Category Archive: Preservation News
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Turtle Creek’s historic K Building demolished
By Brian Bowling
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 24, 2007A small piece of history tumbled to the ground last week when a contractor demolished the K Building in the Keystone Commons industrial park in Turtle Creek.
Bob Stephenson, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, said the former Westinghouse office and storage building was rapidly deteriorating.
“It was literally falling down,” he said.
A shed on top of the eight-story building was the site of the first commercial radio broadcast when newly licensed KDKA aired the presidential election results on Nov. 2, 1920.
Stephenson said part of the K Building site will be used for parking, but most of it will be used to improve the flow of truck traffic through the industrial park.
A group hoping to start a broadcast museum has been documenting the building’s demolition. Rick Harris, treasurer of the National Museum of Broadcasting, said the group hopes to recreate the end of the building where the shed was located using old photographs and documents.
A couple of factors that apparently separate the KDKA broadcast from earlier broadcasts is the audience. Most listeners before then were radio enthusiasts who built their own sets. Frank Conrad, assistant chief engineer at Westinghouse’s Pittsburgh facility, had built up an audience by doing regular broadcasts of news and music from his garage.
Gil Schwartz, vice president of communications for CBS, worked for Westinghouse’s Group W Communications in the 1980s. He said the popularity of Conrad’s broadcasts both created a market for radio receivers and attracted the first radio advertiser — a local music store.
“For the first time, someone linked broadcasting and advertising,” Schwartz said.
Westinghouse began making and selling receivers to meet the market, and licensed KDKA to create the first commercial radio station, he said.
Schwartz said Westinghouse doesn’t get the credit it deserves for historical accomplishments, and the demise of the K Building is another example of how the company is becoming a “vanishing civilization.” Many former employees now work for other broadcast companies, and meeting them is somewhat like a school reunion, he said.
“We give each other the secret handshake,” Schwartz said with a laugh.
Brian Bowling can be reached at bbowling@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7910.
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Fort Pitt Block House to get new roof
By Allison M. Heinrichs
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 24, 2007Pittsburgh’s oldest building is getting a new roof.
The Fort Pitt Block House’s cedar shake roof will be replaced starting June 1 with donated labor and materials, the Fort Pitt Society of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution announced Wednesday.“Every time we get a good wind, the yard is usually filled with toothpicks because the roof is just falling off,” said Kelly Linn, curator of the Block House, a National Historic Landmark in Point State Park, Downtown.
Estimates to replace the roof, which was installed in 1948 atop a roof from 1894, were about $20,000 — much more than the Daughters of the American Revolution could afford. Linn began applying for state grants when Carnegie-based Rickjohn Roofing volunteered to do it for free.
“I said if there’s ever a time to help out, it’s now,” said Rick Gammiere, who co-owns the roofing company with Bobby Wallo. “I visited the Block House in grade school, and it’s just really important.”
The two-week project will give archaeologists a rare chance to look in the building’s attic. “There’s no telling what’s up there, but certainly the architectural information would be invaluable,” Linn said. “We’ll learn how the building was constructed.”The Block House will be closed during the roofing project, but people are welcome on the site to observe the process and ask questions daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached at aheinrichs@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5607.
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Rebuilding Wilkinsburg
By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 24, 2007Deanna Steele looks at Jeanette Street’s boarded-up rowhouses — their lawns choked by shoulder-high weeds — and remembers children playing on the brick-lined Wilkinsburg street when she lived there 20 years ago, long before she settled in Murrysville.
Mary Cathcart wanders through an abandoned, five-bedroom house around the corner and sees, instead, the foundation of a future community — a neighborhood built on the potential of four soon to be refurbished historic homes.“I love old houses, and it overjoys me that, instead of knocking something down, they’re rebuilding it,” said Cathcart, 49, of Wilkinsburg, as she descended a dusty staircase in a home under renovation Wednesday evening.
