Preservation Opportunities & Awards
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.
PHLF: Virtual Tour of Penn-Liberty Cultural District
Live, Virtual Architecture Tour: Cultural District
Thursday, January 21
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Fee: $7.50
The Penn-Liberty corridor in Downtown Pittsburgh is one of the best turn-of-the-20th-century retail and commercial districts in the Golden Triangle. Featuring numerous excellent examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque by local architects as well as sturdy, handsome structures designed by an owner working only with a builder, the district comprises a remarkable collection of historic buildings.
This tour focuses on a14-block area within the district that the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has transformed since 1984 from an area of derelict and underused buildings to a singular agglomeration of venues for the performing and visual arts. The Penn-Liberty Cultural District tour highlights historic preservation’s power to redefine and remake neighborhoods.
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 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.
PHLF: A Virtual Tour of Western Shadyside
Live, Virtual Architecture Tour: Western Shadyside
Wednesday, January 13
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Fee: $7.50
Shadyside is a veritable museum of the forms and styles of domestic architecture built in Pittsburgh’s East End between the 1860s and 1920s. This tour focuses on the neighborhood’s western part, bounded by North Neville Street and South Aiken Avenue. Docents explain how innovations in transportation, growth of the middle class, and the initiative of significant people in local history combined to produce Western Shadyside’s stellar architecture.
Ranging across styles from the Second Empire to Arts & Crafts, the tour explores single-family and multi-family dwellings, individual homes and planned developments, and main streets and cul-de-sacs. A deeper look at a home featured in an early-twentieth-century memoir rounds out our excursion into this lovely neighborhood.
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 a.m. 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.
PHLF: A Virtual Tour of the Mexican War Streets
Tuesday, December 15
2:00 pm to 4:00 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 9:00 am 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.)
Explore one of the most colorful sections of Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood. You’ll learn about the history of the neighborhood, including creation of Allegheny Commons and the Mexican War Streets, and become familiar with the picturesque variety of Victorian architectural styles there. Historic preservation figures prominently in this tour, highlighting how PHLF and the Mexican War Streets Society used preservation strategies to reverse neighborhood decline and disinvestment. The tour also features historic structures that have been creatively re-purposed by individuals, including the Mattress Factory, City of Asylum/Alphabet City, and the whimsically artful world of Randyland.
A Case Study in Preservation, Development, and City Planning
Demolition of the Largent House
Matthew Hyland
Senior Architectural Historian
TRC Companies
Tuesday, October 22
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.
When a San Francisco developer demolished one of the few remaining examples of Richard Neutra’s domestic architecture in 2018, shock waves rumbled through the city’s preservation community. The developer’s illegal action, the demolition occurred without a permit, shook fundamental assumptions held regarding permitting, integrity, significance, and the local planning process.
Calls for punishment of the developer ranged from large fines to rebuilding the house as it was in 1935. This presentation offers this illegal demolition as a case study of historic preservation in the early twenty-first century.
About the presenter: Matthew Hyland is an architectural historian and an educator. Over the last 18 years, he has worked on a variety of historic preservation projects including large surveys and published articles on preservation in Florida, focusing on New Deal housing in Key West. He is also working on an architectural biography of U.S. President James Monroe.
Housing & Planning Committee 2020
Submitted by Robin Zoufalik
Hello Allegheny West Neighbors and Members of the AW Civic Council: Happy New Year 2020!
As Chair for the Housing & Planning Committee, here is a message for the coming year of meetings and activities anticipated. Past Chair, Ashley Webb, has briefed me on various items on the agenda for the committee that have been discussed over the last few months and are anticipated for the coming year. Having attended a couple of the meetings the most recent being on Dec 17th, I believe a message to the neighborhood and members of the AWCC is appropriate, at this time, prior to the 1st meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 21st (3rd Tuesday of the month) starting at 7:30 pm at GoRealty, 848 W North Avenue.
The AWCC Bylaws have the following mandate for the standing committee:
The Housing and Planning Committee shall be responsible for the physical planning and housing conditions in Allegheny West. It should be as representative as possible of residential, business, and institutional sectors of the neighborhood.
Additionally, the committee members are to be chosen as follows:
Standing committee chairmen shall select from between two and ten members for their committees.
Please let me know if you are interest in being a member of the H&P Committee. Everyone is welcome to attend any of the H & P meetings and participate in discussions and votes, whether or not a member of the committee.
Prior to the 1st meeting, I would request all of you to provide input as to any items you would like the committee to address in the coming months that may not be on the current list relayed to me as follows:
- Western Ave Neighborhood Improvement District (WANID)
- Northside Leadership Conference (NSLC) Bridge Committee & Opposition to double-stacked trains
- Code Enforcement Concerns
- Historic District Expansion
- Galveston Ave. Traffic Calming
- Stables Development
- Value Added Properties
- Scrap Yard
- CCAC Workforce Development Center
- Allegheny Commons Master Plan and Noise along Brighton Road
- Light of Life Ridge Ave Facility
- HIP at the Flashlight Factory
The meetings will be conducted in an orderly manner to have productive discussions and allow everyone to actively participate. However, personal attacks by attendees will not be acceptable and non-factual statements will be questioned. We are all neighbors and should have equal opportunities to speak and listen in a respectful manner.
All comments, feedback and suggestions are always welcome!
Either email me at housing-planning@alleghenywest.org or call (412) 216-0207.