Category Archive: Preservation News
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Landmarks lends $885K for East Liberty project
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, January 24, 2008An East Liberty project has received an $885,000 boost from a nonprofit corporation formed last year by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to spark community revitalization.
The loan, the first announced by the Landmarks Community Capital Corp. Urban Economic Loan Fund, is helping the East Liberty Development Corp. rehabilitate two historic homes on Rippey Street and revitalize the former YMCA building on Whitfield Street.
It has been combined with a $250,000 investment by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority to help bring a blend of condominiums and retail space to the neighborhood.
“The loan follows our mission of being a first-in, first-out financing organization for holistic community revitalization,” said Howard B. Slaughter Jr., CEO of Landmarks Community Capital, on Wednesday.
The loan is the largest made by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to a community organization, Slaughter said.
The East Liberty Development Corp. is using $135,000 to rehabilitate the two Queen Anne style houses at 5809-15 Rippey St. — described as “historically significant, but dilapidated” — and convert them into eight market-rate condos. The work is under way on the $1.4 million project.
In addition, Landmarks Community Capital is partnering with Meiz Development Co. of Denver to develop 10,000 square feet of street-level retail space and about 30 to 35 market-rate condominiums on the upper floors of the five-story YMCA building. The remaining $750,000 will be used to acquire the property.
“These will be the first market-rate condominiums in our downtown core and will be a key part of the redevelopment of East Liberty’s town square,” said Maelene Myers, executive director of East Liberty Development.
When Landmarks Community Capital started operations late last year, Slaughter said he hoped to raise $10 million to $15 million to invest in community development and revitalization projects in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
In its first year, Slaughter said he hopes to fund at least four or five projects ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. “We’re on track” to make that number of investments, he said.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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East Liberty YMCA building being converted into condos – Part of goal to build 1,000 housing units in city neighborhood
Thursday, January 24, 2008
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe YMCA building and four old dilapidated townhouses in East Liberty could get a new life as condominiums with the help of $1.1 million in funding, most of it from a subsidiary of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle and other officials will hold a news conference this morning to acknowledge the $885,000 loan awarded by the Landmarks Community Capital Corp. to help finance the projects. The city Urban Redevelopment Authority is supplying $250,000 toward the YMCA project.
The $885,000 loan is the first awarded by nonprofit Landmarks Community, which came into existence about three months ago, and is the largest loan ever made by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation to a community-based organization.
“It’s a smart investment on our part, working with a great organization that’s committed to making positive changes in the East Liberty core,” said Dr. Howard B. Slaughter Jr., Landmarks Community chief executive officer.
East Liberty Development Inc. has teamed with Denver-based MEIZ Development Co. to convert the vacant YMCA building at 120 Whitfield St. into 30 to 35 market rate condominiums plus ground-level retail and community space.
The $7 million project is part of a town square concept built around the East Liberty Presbyterian Church and the Carnegie Library.
“This is the first market rate housing to happen in the core. We’re really excited to save an old building and to breath new life into it,” said Ernie Hogan, East Liberty Development deputy director.
With the help of the Landmarks Community loan, ELDI already has acquired the YMCA building for a little more than $600,000. It and MEIZ hope to begin the development either this fall or in spring 2009.
The condos, which would range in size from 700 square feet to 1,500 square feet, would start at $185,000. The YMCA building was built in 1908 and at one time was a major activity center for the neighborhood.
On Rippey Street, the historically significant Queen Anne-style houses date to 1892. They have fallen into disrepair in recent years.
ELDI already has started rehab work on the properties. It intends to convert the houses into eight market rate condos, each with 1,500 square feet and a sales price of about $149,000.
It hopes to start construction of the units this summer and have them available for sale next year. The rehab is expected to cost about $1.4 million, with help from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and the URA as well as Landmarks Community.
“These are very wonderful historical homes that are going to be converted,” Mr. Slaughter said.
Mr. Hogan said the project is part of a commitment to the community to build 1,000 units of housing in the neighborhood. To date, 427 units have been completed.
“This is just continuing on that promise,” he said.
Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First published on January 24, 2008 at 12:00 am -
YMCA-to-condo revamp gets boost
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
by Ben Semmes
Pittsburgh Business Times
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/Two planned East Liberty residential projects got a boost Wednesday with the announcement of a $1.135 million investment in the once struggling neighborhood.
The money, from the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and Landmarks Community Capital Corp., will go to fund the conversion of East Liberty’s former YMCA into condos and the rehabilitation of two distressed homes in the 5800 block of Rippey St.
East Liberty Development Inc. is overseeing both projects.