“They’re beautiful. And they have such good bones. They don’t build things like this anymore.”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is working to ensure they’re not demolished, either. So, it secured two $500,000 grants from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development to acquire and restore the four roughly century-old structures.
Once the work is done in June or July, each will be sold for $75,000 to $95,000.
Yesterday, most neighbors who flocked to a block party to walk through the homes were less excited about mortgage discounts for prospective buyers than what the investment means to the revitalization of their community.
Sherman Moye lives around the corner from the cluster of homes developers call Hamnett Place. He sees that investment every day when he drives to work.
“I’m glad somebody’s fixing it,” said Moye, 54, of Wilkinsburg. “I know it’s going to be nice.”
Michelle Malito, a Shadyside resident thinking about buying one of the four homes, was impressed by the architectural details the developer is preserving.
Jack Schmitt, who owns a massage therapy business in Squirrel Hill, liked the idea of linking the preserved homes together as part of a sustainable neighborhood.
“I have a business in Pittsburgh, but I want to have a community,” said Schmitt, 38. “I see the vision for the future. I see an eco-village (and) a group of like-minded people.”
Others see the project as a way to improve a residential neighborhood while triggering revitalization elsewhere.
“You work incrementally, and you work your way in,” said Michael Gleba, executive vice president of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, which has funded historic redevelopment in the South Side and in the Mexican War Streets on the North Side. “You have an opportunity.”
Some see Wilkinsburg’s past in the historic homes, while others see its future. Michael Sriprasert, of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, simply sees the houses themselves.
“I see the houses as they fit into the context of what’s here,” said Sriprasert, as he strolled down the stone alleyway that runs next to one of the restored homes.
“There’s a perception of what Wilkinsburg is. People don’t realize it’s something more,” he said. “That’s what is going on here. … That’s why we’re saving these buildings.”
Justin Vellucci can be reached at jvellucci@tribweb.com or 412-320-7847.
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Mt. Lebanon golf course will note centennial
By Daniel Casciato
For the Tribune Review
Thursday, May 24, 2007Pennsylvania’s oldest municipal golf course will mark another milestone in its storied history as it celebrates its centennial this summer.
On July 7, nearly 100 years to the day a group of 30 men built three putting greens and began golfing on a 100-acre farm, Mt. Lebanon will throw two parties to celebrate the course’s origins.“What has made this golf course special over the years is that it has the ability to satisfy the needs of any type of golfer, whether they are a starter or golf professional,” said Matt Kluck, head Professional Golfers’ Association of America pro and manager of the Mt. Lebanon Golf Course.
The National Golf Association recognizes it as the oldest municipal course in the state, and last month the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation designated the former private club a historical local landmark. A plaque will be displayed for the first time during the celebration.
“We’re excited about the designation,” said Steve Dean, of Mt. Lebanon, community co-chair for the celebration and an avid golfer on the course. “The golf course is essentially in its original condition. We had a golf course architect come out to examine the course, and he said the greens were in the best condition from that era that he had ever seen.”
Local golf legend George A. Ormiston designed the nine-hole course. Andrew W. Mellon and Richard King Mellon were among the elite members when the course was originally known as Castle Shannon Golf Club. Mt. Lebanon purchased the course in 1947.A facelift for the nine-hole course is being completed just in time for the celebration. Renovations began this spring to improve drainage on the bunkers and greens, add new T-boxes and bunkers and change the teeing area on the fifth hole. Planned improvements include a picnic pavilion, an indoor/outdoor learning center, a new clubhouse, a pro shop and a grill.
“Our long-term goal is to upgrade the course so it will be more golfer-friendly for beginners and to enable faster play,” Dean said. “Nowadays, people don’t have as much discretionary time as they might have had in years past.”
The July 7 celebration begins with a morning “Family and Friends” event costing $200 for a foursome. An afternoon event concludes with a cocktail and dessert reception featuring offerings from local restaurants and a chance to meet former Pittsburgh Steelers’ fullback Rocky Bleier and his wife, Jan, the honorary event chairs. The cost for the afternoon is $400 for a foursome, including the reception, or $50 per person for the reception only.
