Category Archive: Preservation News
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Rebuilt West Newton station newest gem on riverside trail
By Richard Robbins
For The Valley Independent
Monday, November 26, 2007Jack Cusick eyeballed the sloping, overhanging roof, the antique-looking lights attached to the red-brick exterior and the smartly appointed conference room and office, and said, “It’s a culmination.”
Cusick was talking about West Newton Station on the Youghiogheny River Trail, a new structure that resembles the old Pennsylvania and Lake Erie Railroad Station devastated by fire four decades ago.
The rebuilt West Newton Station will serve as a visitors center for trail users and as headquarters for Regional Trail Corp., the nonprofit partnership that sponsored the development of the Youghiogheny River Trail.
An open house at the station is slated from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday.
The $750,000 one-story building represents an effort that started in the late 1980s with the “concept” of converting the abandoned P&LE rail line into a biking-hiking trail. Cusick was on the original Regional Trail Corp. board of directors and now is a trail volunteer.
The idea grew into reality. One estimate places the number of annual visits to some portion of the 132-mile Great Allegheny Passage, which includes the Youghiogheny River Trail, at more than 700,000.The West Newton Station will have special appeal because the design came directly from blueprints left behind by the P&LE, said Cathy McCollom, regional director of Trails Town Initiative, an alliance of towns along the passage from Cumberland, Md., to McKeesport.
With the West Newton facility, visitor centers are available about every 45 miles.
John Markle, a West Newton businessman and retired educator, lauded the Yough River Environment and Education Center, headquartered in a railroad car next to the station.
He said the center reflects the growth of the trail concept from small pieces. In its final form, sometime next year, the combined Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath will stretch 335 miles from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.
Richard Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@tribweb.com or 724-836-5660.
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Pittsburgh architect draws admirers, awards
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 25, 2007Pittsburgh architect Art Lubetz admires the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, the 20th-century visionary who designed Fallingwater in Fayette County and other masterpieces inspiring to generations of architects.
Lubetz differs with the master, though, on one professional observation.
“Frank Lloyd Wright used to say he didn’t draw a line until he had the whole building in his mind,” says Lubetz, 67, of Oakland. “That might be true. He might have been a super-duper genius. But for schleps like me and most other architects, it’s hard work to get there.”
The self-effacing comment hardly meshes with how others see him.
Lubetz is a visionary thinker in his own right, a gifted architect whose designs have added flare, vigor and rare dimensions to many buildings and abodes throughout his native Western Pennsylvania and other locales across the nation, say his peers, associates and a former student.
He speaks out to preserve worthy old structures, loves cats, collects vivid Czechoslovakian vases, reads vociferously, draws insight from 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza and admits that years ago, he once pushed his Alfa Romeo to 118 mph late at night on the Parkway West.
Lubetz recently received an American Institute of Architects Honor Award at the Design Pittsburgh Awards. He was recognized for “extremely well done” work in the expansion and renovation of the Squirrel Hill branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He is founder and president of Lubetz Architects, an Oakland-based firm celebrating its 40th anniversary this fall.
“It’s notable that Art brings that kind of passionate approach to all the work he does, whether it’s residential, commercial or a public building, like a library,” said Anne-Marie Lubenau, an architect and executive director of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, a nonprofit that supports quality architecture.
“He is continually searching to bring fresh ideas to architecture, thinking out of the box, and creating places for people that are inspiring,” she said.
The library project, completed in April 2005, transformed what had been a nondescript structure at the corner of Forbes and Murray avenues into an architectural showcase with copper trimmings and abundant aqua glass. The glass-cube lobby juts out an angle toward Forbes Avenue. The $4.7 million renovation added 7,000 square feet, or 38 percent, new space for library users.
“Our buildings generally are noticeable,” says Lubetz, petting a pair of calico cats — Za and Ha — that paw at the architect for a share of his attention. The cats, sisters, are named after architect Zaha Hadid.
“As a result, people imagine that we are arrogant or something,” he says, “but it’s not for people to notice us. It’s for people to notice the architecture and notice what’s been done, so that maybe their awareness will be raised when they think about architecture.”
