Preservation Opportunities & Awards
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.
PHLF: 1969 – A Revolutionary Year in Pittsburgh
Location: Landmarks Preservation Resource Center, 744 Rebecca Avenue
Date: Thursday, September 12th
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Contact: marylu@phlf.org or (412) 471-5808 ext. 527
In this lecture, Mark Houser takes a detailed look at two civil rights struggles that reached their boiling point in Pittsburgh 50 years ago. These struggles saw black activists shut down construction sites at the former Three Rivers Stadium and at the former U.S. Steel Building, while feminists picketed the former Pittsburgh Press newspaper in a battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Mark will also discuss other significant and quirky anecdotes about Pittsburgh history. For example: what happened to the person who drove off the Bridge to Nowhere — and survived!
About the Presenter: Mark Houser is a frequent Pittsburgh Magazine contributor who writes and speaks about Pittsburgh’s history. You can find more stories at his website, HouserTalks.com.
This lecture is FREE and open to the public. RSVPs are appreciated: marylu@phlf.org or (412) 471-5808 x 527.
Showcase Manchester is August 4th
It’s finally happened: We’ve grown beyond just a home & garden tour this year. The Manchester House + Garden Tour is now Showcase Manchester. Please join us Sunday, August 4th from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm to tour Victorian homes, lush gardens and new businesses that are calling Manchester home.
New for 2019 is our Guided Tour option. Neighborhood residents will escort a small group along the tour route and share stories about neighborhood history and highlights along the way. This tour is almost sold out, so grab your tickets today!
You can read about our tour in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s recent story, featuring one renovation project ready for new residents.
Advance Showcase Manchester tickets are $15; tickets will be $20 the day of the tour. Guided tour tickets are $30 each. Tickets are available online at manchesterhousetour.com. Tickets are also available in person at City Books, 908 Galveston Avenue.
Showcase Manchester is sponsored by Manchester Historic Society. All proceeds from the tour help fund work at the Colonel James Anderson House. For more information, please visit mhspittsburgh.org.
PHLF: Abandoned America. States of Disrepair.
Location: Landmarks Preservation Resource Center, 744 Rebecca Avenue
Date: Thursday, June 25th
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Contact: marylu@phlf.org or (412) 471-5808 ext. 527
Join author and photographer Matthew Christopher for an exploration of ruins across our cities and countryside, as he shares a hauntingly beautiful portrait of the abandoned America around us. From steel mills and industrial sites to schools, churches, prisons, homes and more, Matthew’s work provides a glimpse into lost worlds that few get to visit firsthand.
With his travels broadening to ancient sites in Romania, Greece and India, we’ll learn more about the phenomenon of abandoned sites across the globe and discuss why preservation of our heritage is a concern everywhere, not just in our own communities.
About the Presenter: Matthew Christopher has had an interest in abandoned sites since he was a child, but started documenting them a decade ago while researching the decline of the state hospital system. His two books, Abandoned America: Dismantling the Dream and Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences and his website, also titled Abandoned America, have chronicled the stories of modern ruins across the United States and gained international attention. He recently expanded his scope to document abandoned locations across the globe. Matthew has an MFA in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology and has taught photography at a college level and now teaches photography workshops.
This lecture is FREE and open to the public. RSVPs are appreciated: marylu@phlf.org or (412) 471-5808 x 527.
Thank You: Allegheny West Historic Timeline Exhibition
Submitted by Doris Short
What an evening! What a fantastic crowd!
We would like to extend a very heartfelt thank you to everyone that came to The Allegheny West Timeline Exhibition Opening Reception on Friday, May 17th. We are extremely grateful to have so many wonderful neighbors and friends. A big thank you again to our generous sponsors, donations, supporters and volunteers.
The Allegheny West Timeline Exhibition will be on display till June 20th.
Opening Hours (May): Monday-Friday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Opening Hours (June): Monday-Thursday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Free Program: Allegheny West, Its Formative Years
Northside historian John Canning and long-time Northside resident Larry Ehrlich will present an informal and insightful program focusing on the early decades of Allegheny West, recounting the the struggles and success stories of this small but significant Northside neighborhood. They will highlight the role of key community issues, passionate residents, and developmental programs that contributed to the evolution of the Allegheny West community that exists today. The program is in conjunction with the Allegheny West Timeline Exhibition currently on display, which can be viewed prior to the beginning of the program.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
CCAC Gallery at West Hall, Allegheny Campus
826 Ridge Avenue
The program is in conjunction with the Allegheny West Timeline Exhibition currently on display at CCAC Gallery at West Hall. This program is FREE to the public. RSVPs are appreciated: dorisshort.aiga@gmail.com or (412) 916-0007.
About the Presenters
John Canning is the vice-president of the Allegheny City Society, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the Northside prior to its annexation to Pittsburgh. John is a life-long resident of the Northside and writes a monthly column about its history and current Northside traditions. He currently lives in the Central Northside.
Larry Ehrlich was a long time Allegheny West resident and community activist. Unofficial photographer of many of the early AW events.