“It’s going to be a wonderful time for everyone,” said event co-chair Amelia Dean, of Mt. Lebanon. “We’re planning to keep to a nostalgic theme with the event, including music and costumes from the era, and a trivia game based on facts from 1907.”
Throughout the day, there will be free clinics, prizes and contests, including a hole-in-one contest with a $20,000 prize and a putting contest with a $10,000 prize.
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North Side homes delayed-Sewer regulations force developer to seek aid
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteA slope of grass on Federal Street, freshly mown days ago, was to have had six townhouses by now. But no deadline ever takes complications into consideration.
After a November ground-breaking for the Federal Hill townhouse project on the Central North Side, the developer’s engineering firm was planning to handle the water and sewer connections.
But when the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority received plans from the engineers, after requesting several revisions to each of the first two, it informed the co-developer, the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, that sanitary and storm sewers had to be separated and the main line replaced.
Jerome Dettore, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said that as more planning became necessary, “it became clear that public funds were needed.”
The URA recently requested $400,000 from the water and sewer authority board for the project, which calls for 60 homes, 40 condos and a smattering of apartments, most on Federal Street, some on connecting side streets.
The soonest the authority would act on the request would be at its June board meeting.
“Our hope now is to get a tap-in plan approved for the entire development,” said Rebecca Davidson-Wagner, executive director of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council. “Even if we can get [approval] for the first six houses, we may be under construction by August or September.”
Mr. Dettore said developers often pick up the tab for small infrastructure upgrades, but for a project this large, and one that involves the city, the water and sewer authority typically allocates the money for water and sewer reconstruction. The URA will pay for street and sidewalk upgrades, including an island planter that will separate northbound from southbound traffic on Federal.
The first phase of six homes is being financed by a variety of sources for $1.8 million.
Water and sewer authority spokeswoman Holly Wojcik said the agency originally requested corrections and changes on preliminary designs from Trant Engineering. Early this month, however, she said the URA hired Michael Baker Corp. to design the improvements.
Ms. Davidson-Wagner said the company was chosen for its experience with city infrastructure.
About 80 percent of sanitary and storm sewer lines in the city are combined, said Ms. Wojcik. “When we have significant rainfall, they overflow,” delivering sewage into groundwater. “Ultimately, you want them to be separated.”
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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Millcraft gives update on its projects for revitalizing downtown Pittsburgh, Washington
By Michael Bradwell
Business Editor
Washington Observer-Reporter
May 21, 2007PITTSBURGH – When Millcraft Industries made a deal in late 2005 with the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority to build an upscale condominium, retail and office development on the site of the former Lazarus-Macy’s store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, Lucas Piatt said the company felt like it was a pioneer.
A year later, Piatt, who is vice president of real estate for Millcraft, is seeing a lot of company as the downtown area surges with projects both big and small.
“It’s good to know we’re not the only pioneers here,” Piatt said last week as he addressed about 150 engineers and contractors at the Pittsburgh Westin Convention Center. “When we started on the Piatt Place project we didn’t know about PNC’s plans,” he said referring to the bank’s plans to build PNC Plaza just across the street from Millcraft’s project, with plans to include a Fairmont luxury hotel on the top floors of the building.
“It’s going to be great having the Fairmont as a neighbor,” he said.
His remarks were made during a panel discussion entitled, “The Road to 2010: Construction in the Tri-State Area,” sponsored by Navigant Consulting and the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania. Navigant, which provides a number of risk management and claims processing services to contractors, project owners and public agencies around the world, held the symposium to raise awareness of upcoming construction projects in Western Pennsylvania.
Piatt and his father, Jack Piatt Sr., chairman of Millcraft Industries, are at the forefront of Pittsburgh’s biggest effort to remake itself. On Tuesday, Lucas Piatt briefly described several projects totaling about $350 million that will help to drive residential and retail development in the city for years to come.