“I’m very intrigued by materials that are acted on by nature and change over time. We like copper because it changes. Glass changes throughout the day depending on how the sun hits it.”
The library’s glass walls and skylights were designed to let in sufficient sunlight to create the feeling of reading on a porch.
“Lots of light. That’s one characteristic of almost all our work. Light activates the life within architecture,” Lubetz said.
The panel of architects that bestowed the award said the library’s design “makes people re-think any preconceptions” about urban public libraries. “We bet this place just hops because it really strikes us as a place the community can own,” the panel said.
Among previous awards, Lubetz received honors for his Lincoln Towers housing complex near New York City and his design of the Hartford, Conn., City Hall.
He has taught architectural studio courses at Carnegie Mellon University since 1988. His wife, Karen Myres, a former CMU educator, is president of the Executive Women’s Council.
Former student Dan Cohen, 23, of Squirrel Hill, a recent CMU graduate, described Lubetz as inspirational.
“He taught us architecture is more than just four walls and a roof. It’s more than a pretty facade,” Cohen said. “It’s about putting into it this extra level of thought, which hopefully can translate over to something that the user can experience, and that’s what makes great architecture.”
As president of Preservation Pittsburgh in 2000, Lubetz was one of the leaders of a successful effort to block an attempt to demolish six square blocks of buildings in Downtown — the core of then-Mayor Tom Murphy’s development plan in the Fifth and Forbes corridor.
“He is a Pittsburgh architect who has long been in the forefront of modern design, but has enormous respect for the architecture of our past, and he is willing to stand up and defend it,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, another organization that opposed the plan to raze 68 buildings.
Lubetz has battled through some tough challenges — physical and professional — over the course of his life.
As a 19-year-old architecture student at then-Carnegie Institute of Technology, Lubetz was diagnosed with cornea disease that was leading to blindness. The prognosis threatened his career, but cornea transplants saved his vision. In his early 40s, he suffered a bout of multiple sclerosis that debilitated his right leg. A rigorous therapy regiment restored his use of it.
In July 1996, tragedy struck when his partner, architect Jill Watson, was killed in the crash of TWA Flight 800 near Long Island, N.Y. “She was a partner in the firm and in life and even in drawing. We would fight each other to put the next line on the paper,” Lubetz said at the time.
At a 40th anniversary celebration for his business, a guest asked Lubetz: “Wow. How did you do it?”
“Sometimes I can’t figure it out,” says Lubetz. “Our work is and has always been unusual.
“I think three characteristics I have gotten me through. I’m doggedly determined because I love what I do. I’m tenacious. And I have a major ability to deal with disappointment. I work hard for what I want and I work even harder to be happy with what I end up getting.”
David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or 412-380-5614.
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District presses to close Schenley
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, November 20, 2007Sixty-eight percent of the materials tested at Schenley High School contained asbestos, according to a report released Monday by city schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt.
AGX Inc., Wexford-based environmental consultants, collected 406 samples from the plaster, ceiling, tiles, carpet and other areas of the Oakland school and found that 277 contained asbestos.The firm collected the samples five years ago, but the Pittsburgh Public Schools released the data for the first time to quell concerns that the district was overreacting to the asbestos problem.
“This is the only building I know (in the district) where every ceiling, every wall on every floor has asbestos in it,” said Richard Fellers, the district’s chief operating officer, during a tour of the building with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The danger of the asbestos and falling plaster, coupled with the cost of renovating the school, has prompted Roosevelt to recommend for a second time that the school board close Schenley after this school year.
During the past four years, estimates for the cost of abating the asbestos and renovating the building’s mechanical systems have ranged from $42.4 million to $86.9 million. Roosevelt has touted $64.4 million as the best estimate.“You’re talking about a basic gut job where every system needs to be replaced,” Roosevelt said at a news conference yesterday.
Fellers and a team of architects and other professionals noted some of the 10,000 patches made to repair falling plaster last summer. Asbestos was used in the 91-year-old building for binding plaster, insulation and as a fire retardant.