ELDI has been working with Denver-based MEIZ Development Co. to convert the former YMCA building into market-rate condominiums with first-floor retail at 120 Whitfield St.
ELDI purchased the property for $686,000 from the Center for Entrepreneurial Development Inc. last December, according to records filed with the Allegheny County Department of Real Estate.
The two Queen Anne style homes on Rippey Street will be converted into eight market-rate condominiums.
bsemmes@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3829
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Signs of past life
By Adam Brandolph
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Look up.
Faded advertisements flake off the sides of exposed brick buildings throughout the city. Remnants of a bygone era, these markers tell the story of our city’s rich history.
From companies like Otto Milk, formerly in the Strip District, to the German National Bank on Liberty Avenue, Downtown, and leisure activities like Penn Bowling Lanes, these reminders preserve a piece of how Pittsburghers used to live.
The ads often are pointed out to people on the public walking tours offered by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, executive director Louise Sturgess said. “These snapshots of history are wonderful,” Sturgess said.
But why do these signs remain after so many years? Even the Cathedral of Learning was cleaned last year.
“These signs remain because some building owners have no reason to remove them and are content to let them age along with the building,” Sturgess said. “The signs bring a layer of Pittsburgh history to life, and once you notice them, they are great conversation pieces, especially when you are with a Pittsburgher who remembers the business or product featured in the sign.”
While some signs are beaten and battered, the ones that grace the sides of Joe Mama’s, Uncle Sam’s and Fuel & Fuddle restaurants on Oakland Avenue in Oakland are comparatively new and shiny.
The sides of the stores feature three vintage-looking wall advertisements for Coca-Cola, despite none of them being more than 15 years-old, according to Michael Hanley, co-owner of all three stores.
Hanley said the themes of the restaurants are kind of old-school, so the handpainted ads make sense. “Coke adds to the timelessness,” he said, “and an older aesthetic helps convey our message.”
Adam Brandolph can be reached at abrandolph@tribweb.com or 412-320-7936
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East Enders, city officials to talk about doomed trees
By Tim Puko
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 8, 2008The city is offering an olive branch to dozens of East End residents running a grassroots effort to preserve thousands of neighborhood trees.
Public works officials and the executive director of a Pittsburgh environmental group will attend a community meeting Thursday in Squirrel Hill to discuss a plan to trim the city’s tree population. A contractor took a tree inventory in 2005 and the city followed its recommendations by removing about 1,000 dead and defective trees last year, said Public Works Director Guy Costa.
Several Squirrel Hill residents have tried since November to press the city for more information and delay more removals. The city plans to remove 3,075 street-side trees, more than 500 of them in Squirrel Hill and other 14th Ward neighborhoods, this year.
“We’re concerned for the city, not just for our block,” said Francesca Savoia, a University of Pittsburgh professor and Monitor Street resident. “We think this massive elimination of trees may have a devastating impact on the quality of the air, especially if there is no clear plan, no money to replace them.”
Savoia and about two dozen neighbors started meeting and contacting city officials and local community groups after the city sent out postcards alerting them to upcoming tree removals. In addition to air quality, they’re concerned about a potential drop in property values, insufficient money to replace the trees and a lack of honesty from officials, Savoia said.
The 14th Ward has the most trees in the city — 5,993, according to a database created by Davey Resource Group, the Ohio contractor that did the 2005 study.
Savoia is hopeful the meeting at The Children’s Institute in Squirrel Hill will attract 70 people. Costa said he and Deputy Director Mike Gable will be there.
“I’m not against cutting down all the trees that are dead, that definitely represent a risk … but I would like to understand if all of these trees need to be felled,” Savoia said.
They do, according to the city, the environmental group Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest, and Davey Resource Group. The trees to be removed are dead, small, poorly formed, have damage that costs too much to fix or come from an “undesirable or inferior species” such as the tree-of-heaven or white mulberry, as determined by Davey.
The city has allocated $2.3 million for their removal. Some of the trees are among the city’s oldest and have branches vulnerable to breaking during storms, said Danielle Crumrine, executive director of Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.
“There’s a risk that they will fall down and injure somebody,” Costa said. “Now we know they’re a liability for the city, so we need to be proactive and have them removed.”
City Councilman Doug Shields, who represents much of the 14th Ward, said residents likely don’t recall a meeting three years ago about the plan. He wants to get the word out again, and in a better way.
“All of a sudden, the tree-cutting crew shows up on the street and people get upset,” he said. “I think we’ve got to do a much better job telling the story of what it is we’re actually doing and remind people we had this study done, remind people there are issues of public safety involved in this as well.”
