Category Archive: Preservation News
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Support sought for ‘pure’ Dormont park
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, March 2, 2007Opponents of opening Dormont Park and its landmark 1920s-era pool to private developers will stage a rally Sunday amid fears that borough officials’ consideration of development is undermining efforts to raise money for pool restoration.
“It’s very hard to raise funds when people think the pool might be bulldozed next year,” John Maggio, president of Friends of the Dormont Pool, said Thursday. “Council is being disingenuous and sending mixed messages.”One developer would renovate the borough’s landmark 87-year-old pool in exchange for the ability to do townhouse and retail development in the park. The other would build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
The rally will be at 2 p.m. in the pool’s parking lot at Banksville Road and Dormont Avenue.
So far, the group has raised about $30,000 for refurbishing the pool, Maggio said.
Since last year, the borough has received $287,000 from the state and Allegheny County, money Maggio says could be in jeopardy if the park is opened to development.
Raising suspicions
The council’s next voting meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the borough building, 1444 Hillsdale Ave. Borough Manager George Zboyovsky said there are no plans to vote immediately on development proposals.
Still, others are wary of the council’s intentions.
“They have been deceptive every step of the way, so we are very suspicious about what council plans,” said Gary Young, chairman of the Dormont Republican Party. He said he plans to file a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office about borough officials’ dealings with developers Cozza Enterprises Inc., of Squirrel Hill, and JRA Development Inc., of Lawrenceville.
“The council did not follow any kind of process here,” said Young, who faults borough officials for meeting privately with developers and failing to take competitive bids for the project.
The two developers, who made public presentations last month, previously made several presentations to Dormont Mayor Thomas Lloyd, council President Linda Kitchen and Zboyovsky. Other council members said they did not know about the private meetings.
Defending the actions
Thomas Ayoob, the borough’s solicitor, said that the meetings were not improper and no bids have been taken.
“There have been no secret meetings, and no bids have been made or solicited,” he said. “And the general public knows about the two proposals.”
Young, Councilwoman Ann Conlin and others question Ayoob’s representation of Cozza in another development project.
“This just looks awful, whether it’s legal or not. The solicitor should have the best interest of borough, council and citizens at heart, which he does not,” Conlin said.
Ayoob said there would be no conflict unless Cozza’s proposal is picked.
“I have offered no legal advice to borough or Mr. Cozza on this matter,” Ayoob said. “It’s an attempt to raise issues where there are none.”
Rick Wills can be reached at rwills@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7123.
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Trust to offer historic residence Downtown
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, March 1, 2007Another building is being added to the list of new and existing structures offering residential living Downtown.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is teaming with Trek Development Group on a $15 million project to convert the historic 12-story Century Building on Seventh Street into a 61-unit loft-apartment complex.“As part of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s mission to develop a thriving arts and residential neighborhood, The Century Building will be a great complement to the Cultural District’s broad array of residential offerings,” said J. Kevin McMahon, president and CEO of Cultural Trust.
The trust provided financing for Trek, a Pittsburgh-based firm, to acquire the 78,000-square-foot building.
The organization has spearheaded development of the city’s 14-block Cultural District, where the Encore on 7th, Penn Garrison, and Liberty Lofts are in place. It also is moving forward with plans to develop RiverParc, a $460 million project expected to create 700 residences, 159,000 square feet of retail space and 1,500 parking spaces on six acres between Fort Duquesne Boulevard and Penn Avenue.
Trek’s local projects include the 900 Penn Apartments, which has been fully leased since opening in 1999 in the Cultural District.The purchase price of the building was not immediately disclosed. According to Allegheny County records, the building, owned by the Chartiers Valley Industrial & Commercial Development Authority, has a market value of $3 million, including land.
Billed as an “affordable” residential development, the Century Building project will offer a mix of single-room studio and one- and two-bedroom loft units renting from $550 to $1,150 a month. Rental charges will depend on the income level of prospective residents.
Construction is expected to start in the spring of 2008.
Designed in Beaux Arts classical architectural style by Pittsburgh architectural firm Rutan and Russell, the Century Building originally served as an office building in 1906-1907 for the Century Land Co. It is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic places.