Patches, bubbles or sites of fallen plaster sealed with bridging compound could be seen in some hallways. In some stairwells, hallways or classrooms, fallen plaster had caused holes or exposed the brick behind a radiator.
Roosevelt assured that the school is safe. He said the district monitors the plaster three times a week and the air quality once a week.
“Every decision I make is based on the question: ‘Would this be right for my child?’ ” Roosevelt said.
He has suggested that Schenley’s ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders go to the former Reizenstein school in East Liberty and graduate with a Schenley diploma.
Schenley’s asbestos problem is compounded by a lack of ventilation that causes the plaster to bubble and fall. Because of the school’s historic status, Fellers said, the district was required to choose a type of window that preserved the building’s architectural character but accelerated its deterioration through insufficient ventilation.
The proposal to close Schenley has stirred student and parent protests. Schenley advocates went to Allegheny Common Pleas Court last week in an unsuccessful attempt to block the school board from hiring an architect and construction manager for the renovation of Reizenstein.
The uncertainty over the school’s fate has caused a family feud.
Vidya Patil, the district’s acting director of facilities, is in charge of maintaining the building and keeping it safe. His daughter, Oona, 16, is a junior at Schenley and unhappy with the proposal to close it.
“I’m very concerned about the deteriorating condition in the building — particularly the asbestos,” Patil said. “The amount of monitoring and dollars it takes to keep it safe is almost unbearable.”
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Charleroi historic
By Chris Buckley
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
Tuesday, November 20, 2007Charleroi’s historical heritage has been confirmed with its inclusion on the National Register by the National Park Service.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission approved Charleroi’s application to add much of the Magic City to the National Register of Historic Places at a meeting Sept. 11. The federal agency notified the commission Nov. 9 that it has accepted the nomination.
Bill Callahan, state representative from the commission office in Pittsburgh, previously reviewed the district, and encouraged Charleroi’s application as a historic district.
Terry Necciai, who served as Main Street program manager in Charleroi in the late 1980s, now is an architect working for the historic preservation firm John Milner Associates in its Alexandria, Va., office.
He has submitted 58 nominations for National Register of Historic Places, but said Charleroi’s was the most difficult and time-consuming process.
Inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places is approved for one or more of the following:
* A site associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.
* A site associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.
* A site that embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or that represents the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.
* A site that yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
Necciai said most historic properties are a combination of more than one of these criteria.
In the 1980s, the state decided it had enough CDBG grants from such Valley communities as Charleroi, Donora and Monongahela for historic building facade improvements that officials came out and developed maps of the historic regions.
In 1982, Necciai filed with the National Register of Historic Places for Monongahela because he “did not like that so many buildings were being torn down.”
The year before Necciai became Charleroi’s Main Street manager in 1987, the state reviewed Charleroi’s downtown area.
State officials believed at the time that Charleroi was already protected under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 because of the architectural character and age of the downtown area.
From that time forward, Charleroi received more consideration for improvement project grants in the downtown area.
When state officials reviewed Charleroi in 1986, it recognized the eligibility for inclusion on National Register of Historic Places a section stretching from the 900 block to the 1300 block of Lincoln Avenue and Railroad Street as well as from First to 13th streets.
When state officials toured Charleroi in 2004, however, they said the boundary should be extended to include 120 blocks of Charleroi, about 80 percent of the Magic City.
Necciai returned to the Valley every weekend for four years developing an inventory for 1,800 buildings in the proposed district. The argument for Charleroi’s inclusion totaled 40 pages. The inventory is about 100 pages.
“In 1986, the state said it was historic, but this expanded the scope of the historic district,” Necciai said. “It proves what was true all along, that it is an historic district.”
The state reviewed Charleroi’s initial nomination, which was revised over several months prior to the commission meeting in September.
In September, the PHMC staff presented Charleroi’s case to the commission board
Once an application is approved at the state level and forwarded to the keeper of the national register – an office of the National Park Service – the federal agency has 90 days to act.
