Category Archive: Preservation News

1. Garfield project may get go-ahead

   May 9, 2007 10:13 am

   By Bonnie Pfister
   TRIBUNE-REVIEW
   Wednesday, May 9, 2007

   The Urban Redevelopment Authority is poised to approve nearly $1.2 million in loans and more than $700,000 in grants to help develop an 18-unit residential and commercial building in Garfield.
   The URA board is expected to vote Thursday on proposals to help finance the $6.17 million “Glass Lofts” development on Penn Ave and North Fairmount Street. The developer, Friendship Development Associates, has worked with architect Arthur Lubetz Associates and Sota Construction.

   The project would include 3,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space intended for a restaurant, 1,100 square feet of office space, and four artists’ studios.

   The URA also is scheduled to discuss redevelopment efforts at Wood Street Commons, a 16-story building at the corner of Third Avenue and Wood Street, Downtown, which offers affordable housing to the working poor and those at risk of homelessness.

   Operated since 1987 as a partnership of the nonprofit Community Human Services Corp., developer Mistick PBT and local government agencies, it houses 259 apartments and six floors of commercial space. But Mistick PBT is liquidating its assets and must be removed from the ownership structure, according to URA documents.
   The Allegheny County Office of Community Services will vacate its office space there in June 2008, resulting in a loss nearly $1 million in annual income for the building owners.

   The URA board will vote on a reimbursement agreement with the county to help pay Baker Young Corp. to reassess the building’s value and potential redevelopment of the commercial floors. The county would reimburse the URA half the cost to conduct the study, up to $25,000.

   Officials from the URA and Friendship Development Associates did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.

   Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.

2. Cork Factory apartments get bubbly reviews

   May 5, 2007 11:09 am

   By Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter
   For the Tribune-Review
   Saturday, May 5, 2007

   Debbie Dougherty gushes superlatives when she describes the two-bedroom loft apartment that she and her husband, Bill, share at the new Cork Factory apartments in the Strip District.

   “It’s just so wonderful. We’re enjoying every minute of it,” said Dougherty, whose seventh-floor corner unit offers views of both the Allegheny River and Downtown. “We have brick walls and 17-foot ceilings, and it’s incredible,” she said.

   Because her husband is retired and their four children have grown and moved, Dougherty said the couple decided to downsize from their large family home in Murrysville. They moved in March to the 297-unit luxury Cork Factory complex, which celebrated its grand opening Friday.

   With 135 apartments — about 45 percent of the units — already scooped up by renters, the $70 million project is well ahead of its leasing goals, said Daniel McCaffery, of Daniel McCaffery Interests of Chicago.

   “We’re very pleased,” said McCaffery, who developed the site in partnership with Charles Hammell III and Robert Beynon, the local businessmen who own the property on Railroad Street between 23rd and 24th Streets.
   “The important thing is we are making our rental rate and renting at a pace that’s faster than we predicted,” McCaffery said.

   The developers expect the percentage figure will be close to 70 percent as early as the fall.

   In addition to the apartments, interest also is high in the 48,000-square-feet of retail space available, he said. Leasing deals may be pending with two upscale restaurants and a local grocery store, he said.

   The three-building complex originally was built as the home of the Armstrong Cork Co. in 1901. The estimated development is privately financed although federal tax credits for historic sites cover some of the costs.

   So far, tenants are a mixture of young single professionals, many newcomers to the Pittsburgh, a smattering of suburbanites and elderly residents, said Debbie Roberts, Cork Factory general manager.

   “We’ve met so many nice people,” Debbie Dougherty said. “We’ve even formed a dinner-out once-a-month group with people here, and it’s all ages — the young, the baby boomers and so forth.”

   Now that leasing of apartments is well under way, the development team can move ahead on their plans to develop a private marina on the Allegheny River for the exclusive use of Cork Factory residents.

   Also ahead is a river walk that will allow tenants to walk the grounds of the complex.

   Other features include the historic, fully restored smokestack and engine room.

   Under its current configuration, the complex offers 206 one-bedroom units; 73 two-bedroom, two-bath units; and 18 three-bedroom, two-bath units.

   Studio apartments rent from $1,200; other one-bedroom units from $1,009 to $2,480; two-bedrooms from $1,499 to $2,850; and three-bedrooms from $3,430 to $3,800.

   The complex offers a game room, 24/7 concierge service, complimentary wireless Internet in select common areas, and out-of-town services such as mail, newspaper and package pickup.

   Other features, either already available or scheduled to be opened in the future, include patio/lounge area with fire pit, riverview barbecuing, swimming pool with landscaped deck, hot tub/spa, a courtyard garden, a fitness center, business center, dry cleaners and a 450-car parking garage located across Allegheny Valley Railroad Street.

   As the Cork Factory nears completion, Hammel and Beynon can look back on nearly 11 years of frustration since they bought the property in a bankruptcy court sale in 1996.

   Several times other investors had come board to help with the project, only to drop out before it could move forward.

