work: Improvements will be made to help mitigate downstream flooding. Coir logs, composed of coconut fiber, will be laid along the shoreline to prevent further erosion and sediment buildup. Invasive plants are being removed from the lakebed, which will be lined with gravel to encourage fish spawning. In October, 75 percent of North Park Lake fish, including blue gill, crappie, bass, sunfish and catfish, were relocated upstream to Marshall Lake and Deer Lakes Park.
Cost: $16 million. The federal government has contributed $5 million, and the state $400,000. Allegheny County is paying the remainder.
Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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Foundations Aid Pittsburgh YWCA’s Green Roof
By Bill Zlatos
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 17, 2010The YWCA is getting a green roof, part of a campaign by charitable foundations to make Downtown more environmentally friendly.
“We’ve seen an increasing number of green roofs in Pittsburgh in the past three years, some of which are Downtown,” said Aurora Sharrard, director of innovation for the Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance.
When its roof is completed, the YWCA will join the Highmark Building, Fifth Avenue Place and the Heinz 57 Center among Downtown buildings with green roofs, she said. The Allegheny County Office Building also is installing one.
Green roofs use plants to soak up rain and reduce runoff, cut heating and air conditioning costs, make the building quieter and improve air quality.
Reducing runoff is especially important in Allegheny County because storm and sewage overflow is released into the rivers during hard rains.
“We want an environmentally responsible green roof,” said Carmelle Nickens Phillips, the YWCA’s vice president of development and communications. “It provides a lot of benefits — a longer material lifespan, energy savings, sound insulation, and it’s really compatible with the neighborhood.”
Phillips cited neighboring Point Park University’s $244 million Academic Village. The university’s plan includes street improvements and tree plantings on Boulevard of the Allies at the end of July and converting the old YMCA building on the boulevard into a Student and Convocation Center. The university completed a dance studio that has a gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, from the U.S. Green Building Council.
“We’re very excited about continuing our part of neighborhood enhancements that are green-based and are pleased to know that other neighbors are doing so as well,” said Point Park spokeswoman Mary Ellen Solomon.
The cost of the YWCA roof is $1.1 million. Its building on Wood Street is 42 years old.
The Richard King Mellon Foundation gave the YWCA $125,000 and the Eden Hall Foundation gave $50,000 — raising the total amount from foundations to nearly $400,000. The Mellon Foundation agreed to provide a challenge grant within the next 18 months, and the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program will provide $500,000.
Scott Izzo, director of the Mellon Foundation, declined comment. Officials with Eden Hall could not be reached.
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Study Offers 6 Options for Mellon Arena
By Jeremy Boren
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 17, 2010Demolishing Mellon Arena would make way for a mix of new homes and high-end office space covering nine city blocks in the lower Hill District, according to a study released Wednesday.
The 107-page report provides the first detailed look at six scenarios, which include restoring the arena to its original 1961 design; mothballing it indefinitely; preserving its unique silver dome; and razing it to build 1,191 residential units and 608,000 square feet of offices.
Representatives of the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority said last week that they favor demolishing the Igloo and allowing the Penguins to build a mixed-use development — a plan referred to as “Option 5” in the study, prepared by consultant Michael Baker Engineering of Moon.
The firm organized seven meetings and a tour of Mellon Arena for public input. The lengthy report is the result and is open to public comment and revision.
The SEA, which owns Mellon Arena, will consider comments on the report before the authority’s board of directors makes a decision on the arena’s fate, said Chris Cieslak, a consultant working with Oxford Development and the SEA.
“What we don’t want is what has happened in Portland, Oregon, where they have talked about it for nine years and the city of Portland has had to pay the holding costs on (Memorial) Coliseum,” Cieslak said. Groups have opposed razing the Pacific Northwest arena.
Penguins President David Morehouse said the team agrees with the report’s findings, which correspond to a market analysis performed by Penguins consultant AECOM.
He wants demolition of Mellon Arena to begin in a year. The team owns the rights to develop the site.