Earlier during the symposium, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato told the group that in terms of construction activity, the next decade promises to be one of the busiest throughout the region.
“The next decade might be one of the best decades we’ll have in the amount of construction we’re going to have in Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania,” Onorato said.
According to Piatt, the $65 million Piatt Place project has already sold 30 percent of the condominiums. It has also signed a Capital Grille steak house and a McCormick & Schmick’s seafood restaurant for the street-level retail. TD Ameritrade has also signed a lease to take a portion of the 180,000 square feet of office space available in the development.
In the Market Square area of downtown, Piatt said Millcraft is getting ready to embark on “Market Square Place,” which will include about 50 rental apartments priced at $1.25 per square foot per month to attract lower-income workers.
“It’s going to get working-class people living and working in the city,” Piatt said. He said Millcraft will visit the annual International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas next week and expects to receive commitments from retailers for the Market Square development.
Moving uptown, on Forbes Avenue, Millcraft plans to develop “The Gardens,” which will include 200 apartments and condominiums. He said the $200 million project will be put out for bids in about six months.
A future project for Millcraft will include the “Wood Street Lofts,” across from Piatt Place, a $40 million project that will include 104 units at market rates and 30,000-square-feet of retail space. Piatt said Millcraft is still acquiring property for the project.
One of the biggest challenges to developing the downtown, Piatt said, “is that you have to have critical mass,” getting enough people to move downtown to create more demand for downtown living.
He said earlier attempts to revitalize the city, which focused on retail, failed because they didn’t take into account that the city needed residents and that it relied on outside developers who weren’t familiar with Pittsburgh’s challenges.
“We’re here to stay, we’re local and when things get tough, we’re not going to leave,” he said.
In addition to the multiple Pittsburgh projects, Millcraft also is forging ahead with its $100 million “Crossroads” project for redeveloping downtown Washington.
Piatt said the LandAmerica Building at Franklin and Beau streets, originally named Nationwide Centre, opened this spring, and is about 80 percent leased. The primary tenant is Nationwide Appraisal Service Co. with other companies coming that include First Federal Savings Bank, Crazy Mocha Coffee and the Social Security Administration. An outdoor park and amphitheater which can accommodate up to 500 people is under construction behind the building.
Piatt, who said the company has spent more than $35 million so far, said the next step will be a refacing of Millcraft Center, a $500,000 project to upgrade the exterior of the structure, which was built in the 1970s.
A second phase of the Crossroads project will involve adding street-level retail with condos and apartments on upper stories to the downtown area and the construction of a boutique-style, 84-room hotel, which Piatt said probably will have a Hilton badge.
In Phase III, Millcraft plans to add additional housing, he said, adding that the entire project will take about 10 years to complete
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Urban planning expert urges leaders to make local neighborhoods walkable
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 19, 2007An urban planning expert urged local leaders Friday to adopt “smart growth” principles as they map out a strategy for the region’s future.
“There are a lot regions in this country and around the world where people have started to realize that things such as transportation and housing need to be planned in a very deliberate way,” said David Chen, founder and executive director of Smart Growth America, based in Washington.Chen was the keynote speaker at the seventh annual Southwestern Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown. About 250 business and community leaders attended.
Smart growth involves comprehensive regional planning that, among other things, takes into account environmental issues, global competitiveness, transportation, housing, changing demographics and social equity.
Given the Pittsburgh region’s aging population, Chen said community planners should make neighborhoods more walkable and less reliant on cars by improving the quality and availability of public transportation.
He suggested using smart growth principles when redeveloping older towns and neighborhoods, and when planning new communities.
“While there is still a demand for conventional developments, the market is shifting and we are beginning to see a greater desire for urban living,” Chen said.
With so many townships and boroughs, the region’s fractionalized bureaucracy creates a “significant challenge” when trying to plan on a regional scale, but it has been done in other parts of the country without annexation, Chen said.
“New Jersey has successfully linked different transit systems to create a more integrated system,” said Chen, who noted that some communities in upstate New York have begun to share municipal services.