The Cultural Trust also acknowledged the Working Group on Downtown Housing, a coalition of public and private organizations formed in 1998 to encourage development of Downtown housing. One of the group’s goals is to convince developers to allocate up to 20 percent of their projects to what is known as workforce housing.
The trust said workforce housing is defined as occupancy by working individuals/families whose annual household income is typically 80-120 percent of the area median income. That’s compared to affordable housing where the household income level is below 80 of area median income.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
Reprinted with permission. © 2007, Pittsburgh Tribune Review -
Manchester Neighborhood Pittsburgh PSA
PSA for Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and WQED Pittsburgh.
Title: Manchester -
Project will restore Pitt’s iconic Cathedral
By Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 28, 2007When she was a second-grader 80 years ago, Alice Sapienza Donnelly wondered each week what to do with the dime her Italian immigrant father gave her.
She could buy 10 penny candies, or drop the coin into a classroom collection jar to “buy” one stone in the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning, then being built in Oakland.“Every week, I would finger that dime,” she said Tuesday. “Invariably, the stone won out. I always dropped the dime into that jar.”
Her stone and all the others in the 42-story building’s iconic facade are due to be cleaned, university officials said yesterday.
Trustees voted this morning and approved a $4.8 million project to remove decades of grime from the Indiana limestone exterior, fix mortar joints, and replace rusty fasteners. The vote coincides with the 220th anniversary of Pitt’s founding.
The university tried to kick off a similar campaign four years ago, but ran into opposition from faculty members and historians who argued for keeping the building in its current state — black stains and all.
Construction on the cathedral started in 1926, and it collected soot and grime by the time it was dedicated in 1937. Much of the dirt came from Pittsburgh’s steel mills and coke plants, so it tells a story about the city’s industrial past, said those opposed to the cleansing.
E. Maxine Bruhns, director of the cathedral’s Nationality Rooms, fought the cleaning in 2003. But yesterday, Bruhns said she would not try to derail the project this time. University officials told her the grime could be causing lasting damage, she said.
“If it’s doing damage, let it go,” she said.
The university will pay for the cleaning from its reserves, and replace the money with donations to an ongoing $2 billion capital campaign, said spokeswoman Maddy Ross. Officials are planning to celebrate the cathedral’s unique history as it gets restored.
“This will be an easy one,” Ross said. “There’s so much romance and attachment to this building.”
The scrubbing is scheduled to last from March to September, starting from the ground up.
That goes against the rules of gravity, but work must accommodate the life cycle of the peregrine falcons, Erie and Dorothy, who live on the upper floors. The birds typically have fledglings in the spring, and they should outgrow the nest by the end of June.
Portions of the building will soak for 24 to 48 hours, then be washed with pressurized water. Workers will clean the stone with powdered glass.
Sapienza Donnelly, 87, of Forest Hills, went on to attend the university, earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1974 and a master’s degree in communications nine years later. She taught public speaking and parliamentary rhetoric at the university for 28 years.
She said her 10-cent-a-week contributions for the cathedral’s construction was a good investment.
When the building was finished, she went to see it with her father and asked him which stone her class purchased. It was the one all the way at the top, he said.
“I looked up and almost fell backward on the lawn,” she said. “I was so thrilled.”
Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7835.
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Architectural board looks to past, future
By Bob Stiles
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, February 26, 2007Bill Malloy looked to the past when he was considering renovations last year to the Park Building on North Main Street in Greensburg.
Building designers used arched vaults inside the building for air-conditioning units, rather than putting them on the roof. And energy-efficient windows that appear to be from the late 1800s were added to the more than century-old structure.
“What we were really doing was bringing out what was just under the surface there,” said Malloy, president of ROAM Investments in Greensburg.
The work done on the Park Building is an example of what the city’s recently formed Historical and Architectural Review Board wants, mostly for buildings in downtown Greensburg, board members said.
“In general, a lot of it is to help maintain the architectural and historical aspects,” said Steve Gifford, executive director of the Greensburg Community Development Corp. and a member of the review board.
The seven-member board consists of an architect, an engineer, the city’s planning director and business and property owners.Plans call for the city planning director to examine proposals and forward them to the review board.