“The last thing we want to do is put an impediment in front of a developer and say: ‘We want you to put this development in but, by the way, you have to put it underneath this dome,'” Morehouse said. “The people proposing that have no developers and no money for that.”
Those trying to save the arena from destruction are surprised by the study’s release. Architect Rob Pfaffman, founder of the Reuse the Igloo group, said he wasn’t aware the full report was available until told by a reporter.
Pfaffman’s vision is to build a boutique hotel inside the arena with retail and open-air park space.
“They have gone on the record, at least with us, that they prefer Option 5,” Pfaffman said. “We don’t think the process was properly followed.”
Pfaffman’s preservation group hired its own consultant to examine alternatives to tearing down the 49-year-old arena — the National Hockey League’s oldest venue. Mellon Arena will be replaced by the $321 million Consol Energy Center when it opens in August across Centre Avenue.
Pfaffman said if the SEA was sincere about finding alternatives to demolishing Mellon Arena, the authority would conduct a more detailed study and perform an engineering analysis of the building.
Neither has occurred.
The study said that in addition to making room for office space and homes, demolishing the arena would allow three north-south streets to be built. The streets would connect Bedford and Centre avenues — roads that planners eliminated when building the arena.
Razing the arena also would provide space for 208,750 square feet of retail development; a 150-room hotel; 2,145 parking spaces; and 57,560 square feet of “public open space located along pedestrian corridors,” the study said.
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Pittsburgh City Council Approves Bill to Inventory War Monuments
Wednesday, June 16, 2010Pittsburgh Post-GazettePittsburgh’s public works, planning and parks and recreation departments must inventory war monuments in the city and develop a 10-year maintenance plan under legislation given final approval Tuesday by Pittsburgh City Council.
Council also passed bills creating a trust fund for war monument maintenance citywide and earmarking $20,000 from Council President Darlene Harris’ discretionary funds to repair a Troy Hill monument run over by a minivan in February.
Mrs. Harris, who sponsored the bills, said she saw a need to improve memorial care because little has been done so far to repair the Troy Hill landmark.
City officials have said the restoration of that monument has been delayed by legal and insurance issues involving the minivan driver. Under Mrs. Harris’ legislation, any money recouped from that case will be used to maintain other memorials on the North Side.
The trust fund will hold money the city budgets or receives to care for war monuments citywide. Under an amendment Mrs. Harris offered at the meeting, the fund also will hold money used to repair monuments to “citizen soldiers,” such as police and other public-safety servants.
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Fund Set Up to Pay for Pittsburgh Monument Maintenance
By Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Last updated: 1:33 pmPittsburgh City Council today approved setting up a trust fund to bankroll maintenance to monuments and war memorials in the North Side.
Establishing the account was part of several bills introduced last week by Council President Darlene Harris after people and veterans groups complained that many of the markers had fallen into disrepair.
Harris set aside $40,000 from money left in a 2001 account for projects in her district and money originally dispersed in 1996 for community development for her district.
Council also approved a measure charging the city’s Public Works, Parks and Recreation and City Planning departments to prepare an inventory of the war monuments and memorials throughout the city in order to create a 10-year maintenance plan to be included in the 2011 capital budget.
There are more than a dozen monuments and war memorials in Harris’ district of 13 neighborhoods and more than 60 citywide.
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Fountains, Graffiti Wall Suggested for Mellon Park Overhaul
By Adam Brandolph
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 15, 2010Water fountains, more seating, new sidewalks and a graffiti wall were some of the ideas mentioned Monday night as residents met with city officials and community leaders to plan for a major overhaul of Mellon Park in Shadyside.
Despite recently completed work and projects in the planning stage, the meeting at the Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside brought together interested parties in a single setting for the first time since the original plan was completed in 2002.
“We know this is a park for Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze. … But it’s also a park for Homewood, East Liberty, East Pittsburgh … and people who get off buses to enjoy this park,” said City Councilman Bill Peduto.