During a question-and-answer session, David Ross, the planning director for Castle Shannon, drew attention to a lack of governmental cooperation by asking for a show of hands from representatives of local government.
Only four people responded.
“We live in a very parochial area,” he said. “Many of the issues we are discussing today have to be dealt with from the bottom up rather than the top down. That means getting local officials on board with the idea of working together. That will take time.”
Chen announced yesterday that Smart Growth America decided to hold its first national Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference Downtown in September.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7987.
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Pittsburgh residents’ labor leads to neighborhood revival
By Mike Cronin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 19, 2007Some of Garfield’s “steps to nowhere” are finally headed somewhere.
The Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. has spent about 25 years buying abandoned buildings and empty lots whose concrete stoops still blight the neighborhood. In some spots, green grass and new homes stand in their places.“God bless these folks,” Aggie Brose, deputy director of the nonprofit, said of the people who bought the homes. Even though some still have blighted structures as neighbors, the new homeowners are “visionaries,” she said.
It takes patience to transform depressed neighborhoods like Garfield into vibrant centers, said those who have pushed for development there and in East Liberty, the South Side Slopes and Tarentum.
Coming up with just a plan might take a year, and executing it can take decades. Leaders of development corporations like Brose’s said residents, business owners and government officials must cooperate to bring a neighborhood back to life.
“With community planning, the way you start is always the same: You find out what’s important to the residents of the neighborhood,” said Maelene Myers, executive director of East Liberty Development Inc.In South Side Slopes, residents and groups have tried to promote affordable housing, Downtown views and cleanup efforts to attract new neighbors. A fire helped, too.
Bev Boggio, 41, cofounder of the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, credits a 1998 fire that gutted three houses on Holt Street for mobilizing her neighbors.
“We put signs on poles saying we needed to save our housing stock from fires,” Boggio said. “So many people showed up, we decided we should have our own neighborhood group.”
Judy Dyda, South Side Local Development Co.’s manager of community planning, said older residents learned they needed to embrace young professionals, like Boggio, who started moving in.
“We’ve worked together to do neighborhood cleanups and lighting for pedestrian bridges,” said Joan Burke, 62, a lifelong resident of the slopes.
Brose and Richard Swartz, executive director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., have focused on bringing new residents and business owners to Garfield. They’ve worked with the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority to buy and renovate properties. A 50-house project is underway, and all but one of the 23 built so far have been sold. The homes sell for $120,000 to $131,000.
“We’re deliberately pushing the market up and selling at two to two-and-a-half times what a house here typically sells for,” Swartz said. “It’s a signal to the private market that this area is not going to stay depressed forever.”
A walk along Penn Avenue reveals the resurgence. Many artists own the shops where they sell their work and others’. That’s unusual, said Laura Jean McLaughlin, 41, owner of The Clay Penn.
Neighborhood groups like the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative help artists get grants and loans so they can take ownership of the area’s improvement, McLaughlin said.
“I purchased this building for $15,000,” said McLaughlin, who’s received a grant and loan from local groups to refurbish her property and create two apartments upstairs. “I’m gaining equity. I’ll be able to sell and make a profit.”
Affordable housing is one way Tarentum residents hope to draw people to their borough, where houses cost between $40,000 and $60,000.
“We’d like to have a Shadyside kind of thing,” said George Gatto, owner of a motorcycle shop, a diner and other businesses. “People like to shop in towns.”
Borough Manager Bill Rossey held a meeting last year to gather ideas from the community. Hundreds attended, and since then Rossey has applied for nearly $50,000 in state grants to plan the development of Tarentum’s riverfront, railroad areas and West Seventh Avenue business district.
“People are waiting to get on board with what Tarentum’s going to do,” said Debbie Shiring, 39, who has lived most of her life in the borough and is handling the public relations campaign for the revitalization. “There’s definitely a groundswell of energy and support.”
Mike Cronin can be reached at mcronin@tribweb.com or 412-320-7884.