Crumrine’s group is helping with tree pruning, and is one of several groups helping to raise about $1.25 million for planting through 2011, Costa said. The city wants to plant 4,200 trees, which would more than replenish the population.
Tim Puko can be reached at tpuko@tribweb.com or 412-320-7975.
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Preservationist seeks delay in sale of land for library
Thursday, December 27, 2007
By Rich Lord,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteA historic preservationist yesterday asked Pittsburgh City Council to withhold approval of a land sale that would allow the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to move its Allegheny Regional branch, warning that he and others may sue.
David Tessitor argued in a letter to Council President Doug Shields that because the old library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, federal and state law demand that a study be done before it is altered.
He said he and others will “pursue legal remedies” should council approve the sale of a Central North Side plot to the library system without analysis of alternatives. The sale is on the agenda for council’s meeting today, and if not aproved would need to be reintroduced next year.
The Allegheny Regional branch in Allegheny Center was damaged by lightning in April 2006, and has been closed ever since. The library system wants to move it to the corner of Federal and Parkhurst streets, near the Federal North development.
“The longer the process goes on, the longer there isn’t library service,” said Suzanne Thinnes, communications manager for the library system. There is paperwork to be done even after the city approves the sale of the plot, now owned by its Urban Redevelopment Authority. “Barring any complications, or any unforeseen circumstances, the groundbreaking will occur in April.”
The old library, though repaired since the lightning strike, is inconvenient and inefficient, the library system has argued. It is now being used to house rare books and artifacts, and Ms. Thinnes said no decision has been made regarding its future. It is owned by the city.
“I guess we would all like to see the library stay in the library,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. At the same time, he added, “We have to be sympathetic to the library’s economic situation. … I wish we had time to get to a global solution.”
Mr. Tessitor, of Allegheny West, and other activists engineered a Dec. 18 public hearing on the library’s fate. “That’s important to the federal courts, that you’ve done everything you can” before suing, he said.
Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.
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Future of historical buildings precarious
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, December 24, 2007The stone house built two centuries ago by John Woods played host to the movers and shakers of its day but stands silent, its windows and doors boarded shut.
Composer Stephen Foster was a frequent visitor to the two-story home in Hazelwood, often entertaining the Woods family and their guests by playing guitar or piano.“They would be the local leaders of the day — judges, mayors, town leaders. The social register of that period,” said Deane Root, a University of Pittsburgh professor and director of the Center for American Music.
“They would read poetry or sing,” Root said. Foster loved to hear Woods’ daughters sing the songs of the day.
As Pittsburgh readies to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2008, Root is thankful the vacant Woods house is standing because it is one of the oldest, tangible connections to the origins of the city.
“Why don’t we appreciate that? What’s wrong? Why do we always have to live life as if we were the first ones here?” Root said.The home, built in 1792, is among 589 sites in Southwestern Pennsylvania that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and one of three surviving 18th century structures in Pittsburgh.
Some of the buildings have been lovingly restored; others never will be. One building — the oldest structure designed by an architect in Pittsburgh — is for sale.
“Competition for restoration dollars is very keen,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which did work to stabilize the Woods house in 2003 in conjunction with the Hazelwood Initiative.
Those looking to buy and renovate a historic structure won’t get any help from the state or federal government, said Bill Callahan, community preservation coordinator at the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation.
“There are no monies available for owner/occupied structures for preservation purposes,” he said. “I get phone calls every day about that. I wish I could give them a different answer.”
That leaves communities, local history groups or private citizens scrambling to preserve the buildings.
“We’ve got these gems in the community. It’s interesting what they could be,” said Jim Richter, director of the Hazelwood Initiative.
But the price of restoration is high.
The cost of a historical preservation of the Woods home has been estimated at $600,000. Just to make it liveable would cost $200,000, Richter said. A century-old Carnegie library down the street needs $900,000 in repairs.
Woods, the first surveyor of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, was a state senator in 1797 and elected to the 14th Congress in 1815. He died in 1817 at age 55.
The Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh in 2005 included the Woods home among its top 10 historical renovation opportunities.
“It’s a very important house. It needs a sponsor, a chief advocate,” said Dan Holland, who founded the association.
In Westmoreland County, Don and Cordelia Miller of Irwin bought Brush Hill, one of the first “mansion-style” homes constructed west of the Appalachians, 30 years ago and have been carefully restoring it since.
“You have to love it. I basically work on it full time,” Don Miller said about the home that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Brush Hill was built by Col. John Irwin, the town’s namesake, and was the largest of Irwin’s three plantations. Work on the Federal-style, two-story fieldstone home began in 1792, Miller said.
