News Around the Neighborhood
Andrés Franco Conducting for PSO “Front Row”
Episode 5: For the People (Part 1)
Premiering January 22, 2021 7:30 pm
Recorded Live in October 2020
Washington Penn Plastics Hangar + Heinz Hall
A constellation of five female composers (Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Jessie Montgomery, Florence Price and Joan Tower) forms the foundation of Episode 5: For the People, a program of works all written in the past 100 years by American composers that brings a lens to the country’s unique soundscape and the cultural and musical forces of openness, possibilities, challenges and opportunities. This episode is led by Conductor Andrés Franco and Guest Concertmaster Alexi Kenney. Front Row concerts are presented for free.
Available to view through July 22, 2021
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.
Letter from the President – January 2021
The days are short,
The sun a spark,
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.
Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor.
Milk bottles burst
Outside the door
The river is
A frozen place
The trees of lace.
The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.
– John Updike, “January
I miss milk bottles.
I apologize for the delay in getting you your monthly Allegheny West Gazette. The delay is my fault, and I vow to do a better job in the coming months.
In Allegheny West news, we had a very successful Small Business promotion in December. Thanks go to Ann Gilligan, Sally Graubarth, Abi Webb, Aaron Bryan, Eric Grasso and everyone else who pitched in. We managed to get our local businesses some much-needed promotion, and there was a prize for the lucky raffle winner (Sara Beck Sweeney). Let’s all try to patronize our local businesses on Western and Galveston Avenues. They need our support!
Our Christmas tree event also was a great success. Thanks to everyone who came out for the tree lighting. I hope you enjoyed it! I know I did.
Thanks, too, to the organizers of the event. There’s a big overlap between those folks and the Small Business event volunteers, so I won’t list everyone, but I especially want to thank Sally Graubarth for rolling that big electrical spool / tree base down Galveston. Thanks also go to John DeSantis for providing the tree well and electricity for the lights.
And, last but not least, thanks to Aaron and all the other volunteers who helped to dismantle the decorations and haul the tree away last weekend. I very much hope this will become an annual event for our neighborhood. Perhaps next year we can add a horse-driven sleigh and a hot air balloon to the festivities. Or, not.
I wish everyone in Allegheny West a prosperous new year. Better things are around the corner, I’m sure of it. I hope to be able to see you all at a physical membership meeting as soon as it’s safe to do so. Until then, we’ll be continuing our Zoom membership meetings on the second Tuesday of each month, starting with January 12.
Take care, and I hope you have a great January.
Bob Griewahn
President, AWCC
AWCC Informational Meeting – January 11, 2021
Via Zoom (details)
Tuesday, January 11 at 7:30 pm
- 7:30 – Gather, Say Hello, Meet New Neighbors
- 7:35 – Update: City of Pittsburgh Zone 1 Police
- 7:40 – Update: City of Pittsburgh, Mayor’s Office
- 7:45 – Update: Councilman Wilson’s Office
- 7:50 – Update: Representative Wheatley’s Office
- 7:55 – Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
- 8:00 – Treasurer’s Report
- 8:05 – Ways & Means
- 8:15 – Conclude
Thanks You!
Burke & Michael, Inc. would like to thank all of the neighbors who helped in making donations toward the care boxes that we sent to troops who will not be home for Christmas. We are grateful to all of our generous and supportive neighbors. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!
Christmas Tree Recycling
If you still have your Christmas tree, you can take it to be recycled. There is a drop off location in Riverview Park, just past 300 Kilbuck Road, near the Valley Refuge Shelter (at the end of Grand Avenue). Trees are being accepted through January 26th.Tania Grubbs: I AM Series “Live Documentary” Highlights
I AM Series Documentary Highlights
Thursday, January 14
7:00 pm
We honor Pittsburgh Jazz vocalist Tania Grubbs with an evening of highlights from the widely successful 2019 I AM series at Alphabet City. Tania has selected the best moments from the series and will guide us through her curatorial process and successes with new commentary. All performances include video footage, photography, and narration
Staff Pick Favorite: Daniel Alarcón
The King is Always Above the People
with Daniel Alarcón
Wednesday, January 13
7:00 pm
A special evening from our archives, selected by staff as a past favorite, Daniel Alarcón reads from his novel The King is Always Above the People.
This program is an intimate opportunity to listen to excerpts from an urgent, essential collection of stories about immigration, broken dreams, Los Angeles gang members, Latin American families, and other tales of high stakes journeys, from the award-winning author of War by Candlelight and At Night We Walk in Circles
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.