Preservation Opportunities & Awards
PHLF: Lecture on Virgil Cantini’s Public Art
Thurssday, April 22
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Fee: $5
This live virtual tour will be held via Zoom Conference. Click here to purchase a ticket and RSVP.
(You will receive an e-mail with a link to Zoom at 5:00 pm on the day of the lecture. Don’t see the e-mail? Please be sure to check your spam or junk folders. Log-in 15 minutes before the lecture’s scheduled start to ensure that it begins on time.)
Virgil Cantini was an artist and sculptor best known for creating large works of public art in Pittsburgh in the middle part of the 20th Century. He aimed to make art free and accessible to all, as well as long-lasting, but the changing priorities in a dynamic city have caused many of his works to be relocated.
Holden Slattery interviewed Cantini for The Pitt News, and Cantini made such an impression on him that he chose to continue researching and writing about him more than a decade later. While working on a recently published essay about Cantini, Slattery learned much more about Cantini and the challenges to maintaining and preserving public art, as well as the advocates working to preserve it. In this lecture, Holden will share some of his findings in his more than a decade-long interest in Cantini and his work.
PHLF: Live Virtual Architecture Tour – Grant Street
Thurssday, April 15
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Fee: $5
This live virtual tour will be held via Zoom Conference. Click here to purchase a ticket and RSVP.
(You will receive an e-mail with a link to Zoom at 1:00 pm on the day of the tour. Don’t see the e-mail? Please be sure to check your spam or junk folders. Log-in 15 minutes before the tour’s scheduled start to ensure that it begins on time.)
This tour covers the northern half of a street that the American Planning Association designated one of America’s Ten Great Streets in 2012. From the quintessentially Modernist U.S. Steel Tower to the elegant Beaux-Arts Pennsylvanian (formerly Union Station), and with glorious Art Deco gems in between, this part of Grant Street is populated by outstanding civic and corporate buildings. Examples of adaptive re-use of historic buildings in this corridor demonstrate the economic value of historic preservation. Tour participants also will learn of the wide influence—sometimes explicit, other times less so—of businessman, philanthropist, politician, art collector, and Pittsburgh native Andrew W. Mellon on this important street.
PHLF Landmarks Scholarship: Apply by April 20
The deadline to apply for the PHLF Landmarks Scholarship is Tuesday, April 20. The scholarship is available to high-school seniors in Allegheny County who will be attending college or university in the fall of 2021. Launched in 1999, the Landmarks Scholarship provides $6,000 payable over four years for book and tuition expenses.
We encourage students with a 3.25 grade point average or above, and are involved in their community, and care deeply about the Pittsburgh region to apply. Click here to download the application.
Funded by the Brashear Family Fund, the McSwigan Family Foundation Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, Scholarship Committee members, and the Landmarks Scholarship Fund, the program gives students an incentive to excel in school, become involved in the preservation of architecture in their communities, and explore their city in a meaningful way.
“It is so refreshing to me to know that we have so many students in this region who stop for a minute and think about [historic] places. I am amazed by their insights,” Louise Sturgess, PHLF Education Advisor, said of the scholarship in a 2017 interview with SLB Radio Productions.
“High school students,” she added, “are capable of absolute artistry and beauty in their words about historic places.” Click here to listen to the full recording with SLB Radio Host Larry Berger and five other former scholarship recipients between 2001 and 2017.
Click here to donate and help support the Landmarks Scholarship Program.
PHLF: Virtual Tour of Point Breeze
Live, Virtual Architecture Tour: Western Shadyside
Wednesday, March 31
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Fee: $7.50
Described as “Chateau Country” by PHLF’s co-founder Jamie Van Trump, Point Breeze was once home to Pittsburgh industrialists of great wealth: Andrew Carnegie, H.J. Heinz, George Westinghouse, and Henry Clay Frick, among others. Only Frick’s grand home, “Clayton,” survives, as part of The Frick Pittsburgh, but there is still much to see and explore in this large, residential city neighborhood.
The tour will amble among Point Breeze’s lovely streets and include the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (originally the home of Durbin Horne, son of Joseph Horne); Pittsburgh New Church; nearby main street shops; and Engine House No. 16, now the home of Fireman Creative.
This live virtual tour will be held via Zoom Conference.
Click here to purchase a ticket for your household and you will receive an e-mail with a link to Zoom at 9:00 am on the day of the tour. Don’t see an e-mail? Please check your Junk/Spam folders. Login 15 minutes before the tour’s scheduled start to ensure that it begins on time. Please disregard the QR code in the confirmation you receive. Our link to the Zoom connection is your entry to the tour.
Memorial Tree Planting
Submitted by Fran Barbush
In the past, we have planted trees in memoriam of departed neighbors and friends of the neighborhood. We recently learned of the passing of our long-time neighbor, Mrs. Patricia Rooney. She was a champion and fundraiser for the Allegheny Commons, and a positive spokesperson for the North Side. We also learned of the death of Greta Coleman. Her husband, Moe, and she were neighbors for many years. Moe passed away last year.
We did not purchase any trees last year, due to the pandemic. If you would like to make contributions toward memorial trees, you can prepare a check and make it out to AWCC, and put it through the mail slot at 806 Western Avenue; or contact treasurer@alleghenywest.org. Thank you for your consideration.