Materials used in its construction came from the area, he said.
“The stone was quarried here, the nails were handmade,” Miller said.
Living in a house this old isn’t for everyone, said Miller, a retired engineer. Homes of the era didn’t come with bathrooms so finding space to include such modern amenities must be included in the planning, he said.
There are other aspects peculiar to the times.
“Every window was a different size,” Cordelia Miller said.
The Millers have demolished a later addition to the house, renovated the kitchen and removed six inches of carpet, concrete and other flooring to reach the original wood floors. Future projects include replacing a slate roof that was added in the 1800s.
—Rich heritage
Southwestern Pennsylvania’s rich heritage is reflected in the number of sites registered as national historic places.Allegheny County — 207
Armstrong County — 18
Beaver County — 20
Butler County — 10
Fayette County — 72
Greene County — 46
Indiana County — 27
Somerset County — 32
Washington County — 104
Westmoreland County — 53
Source: The Pennsylvania History and Museum Commission
Testaments to the past
The region’s oldest buildings include:
• The Fort Pitt Blockhouse, built in 1764. It’s Pittsburgh’s earliest building and the oldest authenticated structure west of the Allegheny Mountains. The five-sided, two-story building constructed by Col. Henry Bouquet is in Point State Park and administered by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• The Neill Log House was built about 1787 in Schenley Park. The Neills, who owned 262 acres in the northern section of the park, moved in 1795 to what is now Market Square. After their deaths, the log house and property were handed down to different people before being sold to Col. James O’Hara and his granddaughter Mary Schenley, who gave the property to the city in 1889. The Neill house received a City of Pittsburgh historic designation on Feb. 22, 1977.
• The Burke Building, 209 Fourth St., is the oldest building in Pittsburgh designed by an architect. The Greek revival-style, 3-story structure was built in 1836. The building was designed by William Chislett for Robert and Andrew Burke, attorneys active in land development in Pittsburgh. It has been the home of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for 10 years. The sale of the building is under negotiation.
• Nemacolin Castle was built in Brownsville by stages between 1789 and 1900 by several generations of the Jacob Bowman family. The 22-room castle features a three-story octagonal tower and a squared third-story tower room. Jacob Bowman operated a trading post at the site and was named commissary to government troops during the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1795, he was commissioned justice of the peace and was named Brownsville’s first postmaster by President Washington. The castle, owned by the county and maintained by the Brownsville Historical Society, is a museum.
• The David Bradford House was built in Washington in 1788. Bradford was one of the leading lawyers and politicians of the area, serving as deputy attorney general for Washington County and as a delegate to the Whiskey Rebellion conferences in 1791 and 1792. The home is owned by the state and is a museum.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.
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Smaller housing projects dot the city
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 23, 2007While large new housing developments draw much of the attention Downtown — among them Piatt Place, the Carlyle, Three PNC Plaza, 151 First Side and the Encore on 7th Street — there’s also a fair number of smaller projects adding to the mix.
An example is a plan by the Urban Evergreen Group to develop 10 to 12 units in two buildings: 333 Boulevard of Allies and 330 Third Ave.
“Pittsburgh is an ideal place for developments and investments,” said Jose Caro of Urban Evergreen, who moved here from New York about two months ago.
This is his first development in Pittsburgh, and Caro wants to do others.
Urban Evergreen paid $495,000 for the two buildings, with plans to develop retail on the first level, offices on the second and residential units on the floors above. Caro says it hasn’t been decided if the units will be offered for sale as condominiums or rented as apartments.
Together, the buildings have about 19,200 square feet. The structures were sold to Urban Evergreen by Human Services of Western Pennsylvania, with Tom Sullivan, a broker with Pennsylvania Commercial Real Estate who handled the deal.
Other projects adding to the residential mix Downtown include Philadelphia developer Solara Ventures’ condominium development at 941 Penn Ave. that is providing 18 units.
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is moving forward with its plans to convert three vacant buildings on the edge of Market Square into Market at Fifth, a $2.5 million to $3 million complex that will feature seven upper-floor apartments, a ground-level restaurant and a rooftop garden.
Another smaller development is 5 Lofts, a project that, as the name says, provides five residential units. The complex is being developed in a six-story building at 806 Penn Ave. by Ninth and Liberty Partners LLC, a group that includes investors Sean Luther, Tom Jackson and Patty Burk.
The first floor will be for commercial use, while the floors above each contain one unit with about 1,850 square feet.
Burk is vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, an advocacy group.
One of partnership’s goals is to promote conversion of vacant upper floors of older commercial buildings into new housing.
Judging from recent evidence, the idea seems to be catching on.