“We just wanted it to be a professional board that looks at the facade impact for a district, and work with the property owner,” said Barbara Ciampini, city planner.
“We want it to look like everything fits in,” she said, adding that the hope is not to stifle creativity in the process.
Designers of the new state office building on North Main Street, the addition to the Westmoreland County Courthouse Annex and Seton Hill University’s arts center on Harrison Avenue considered the appearance of surrounding buildings when planning their structures, parties involved in the projects said.
The exterior of the nearly 90,000-square-foot state office building consists mostly of brick and glass — the same type of exterior as most of the buildings near the structure. The outside of the annex addition is similar to the courthouse’s exterior.
The 73,000-square-foot arts center will have an exterior consisting mostly of brick and monument concrete block, said Bob Russ, of MacLachlan, Cornelius and Filoni Architects Inc., Pittsburgh. He was one of the architects involved in designing the center.
“Great care went into it,” Russ said.
He said the outside appearances of the nearby Stark Building and Palace Theatre were among the structures considered in the art center’s design. The monument concrete block proposed for the center should help to match the nearby exteriors of the Otterbein United Methodist Church as well as the annex and courthouse, Russ said.
A related tower at the center ties in to other buildings in Greensburg as well as the university’s campus, Russ explained.
Louise Sturgess, executive director of the Pittsburgh History and Landmark Foundation, said a board such as the one set up in Greensburg enables a community to consider the past and the future.
“I love the idea because it puts value on the old. Without such a committee, the old sometimes is not part of the dialogue,” she said.
“And we want the buildings to be useful today. Preservation is not against development and creative design.”
Gifford said the work should increase the value of the restored properties and that of neighboring ones.
Ciampini said the goal is to create a pleasing appearance with the historical buildings.
“I think the role of the HARB … is we’ll try to enhance not only restoration but new development,” she said.
Anyone not satisfied with the board’s decisions may appeal to city council.
Gifford said several other communities were considered when the review board was being planned. They included Stanton, Va., and the Pennsylvania cities of York, Lancaster and Pittsburgh.
Malloy conceded that the restoration steps cost slightly more than they might have, but he still likes the concept of the review board. Work on the Park Building was completed in 2006, prior to the review board’s formally being set up by city council.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Malloy said. “I absolutely like the idea of some bar, some measure that everyone is aspiring to.”
Bob Stiles can be reached at bstiles@tribweb.com or (724) 836-6622.
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Saxonburg embraces old world charm
By Joan Greene
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 25, 2007Saxonburg’s storied history draws thousands of visitors to the quaint borough nestled among the farmland and hills of southeast Butler County. An array of quaint shops and historic buildings line Main Street in the tiny borough of 1,629 residents.
Saxonburg was founded in 1832 by German engineer John Roebling and his brother, Charles, who bought 1,600 acres of land for $1.50 each. The brothers then sent word back to Germany for others to come help them establish the village.
In 1842, Saxonburg staked its claim to fame when John Roebling invented the wire-rope cable in a workshop. His invention allowed for the construction of suspension bridges. After building Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Bridge in 1846, Roebling achieved worldwide fame with his design of the Brooklyn Bridge. Opening in 1884, the bridge was noted as an engineering feat of its time.
Today, Roebling Park is the center of many of Saxonburg’s special events.
The park’s gazebo and pavilion add to Saxonburg’s old-fashioned charm. During the summer, the park is rented almost every weekend for weddings and other special events, Mayor Brian Antoszyk said. In the park, history buffs can see Roebling’s original workshop and visit the Saxonburg Museum, featuring historic artifacts and other memorabilia, including the recently released German stamps commemorating Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge.
When visitors walk along Main Street, stopping in at Kelly’s Family Restaurant to have a bite to eat, it’s almost like stepping onto the set of “Mayberry R.F.D.,” a 1960s sitcom about a sheriff in rural North Carolina. Dishes, pots and pans can be heard rattling in the kitchen as locals sit down for a home-cooked meal. Off at a corner table sits Erik Bergstrom, the borough’s police officer in charge, chatting with Saxonburg’s controller Mary Papik.