   “Today is culmination of a lot of hard work,” said Hammell, owner of the Pitt-Ohio Express trucking company in the Strip District. Beynon is owner of Beynon & Co., a Pittsburgh-based real estate and insurance company.

   “I think it’s awesome what they’ve done with that building,” said Larry Lagattuta, owner of The Enrico Biscotti Co., an Italian bakery and cafe at 2202 Penn Ave. in the Strip.

   “I think this can only help the Strip when you have more people living here,” said Lagattuta, whose has operated his business within two blocks of the Cork Factory for 15 years.

   Lagattuta said his only concern is that the Cork Factory and other new developments in the Strip could attract national chains and franchise retailers, coffee shops, and the like that could possibly hurt locally owned businesses.

   “We have to be careful about how those things happen,” he said. “But otherwise, lets get the people moving in and start shopping in the Strip,” he said.

   “The Cork Factory is an excellent addition to the downtown housing mix,” said Patty Burk, vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

   “It adds to the diversity of units and income ranges that we are trying to achieve Downtown. It also represents the ‘New Downtown,’ which is becoming a mixed-use environment.”

   “Even when were living in Murrysville, we would come into the city at the minimum, three days a week, for cultural events and ball games,” Dougherty said. “We loved the city so much, so we visited a few other loft apartments, but when we walked into the Cork Factory, we stopped. We said this was it.”

3. Tour forges link to steel-making past

   May 3, 2007 10:16 am

   By Andrew Conte
   TRIBUNE-REVIEW
   Thursday, May 3, 2007

   Jim Kapusta tells his granddaughter plenty of stories from his 20 years as a journeyman at the Carrie Furnaces of U.S. Steel’s former Homestead Works.
   Few of the tales made much sense to the 13-year-old until Kapusta took her on a tour of the rusting, graffiti-covered hulk — now open for tours as part of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.

   “Pittsburgh as a steel area is gone now,” said Kapusta, 61, of Peters. “To keep the thoughts and heritage going, we need something like this. It’s almost like going to the Carnegie museum.”

   Rivers of Steel gained tour access last year to the Carrie Furnaces site — stretching along the Monongahela River in Rankin, Braddock and Swissvale — after Allegheny County purchased the former mill.

   The tours help the heritage area deliver on its mission of bringing to life Western Pennsylvania’s industrial history, said Augie Carlino, president of the Steel Industry Heritage Corp., which oversees the seven-county heritage area.
   About 2,000 people toured the furnaces last year, yet names remained on a waiting list. Rivers of Steel plans to start offering the tours again this month.

   “There’s a big difference,” Carlino said. “It’s not imaginary anymore. The scale and magnitude and what the potential is I don’t think comes home to anybody until they’re walking around there.”

   The National Park Service last year designated the furnaces as a historic landmark, and backers are hoping to win congressional designation as a full National Historic Site within the next two years.

   The furnaces would be on par with the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield and Grand Canyon in terms of prestige, federal marketing and park service staffing, Carlino said. The site could draw hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.

   A futuristic vision includes a monorail snaking around gleaming factory buildings, while visitors linger on wide brick walkways and at open-air cafes. At night, fireworks and flaming gas plumes would erupt from a factory trimmed in decorative lighting.

   Federal and state governments could share the $100 million to $120 million cost with local foundations, Carlino said.

   The plans seem far-fetched — especially from the barren mill site, choked with weeds — but have roots in similar industrial tourism sites in Germany. There, a former steel mill has been turned into an amusement park with rock climbers scaling iron ore storage bins and scuba divers swimming in a seven-story water tank.

   “It’s not a museum only,” said Janis Dofner, the heritage group’s spokeswoman. “You’ve got to have other amenities.”

   For now, the Rivers of Steel tour allows visitors to simply walk beneath and around the 92-foot blast furnaces as they stand silently among chirping birds. The cast house, where molten iron once poured from the furnace amid showering sparks, stands as an open-air cathedral.

   Kapusta and former mill workers volunteer their time to share stories of wrestling with oversized valves and the fire-breathing machines.

   “It was like you’re controlling a volcano,” Kapusta said. “It was probably the same heat and everything.”

   Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7835.

4. Storm Damaged Allegheny Library Repaired

   May 2, 2007 2:59 pm

   Today, the granite finial of the historic Allegheny Library was returned to its commanding position atop the clock tower after months of restoration work.

   The Allegheny Library, located next to the Children’s museum in Central Allegheny City, was struck by lighting last summer which caused extensive damage to the finial, causing it to break into several large pieces, some of which landed inside the building and some on the lawn outside. No one was injured.

   The library itself is relocating to a new building soon to be erected on Federal Street just north of North Avenue. Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), working with the Children’s Museum and neighborhood North Side organizations, the Carnegie Library system, and the City, has commissioned studies by the architectural firm of Landmarks Design Associates for the possible adaptive use of the building.

   The Allegheny Carnegie Library was the first Carnegie Library commissioned, but it opened later than the one at Braddock. It was designed by Smith, Meyer & Pelz in 1888-1889 In the 1970s, the City announced the demolition of the Library, but PHLF spearheaded a petition drive, accumulating 7,000 signatures.