Necciai said the National Register of Historic Places designation will be a great marketing tool for Charleroi.
For example, he pointed to Alexandria, Va., where he lives.
During the first half of the 1960s, many buildings in a two- to three-block section of the city were razed.
But when the National Historic Preservation Act was passed in 1966, Alexandria was among the first cities to file nominations.
Four decades later, Alexandria has become the 11th densest community in the country with a steady stream of tourists, Necciai said.
Necciai pointed to the Torpedo Factory Art Center. Once a torpedo factory during World War II, it is now home to more than 165 artists in every form of media from painting, ceramics, photography and jewelry to stained glass, fiber, printmaking, and sculpture.
It also is home to various studios and workshops.
Federal government offices and political action committees also call Alexandria home, adding greatly to its growth, Necciai noted.
“But a part of the equation is that the community decided to not only value what it had, but do something about it,” Necciai said.
Chris Buckley can be reached at cbuckley@tribweb.com or 724-684-2642.
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$2.5M Aeberli House project to begin
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, November 15, 2007Allegheny General Hospital this month plans to begin a $2.5 million renovation of the Aeberli House, a landmark North Side structure adjacent to the hospital on North Avenue that has been vacant for more than two decades.
Possible new uses for the two-story, 12,000-square-foot structure include additional space for Allegheny General administrative offices as well as possible retail use — for example, a coffee shop, the hospital said Wednesday.
“Renovation of the Aeberli building is an important investment in the future of this community and another tangible expression of AGH’s deep and long-standing commitment to the North Side’s vitality and progress,” said Connie Cibrone, AGH president and chief executive officer.
“We are hopeful that this project will be a major catalyst for the long-discussed revitalization of the North Avenue corridor, encouraging other innovative development plans that will capitalize on its potential as a gateway to the many wonderful assets that the greater North Side affords our region,” Cibrone said.
Located at the corner of North Avenue and Sandusky Street, the nearly 150-year-old building was purchased in 1909 by William Aeberli and served as a funeral home for most of the 20th century. It has been designated as a historic structure by the city of Pittsburgh.
The building sits in close proximity to “Federal North,” another North Side area along Federal Street the city has long targeted for revitalization. Allegheny General already has taken a stake in revitalizing that area.
In 2003, the hospital became the primary tenant in a new three-story medical office building on Federal Street that houses a number of its key clinical services, including its pathology and laboratory medicine department and orthopaedic, gastroenterology and urology programs.
A renovated Aeberli building could further address the need to free up additional space at its main campus to support the hospital’s growing clinical services, Cibrone said.
“This is good timing for this announcement,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The South Side-based preservationist organization worked with the hospital and a number of North Side community groups to develop plans to restore the building’s facade to its original design.
The foundation also is cooperating with the city and community groups on plans to restore the old Garden Theater, an X-rated movie house in the Federal North area. It was cleared for restoration by a recent court ruling and subsequent sales agreement that settled a decade-long legal battle with the owner.
“We are extremely pleased that the restoration of the Aeberli building is gong to take place and that Allegheny General has shown its commitment to preserve an important North Side asset,” said Joe Lawrence, president of the North Side Leadership Conference.
The first phase project is scheduled to be completed in six to eight months. The contractor is Bridges Construction, with design by architect Ellis Schmidlapp of Landmarks Design Associates.
Part of the original northern section of Allegheny City, the Aeberli building was constructed in the Second Empire Style. Its most prominent feature is a wrap-around porch that extends across the North Avenue facade and continues up Sandusky Street.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Garden Theatre on North Side heads toward landmark status
By The Tribune-Review
Thursday, November 8, 2007The Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to designate the Garden Theatre in the North Side a historic landmark.
The designation now must go before the city planning commission for a vote. If approved, City Council will conduct a public hearing and then vote on whether the designation should receive final approval.
A historic designation would require developers to preserve the 92-year-old building’s beaux arts terra cotta exterior. Historic status does not regulate what can be done to the interior.