With the notorious exception of the murder of Saxonburg’s police chief, Greg Adams, during a traffic stop in 1981, crime in Saxonburg mostly is limited to a handful of jaywalkers scurrying across the street during the borough’s car cruises, craft shows, carnivals and parades.
“Saxonburg is very homey. Yeah, it’s something like ‘Mayberry R.F.D.,’ ” said Bergstrom, who heads a police force of five, including police dog Lucas.
“The people make Saxonburg special,” Papik said. “They make an effort to learn your name and make you feel welcome.”
In 1846, when Saxonburg was incorporated into a borough, 61 families lived there, a school had been established, and the cornerstone had been laid for the German Evangelical Church. The building now is part of the Saxonburg Memorial Presbyterian Church and is the historic centerpiece of the borough at the head of Main Street.
Travelers would pass through Saxonburg to get to Freeport, Butler and other boroughs and townships in Butler County. Because Saxonburg merely was a stop on the way to a destination, many of the borough streets, such as Pittsburgh and Butler, were named after the cities and towns they lead to.
Saxonburg thrived during oil development in the 1880s and ’90s in neighboring Penn and Jefferson townships, and homes were built for the oil workers.
During the 1880s, Saxonburg had several hotels, including the borough’s landmark Saxonburg Hotel. At the turn of the 20th century, the area’s most famous hotel, Mineral Springs, was built just north of Saxonburg. A hotel casino and the healing effects of the mineral water drew travelers from miles around. The building that housed the hotel was destroyed by fire in 1972.
In the 1930s, broadcasting came to Saxonburg when Westinghouse’s KDKA erected a flat top antenna — a series of wooden poles — in the borough.
Ceramics shaped Saxonburg’s economic development in the 1930s and ’40s. Saxonburg Ceramics opened in 1936, manufacturing ceramic components used in electrical appliances, automobiles, light bulbs and televisions. In 1949, two former employees of Saxonburg Ceramics founded Du-Co Ceramics, which still is in business, according to “Historic Saxonburg and Its Neighbors” by Ralph Goldinger. According to Antoszyk, Saxonburg Ceramics will close in May.
Today, the historic village has become a destination. Featuring 32 buildings that are more than 100 years old, Saxonburg offers visitors a chance to step back in time and learn about the borough’s German heritage. Recently, a portion of Saxonburg’s Main Street — from Rebecca to Butler streets — was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
During the Big Car Cruise that takes place every July, as many as 900 antique and classic vehicles are displayed on Main Street, drawing more than 3,000 spectators.
The Festival of the Arts, which takes place every September in Roebling Park, features crafts, food and entertainment. Each year, Antoszyk looks forward to serving his family’s hot Italian sausage to hundreds of visitors.
Kathy Allen, whose family owns several properties on Main Street, describes Saxonburg as “a place separate from today’s vision of malls and congestion. It has a wonderful visual charm.”
Allen, who is writing a book about Saxonburg and southeast Butler County titled “Last of the Fencerows,” operates a bed and breakfast, Armstrong Farms, on her 200-year-old family farm in Clinton Township, two miles south of Saxonburg.
“A lot of our guests go into Saxonburg to shop and have dinner,” Allen said. “When they come back, they remark how refreshing and preserved everything is; it’s like a fantasy world. They’ve never been to a place like this.”
Michael Ortmann, owner of the Antique Coffee Shop on Main Street, believes he has found a “unique niche” by combining a coffee shop with an antique store. “Business people want Saxonburg to embody its history,” he said.
Featuring antiques and a gold couch where guests can sit and relax while enjoying a cup of coffee, pastries or ice cream, the Antique Coffee Shop, housed in an 1835 building, reflects the ambiance of a 19th-century parlor filled with guests on a Sunday afternoon.
One of Lucille Blakeley’s fondest memories of growing up in Saxonburg is attending the annual Firemen’s Carnival in June and marching in the Memorial Day parade. “The parade and carnival were a big thing for us children; we’d march down the street carrying bouquets,” said Blakeley, 88, whose father, Aaron Bachman, was fire chief for 27 years and whose nephew, Gary Cooper, is the current fire chief.