CCAC Presentations will Highlight Industrialists of Allegheny West
From Ann Gilligan:
You may recall that representatives of CCAC Allegheny’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter, Alpha Mu Theta, joined us at our December Membership meeting. Their Honors in Action research project is focusing on the legacy of industrialism and industrialists in our Allegheny West neighborhood. They’ve researched local residents with ties to industry in our area, particularly the Denny family and the Painter family who had homes on campus grounds, and the effect they’ve had on our immediate neighborhood and the region as a whole. They’ve also examined the future of industry in our area and are planning to incorporate a discussion on CCAC’s new Workforce Training Center into a future presentation.
They are hosting a series of Zoom events on Thursdays in February. The first event on Thursday February 11, (info available here) will introduce the greater topic of industrialism and its overarching effects on society and will feature Dr. Jacqueline Cavalier, Professor of History at CCAC and active member of local historical societies and organizations. Our second event will focus on the legacy of industry in Allegheny West, and the third event will focus on CCAC’s new Workforce Training Center and the future of industry in our region, details are TBA.
Everyone is welcome to join.
Lecture: America’s Best Antique Skyscrapers
America’s Best Antique Skyscrapers
Mark Houser
Writer and Tour Guide
MultiStories
Thursday, February 18
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Fee: $5
This lecture will be held via ZOOM conference. Click here to get your ticket and RSVP.
Pittsburgh writer and skyscraper tour guide Mark Houser spent two years traveling the country for his new book, MultiStories, seeking out the most beautiful turn-of-the-century office towers. He will share his own photos of Beaux-Arts facades, dazzling lobbies, rooftop decks, and several behind-the-scenes surprises in venerable high-rises from New York to Chicago, Boston to San Francisco, Milwaukee to Miami — even Vancouver and Liverpool. He’ll also reveal some fascinating details about the early millionaires who transformed American cities by commissioning the world’s first skyscrapers.
About the presenter: Mark Houser is the author of MultiStories: 55 Antique Skyscrapers & the Business Tycoons Who Built Them. He is a frequent contributor to Pittsburgh Magazine and gives occasional Downtown rooftop tours for Doors Open Pittsburgh. Houser is director of news and information at Robert Morris University and a former newspaper reporter and editor. More at HouserTalks.com.
Virtual Workshop: Assessing What to Fix on Your House
Assessing What to Fix on Your House
Regis Will
Carpenter and Craftsman
Vesta Home Services
Thursday, February 11
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Fee: $5
This virtual discussion will be live from the Vesta Workshop via Zoom Conference. Click here to get your ticket and RSVP.
You will receive a login e-mail at 5:00 pm on February 11. (Don’t see an e-mail, be sure to check your Spam/Junk folders.) Please log in at 5:45 pm to allow us enough time to let you into the lecture.
Join us for a discussion on springtime maintenance checks on old and historic houses. Regis Will, a woodworker, craftsman, and restoration expert will discuss how to assess wooden windows, paint, exterior woodwork, roofs, and other aspects of how to restore, and maintain old houses.
About the presenter: Regis Will is the proprietor of Vesta Home Services a consulting firm on house restoration and Do-it-Yourself projects. He blogs about his work at The New Yinzer Workshop.
PHLF: Lecture – Preserving Fallingwater
Fallingwater: Preserving A World Heritage Landmark
Thursday, January 28
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Fee: $5.00
In 2019, Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most widely acclaimed works, which best exemplifies his philosophy of organic architecture, along with seven other Wright structures, was designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site. In this lecture, Scott Perkins, Director of Preservation and Collections at Fallingwater, will discuss current and upcoming preservation projects at Fallingwater, located in the Laurel Highlands in Fayette County, about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh. He will also share recent acquisitions to the Fallingwater collection and introduce the site’s 2021 exhibition architect Joseph Urban’s design for Kaufman’s Department Store.
This lecture will be held via Zoom Conference. Click here purchase a ticket for your household. You will receive a login e-mail at 5:00 p.m. on January 28. (Don’t see an e-mail, be sure to check your Spam/Junk folders.) Please login at 5:45 p.m. to allow us enough time to let you into the lecture.
About the Presenter: Scott W. Perkins is Fallingwater’s Director of Preservation and Collections, and was previously Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He has written on Wright’s Price Tower and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum interiors, and his essay on Zaha Hadid’s addition to the Price Tower appeared in Richard Longstreth’s Frank Lloyd Wright: Preservation, Design, and Adding to Iconic Buildings. A frequent contributor to Save Wright, the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly and OAD: The Journal of Organic Architecture and Design, he most recently contributed to the effort to place eight Wright structures onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. He received his MA and MPhil from the Bard Graduate Center, in New York City, and his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
PHLF: Virtual Tour from Grant Street to 6th Avenue
Live, Virtual Architecture Tour: Grant St to 6th Ave
Wednesday, January 27
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Fee: $7.50
In 2012, the American Planning Association designated Grant Street one of America’s Ten Great Streets for its exceptional architectural character, mix of historic landmarks and modern skyscrapers, diversity of uses, tree-lined median, and “coherence and beauty.” Extending from the Monongahela River to Liberty Avenue, Grant Street is indeed Downtown’s grand civic boulevard.
This tour focuses on the section from 4th to 6th Avenues and takes in exceptional works by Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Osterling, Henry Hornbostel, Rafael Guastavino, and Daniel Burnham. It also provides a primer on Pittsburgh’s history from 1758 to the early 20th century, and reveals Henry Clay Frick’s enormous influence on this section of Grant Street.
This live virtual tour will be held via Zoom Conference.
Click her to purchase a ticket for your household and you will receive an e-mail with a link to Zoom at 9:00 a.m. on the day of the tour. Don’t see an e-mail? Please check your Spam/Junk folders. Login 15 minutes before the tour’s scheduled start to ensure that it begins on time.