The theater showed X-rated films from the 1970s until the city bought and closed it earlier this year. The city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority is reviewing proposals from several developers on how to utilize the theater.
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Grant will allow IUP to complete preservation project
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 7, 2007Beverly Chiarulli and a team of students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania are preserving a slice of state history dug up during highway projects.
Chiarulli, director of IUP’s archaeological services, will get as much as $850,000 during the next five years from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. A big part of the grant will pay for preparing and cataloging more than 250,000 artifacts for the State Museum in Harrisburg.
“These (highway) projects represent the history of everyone in Pennsylvania,” Chiarulli said. “They represent people that aren’t the famous people in history books and aren’t the people who left written records.”
The most common artifacts from the “Legacy Collection” project are pieces of glass and ceramics that tell scientists how people lived as far back as the late 17th century.
“The more English ceramics you have, the wealthier you were,” Chiarulli said.
The collection includes many bottles, especially medicine bottles from the 18th and 19th centuries. The bottles give clues to the health, diet and wealth of early Pennsylvanians.Some of the bottles, for example, contained worm medicine.
“People were eating meat that wasn’t always cured that well,” Chiarulli explained.
Other artifacts include pottery, arrowheads and other points from American Indians who lived as long as 10,000 years ago.
IUP junior Carrie Glessner, 21, of Somerset is one of 12 students working on the project this semester. She admires pottery wrapped with cords or decorated with designs drawn by sticks.
“It’s interesting what they were able to do with primitive technology,” she said.
PennDOT began doing archaeological investigations on federally funded road projects in the 1970s. By 2003, when IUP became involved in the project, the state had amassed more than 500,000 items.
The university is about half done with the project. The new agreement will pay for the two or three years of work to finish the job.
Ira Beckerman, group leader of cultural resources for PennDOT, said IUP was chosen because it’s a state university with an archaeology program that has labs, faculty, a supervisor and a stream of students.
“There are very few state institutions that can do this, and this is one of them,” he said.
Susan Lukowski, 22, an IUP senior from Avis in Clinton County, has worked three years on the project. She wants to become an archaeologist specializing in animal bones.
“Bones to me are a puzzle,” she said. “You have the pieces, and you can figure out what people were eating. It’s a way to connect to the past.”
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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‘Historic’ tag likely for North Side Garden Theatre
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 7, 2007The city’s Historic Review Commission is likely to designate the Garden Theatre on the North Side as a historic landmark today.
If historic designation is granted, developers would be required to preserve the 92-year-old building’s beaux arts terra cotta exterior by requiring that any alterations be approved by the commission.
The West North Avenue building features a vertical neon sign built in the 1930s and a canopied marquee installed in 1958, after the original marquee fell to the street from a heavy snowstorm. Much of the original interior ornamentation remains.
The once grand movie house showed X-rated films from the 1970s until the city bought and closed it earlier this year. It has since deteriorated because of a lack of maintenance, said David McMunn, president of the Mexican War Streets Society, which is seeking the historic designation.
“There’s some water damage to the plaster, and a lot of the ornate features on the interior have been painted over,” McMunn said. “But for the most part, the building is intact and most definitely can be restored.”
The interior has its original chandeliers, ornate wall sconces and wrought-iron archways leading to the main seating area.
A historic designation would not prevent a developer from removing or altering the theater’s interior features.
McMunn said North Side neighborhood groups support the historic designation and want the theater used for entertainment and the arts.
In September, the seven-member Historic Review Commission agreed that the building meets the requirements to be considered for historic designation.
After a decade-long battle to acquire the building through eminent domain, the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority bought it this year for $1.1 million.
McMunn said he is “fairly confident” the commission will grant the historic designation.
“There’s been nothing to indicate otherwise,” he said.
Paul Tellers, vice chairman of the Historic Review Commission, said Tuesday that he is “not aware of any commission members being opposed to the designation.”
If the commission grants historic designation, it would have to be approved by the city planning commission and City Council.
The URA is reviewing development proposals for the theater as part of its Federal North redevelopment project.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or 412-320-7987.