Although Saxonburg is small (two square miles), the downtown area has grown and “changed with the times” in the 82 years that Blakeley has lived in the borough. She recalled that she and her five sisters attended a little, red, two-story schoolhouse where the borough building now stands, and she graduated with a class of 25 in 1937 from Winfield High School, now a church three miles outside of the borough. Today, Saxonburg is part of the South Butler County School District. The district includes Knoch High School.
As a young woman, Blakeley worked at Chester Paul and Nellie Maurhoff, grocery and dry-good stores on Main Street. Maurhoff’s has become a fitness salon, and Chester Paul is an antiques shop.
When Blakeley was growing up, social life evolved around the Old Town Hall, where she attended dances and basketball games, and the Memorial Church. Although the town hall no longer is there, the historic church, built in 1837, is the centerpiece of the borough. A new Presbyterian church is across the corner, where the original Roebling Homestead serves as the church office.
Blakeley has seen several businesses change hands, but the Hotel Saxonburg, retaining its 19th-century decor, has been a landmark since opening during the mid-1800s. “I still go there for dinner,” Blakeley said of the hotel, which is known for its fine dining.
Local historian Bob Kaltenhauser, 76, has lived in Saxonburg for 50 years and was chairman of the John Roebling Historical Saxonburg Society, an organization formed to preserve the architectural heritage and old world charm of Saxonburg while revitalizing Main Street businesses.
“Ten buildings on Main Street date back to the 1830s and have clay and straw — called wattle and daub — inside the walls. (Saxonburg) really hasn’t changed that much; that’s the reason it still retains its charm,” he said.
Antoszyk said revitalizing Main Street, while retaining its history, will encourage “unique-type shops” to move into the borough.
The borough is in the process of securing grants, and conceptual drawings are being done to enhance the infrastructure with additional parking, sidewalks, trees and lamp posts.
“We hope to have the project completed in two years,” Antoszyk said. “The future of Saxonburg rests on the borough remaining a destination, not just a place to pass through.”
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Retiree’s volunteer efforts put her on right track at History & Landmarks
By Sandra Fischione Donovan
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 25, 2007Judith Harvey lives in a historic house in Fineview, so she is a history buff by association. When she retired and was looking for a channel for her unbounded energy, it seemed natural for her to volunteer in 2001 for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The association proved fortuitous for both. The former librarian, who retired from the Baldwin-Whitehall School District after 35 years of teaching and doing library work in public schools, was in the foundation offices when she saw boxes full of railroad memorabilia collected by the late Frank B. Fairbanks, of South Park.Undaunted by the prospect, the peppy, petite and fair-haired Harvey volunteered to catalog it all. Foundation officials agreed.
Some of the tasks, such as putting thousands of railroad tickets in separate plastic sleeves, would take her years. But Harvey patiently did that and even computerized the collection.
“She’s a remarkable woman,” says Albert Tannler, the foundation’s historical collections director.
“Because of her meticulous volunteer work, we were able to open it to the public,” says Louise Sturgess, PH&LF executive director.“Her ability to organize a massive amount of information and present it to the public in a pleasing way is amazing,” Sturgess says.
The Frank B. Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archive opened last month at the History & Landmarks offices in Station Square. And Harvey has a new title: railroad librarian. She works at the archive one day a week.
Though she wasn’t a railroad buff to begin with, having gone through every tiny detail of Fairbanks’ collection has enabled Harvey to glean much about railroads and the people that love them.
“A rail buff can tell you how many repeat miles he’s traveled, but the real number is how many new miles you’ve traveled,” Harvey says. “If a rail line is reconfigured — oh, the joy of adding a tenth of a mile.”
As Fairbanks traveled, the chief executive officer of Stowe-based Horix Manufacturing Corp. not only noted his rail miles, he collected timetables and rail orders for engineers, handfuls of swizzle sticks railroads gave out to patrons to stir martinis and playing cards available in club cars, among many other items.
His collection lay in boxes in his South Park home until he met Jack Miller, History & Landmarks director of planned giving. Fairbanks subsequently donated part of his collection to the foundation, along with a $10,000 endowment to maintain it.
“We wouldn’t have taken it if it didn’t come with an endowment,” Tannler says.