   After that, the interior suffered unfortunate modernization, but the exterior is still in excellent condition. An interesting feature of the building is the slight lightening of color in the stone rising in the sections of the tower. Landmarks staff worked with Cost Corporation to try to achieve the appropriate coloration of the granite for
   the finial.

   The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, is a City designated landmark, and has PHLF plaque.

5. Vandergrift Gift to Make History

   May 1, 2007 3:39 pm

   In 2004, a group of concerned citizens came together to form the Vandergrift Improvement Program (VIP) with the goal of revitalizing the town’s business district.

   Last June, the VIP asked Landmarks Development Corporation, a wholly owned Landmarks subsidiary, to manage Vandergrift’s Main Street Program. Preservationists learned in the 1960s that preservation-sensitive development works, but demands a broad-based neighborhood approach to be successful. Signs of residential enthusiasm are now afoot in Vandergrift.

   Recently, a resident of this Frederick Law Olmsted community and owner of the J. C. Penny Building met with the VIP and Landmarks to discuss donating the building to fund a charitable gift annuity. Such a gift would result in lifetime income and income tax benefits for the donor and would allow the VIP to acquire a key building that could stimulate similar gifts to help develop the central business district. In addition, a Named Fund would be created at Landmarks to support preservation projects in Vandergrift.

   In early March, Landmarks’ Planned Giving Office was notified that the building owner has contracted with a qualified appraiser to determine the value of the building and is proceeding with the gift. We plan to feature more information about this gift and its impact on Vandergrift in the next issue of Landmark Legacies.

   For now, anyone interested in exploring a gift of real property in the Vandergrift area is asked to contact Shaun Yurcaba, Main Street Manager at 724-567-5286.

6. The Harry C. Goldby Pittsburgh Preservation Fund Makes First Distribution

   3:38 pm

   The Harry C. Goldby Pittsburgh Preservation Fund recently made its first distribution to underwrite a keynote address on April 19th commemorating the 75th anniversary of Chatham Village.

   The 46-acre planned community, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005, was
   begun in the 1930s. It is one of the most celebrated and influential projects designed by Clarence S. Stein and Henry Wright, America’s foremost urban planners of the Garden City movement. The event, co-sponsored by Landmarks, was held at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Oakland.

7. Wilkinsburghs Historic Packard Building Sold to Landmarks

   3:36 pm

   Jackie and Jay Johnson recently sold Landmarks the former Packard Building in Wilkinsburg for 40% of their asking price.

   Landmarks got a building it needed to proceed with its Crescent Building Development Project, and the Johnsons were entitled to a charitable contribution deduction on their federal income tax return for the difference between the price Landmarks paid and the substantiated fair market value of the property.

8. Anonymous But Not Forgotten

   3:29 pm

   By Jack Miller
   Director of Gift Planning

   Elizabeth Bruck Carroll rarely ventured out of her apartment. She was a private woman who spent much of her time supporting her community from her living room at St. Barnabas Retirement Village.

   Her fiancé was killed in action during World War II. The man she later married was blinded by diabetes and totally dependent upon her until he died more than three decades ago. The couple had no children.

   These may have been factors that contributed to Mrs. Carroll’s independent attitude and abhorrence for pity. She accepted her fate and moved forward because of her Faith.

   I met her while director of planned giving for St. Barnabas Charitable Foundation. Then 80, she was conducting an income tax clinic for the “older residents.” She did it with passion only a volunteer could understand. I think she took an interest in me because I could provide her with new insight into the tax code and how it might be used to help the people she was counseling.

   As we got better acquainted, I learned that she spent much of her childhood on Mt. Washington, although her family roots could be traced to a house atop Milroy Street on the North Side, one of the steepest disconnected streets in the city. I grew up near the bottom of that street, giving us many common reference points, most now buried under Interstate 279.

   Like most persons in their eighties, Mrs. Carroll feared outliving her money. Given her husband’s health history, she couldn’t stand the thought of being dependent upon others, a fear that led her to explore the merits of planned gifts. Eventually, she created a gift annuity that tripled her income and would result in a gift to St. Barnabas Charitable Foundation at her death. She insisted that no one ever know about it or any of her gifts until after her death.

   Over the next 14 years, Mrs. Carroll established three other annuities; one was with Landmarks. When I asked why she wanted to support our mission, she reminded me of Milroy Street. “All that remains of that house,” she said, “is a vacant lot and memories. They took the house; they can’t take the memories. You can help save both buildings and memories for those who come after me.”

   Mrs. Carroll died on Wednesday, February 28th at 5:25 a.m. She would have been 95 on May 8th. Per her wish, the proceeds of her gift annuity, nearly $40,000, will be used to create The Elizabeth B. Carroll Named Fund to support Mt. Washington and North Side preservation efforts. Per her wish, I waited until now to share this story. For Landmarks, her Named Fund will be her legacy; for me, the empty lot on Milroy Street will forever be holy ground.