The 35-acre park was bequeathed to the city by the Mellon family estate. Its location at the intersection of Penn and Fifth avenues makes the park easily accessible by public transportation.
Recent upgrades include new lighting and a public art installation. Work is nearly complete on a wall garden, and officials spoke last night of new restrooms and a spray park for children.
“Designing a process for a master plan depends on what you want to get out of it,” Susan Radermacher, curator for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, told about 60 people at the meeting. “Always, it should start looking at the history of the place, how it’s being used today and what we’d like to see moving forward.”
Residents voiced concern over noise from the park and limited parking.
“I really hope they can take advantage of all the beauty and the great location of the park,” said Marie Schnitzer of Shadyside. “It’s a wonderful community asset and I think residents not only have plenty of suggestions, but probably the answers.”
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Thousands to Take to Ohio’s Banks Saturday for River Sweep
By Rossilynne Skena
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Monday, June 14, 2010
Litter covers the hillside below Garvers Ferry Road in Parks Township, which will be targeted Saturday during the River Sweep for the Ohio River and its tributaries. Volunteers will clean up near Carnahan Run, a tributary of the Kiski River. Jason Bridge | Valley News Dispatch
Pat Walters grew up on the Allegheny River. She remembers a time when she swam the river every day.
As the public has become more aware of the river’s dangers, however, people don’t do that anymore.
Still, Walters is passionate about the river and about keeping it clean. She is secretary of Natrona Comes Together Association and organizer of Natrona’s river sweep.
On Saturday, she’ll be one of thousands of volunteers to participate in River Sweep. Volunteers will descend the banks of the Ohio River and its tributaries, spanning six states to the Ohio River’s end in Illinois, said Betsy Mallison, the state’s River Sweep coordinator. The Ohio River Sweep program began in 1989.
Over the years, Walters has noticed an improvement in the riverfront. Volunteers are keeping it clean, and they’re not finding tires, toilets, bicycles and shopping carts along the riverbank anymore.
Mallison said water quality has improved, fish have come back and more people are using the river.
But even today, she said, trash is left behind by people using the rivers and by contractors.
“While we’ve seem river conditions drastically improve over those 20 years,” Mallison said, “we still need to do some work out on the rivers and their banks.”
This year at the Natrona site, volunteers will paint guardrails, cut grass and pull weeds, Walters said. Volunteers with the Natrona Comes Together Association have already planted about a dozen wooden planters of flowers and shrubbery, she said.
Dennis Hawley, president of the Crooked Creek Watershed Association, said he’s found everything from car fenders to couches in his 10 years taking part in river sweep. His area covers Crooked Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River, which is, in turn, a tributary of the Ohio River.
John Linkes, director of the Kiskiminetas Watershed and Roaring Run Watershed, said he began volunteering in 1999, after realizing how illegal dumping contaminated local waterways and well water. In his time volunteering, he’s seen tires and refrigerators dumped near local waterways.
But, he said, he has a sense of well-being after having contributed to cleaning up the environment.
“For that one shiny, bright moment, those four hours, we leave that area a little bit cleaner,” Linkes said. “And the sun seems to be shining a little bit more.”
Sweeping the banksVolunteers for the Ohio River Sweep on Saturday should wear old, comfortable clothes and shoes or boots that can get dirty, according to River Sweep’s website. Close-toed shoes are recommended. Trash bags and gloves will be provided.
No pre-registration is required, but volunteers must sign a waiver of liability to participate, and anyone younger than 18 must have parental permission to take part.
Refreshments and a T-shirt will be provided.
Valley River SweepsHere’s a list of River Sweeps in the Alle-Kiski Valley on Saturday. Refreshments and a T-shirt will be provided.
• Natrona section of Harrison: Meet at the pavilion on Veterans Way
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Bethel Township: Crooked Creek site at Rosston Boat Launch, off of
Ross Avenue
8 a.m. to noon
• Parks Township: Garvers Ferry Road
8 a.m. to noon
• Braeburn section of Lower Burrell: Chartiers Run, Braeburn Road