After Fairbanks died in 2005 at age 74, his widow donated the rest of his extensive collection to History & Landmarks.
“The strengths and weaknesses of a private collection are evident in this,” says Harvey. “When you’re dealing with a private collection, you’re taking what they collected” for their own immediate goals.
Harvey says rail buffs will be thrilled with the collection, which includes official railroad timetables ranging from the 1800s until 1976; train orders engineers used for each trip; reference books on railroads; slides Fairbanks took and all those tickets.
A sign in the archive notes that Fairbanks was “clearly recognized as the third-ranking American with the most route miles traveled,” and was most likely the third-ranking such person in the world. He traveled 156,993.81 new miles and 7,841.47 duplicate miles.
The maps Fairbanks collected are Harvey’s favorite items. She has placed them in Mylar covers so researchers can readily handle them. “I’m not a hands-off librarian,” she says.
“Nothing was dirty or torn. He was very respectful of what he had,” Harvey says.
Tribune-Review Publisher Richard M. Scaife was impressed enough with the collection on a recent visit to ask Harvey whether she wanted several metal railroad signs he owned for the archive.
“You never ask a librarian if she wants anything,” Harvey says with a smile, pointing to the signs, which are now in the collection. Each red metal sign marked a different rail line for engineers.
The archive is in a sunny room with tall windows facing the Monongahela River. New and antique furniture is arranged for reading, research and perusal of railroad objects.
Hours for the collection are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Wednesdays by appointment, so that Harvey is sure to be on hand to guide visitors through the collection. Members may use the archive for free; nonmembers pay a fee of $10 for three consecutive visits.
“It has a lot of information that will be very important,” Tannler says. “People who know railroads feel that we have an asset.”
Sturgess says the transportation collection has further established the foundation’s archives, including its James D. Van Trump Library of regional architectural history, as a “top-notch collection” of historical resources.
“I am very happy at Landmarks, and hope to be able to serve those interested in railroad materials for a long time to come,” Harvey says. “I count it a privilege to do this for pay. I count the days till I come in the next time.”
People who wish to use the Frank B. Fairbanks Jr. Railroad Collection may call the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation on Wednesdays to make an appointment with Judith Harvey at 412-471-5808, ext. 542, or e-mail fairbanksarchives@phlf.org.
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3 buildings near Market Street to be refurbished
By Ann Belser,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, February 21, 2007Three abandoned buildings that run between Market and Graeme streets are about to see new life.
Right now it’s hard to see the beauty in them. The windows of 439 Market are made of just screening, and some of that is gone. A portion of the roof has collapsed into the basement.
On the Fifth Avenue side of the buildings a mural has been painted to dress up, and board up, the first floor of 130 Fifth Ave.
By next year, though, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will join the three buildings into one to create seven apartments over one large retail area.
The plans call for spending more than $2.5 million to restore the buildings, said Arthur Ziegler Jr., president of the foundation, who will have a better estimate of the cost in a couple of weeks.
The buildings were all constructed in the early 1900s . The building at 139 Fifth Ave. opened in 1908 as the Regal Shoe Co. showroom.
Thomas Stevenson Jr., the architect for Landmarks Design Associates, said the building is architecturally interesting, in part, because the upper story was built to hang over the sidewalk and held there with steel beams and chains. He said inside the building the chains still are visible.
“The intent is to really have this be a historic reconstruction of the facades,” Jeremy Smith, assistant director of the city planning department, told members of the planning commission yesterday during the board’s meeting.
The board unanimously approved the application to partially demolish the exterior of 439 Market on the Graeme Street side and to renovate the three buildings.
The buildings had been scheduled for demolition until the foundation stepped in and purchased them from the city Urban Redevelopment Authority. Renovations can start as early as next week and be done in 11 months.
The plan calls for six one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment. Two of those apartments at 441 Market will open to gardens on the roof of 130 Fifth Ave.
“We decided, after looking at offices and apartments, that it would be good to have apartments on Market Square,” Mr. Ziegler said. He said they will all be rental apartments, not condominiums. “We felt there was a need in town for apartments as opposed to condos.”
(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699.)