Architectural Award For CMU

The Gates Center for Computer Science and Hillman Center

A recently constructed Carnegie Mellon University research and classroom facility has received the highest award in the architecture profession.  CMU's Gates Center for Computer Science and Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies has been recognized as one of nine projects worldwide to receive the 2012 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture.
 
The Gates and Hillman centers, which opened in 2009, share a joint space and are located in a challenging spot: the eastern slope of a steep valley that intersects the campus which feeds into Junction Hollow in Oakland. With five main entrances on three different levels and two major pedestrian bridges, they also serve as a crossroads tying the campus together.  Designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects of Atlanta, Ga., they serve as home to four departments of CMU's School of Computer Science.

CMU
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Oakland

Walk To Cure Psoriasis

 

The National Psoriasis Foundation will host the local Walk To Cure Psoriasis in Oakland's Schenley Park.  Registration will be at 8 a.m., with the walk beginning at 9 a.m.  Participants will have the opportunity to choose between 1K and 5K courses. Registration is free and participants who raise $100 or more will receive a walk T-shirt.  Proceeds from the walk will benefit the foundation's research, educational and advocacy programs. For more information or to register, call 877-825-9255 or go to www.walk.psoriasis.org/pittsburgh-walk .

National Psoriasis Foundation

MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

Schenley Park

Only 2 More Days For Greek Food Festival!

Church volunteer stacks diples for the Food Festival

The ladies -- and men -- at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Oakland on Monday made fried pastries called diples (about 3,000 of them) as they finished the cooking for its Greek Food Festival, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The party runs from Sunday, May 1, through Friday, May 6. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m except on Friday, when it's open until 10 p.m. and the music goes till midnight. The menu includes more pastries (from baklava to galatoboureko) and dinners (souvlakia to fish plaki) and a la carte items (moussaka to dolmathes). Call 412-682-3866 or visit stnickspgh.org.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Oakland

CMU Unveils 10-Yr Plan

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University wants to construct a new home for its Tepper business school, expand Heinz College and undertake other campus work that includes turning two Forbes Avenue traffic lanes into bicycle paths.  There would be a pedestrian bridge, University Center would be expanded and a new hotel on school land would be constructed.  Those are some of the projects in a proposed 10-year university master plan that campus administrators are preparing to submit later this month to the city.

The master plan is aimed at supporting university growth by both enhancing the existing core campus and by developing underutilized properties purchased by Carnegie Mellon along Forbes between Craig Street and Morewood Avenue.  The plan also recognizes that Carnegie Mellon's northern frontier, traditionally considered to be Forbes, has in fact become Fifth Avenue, thanks to university expansion, and that Forbes runs through what is now the middle of campus.

Projects high on the priority list:

•  A new nano-biomedical-energy research facility to be built next to Wean and Hamerschlag halls.
•  Moving the Tepper School of Business from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration building and Posner Hall onto part of what is now the Morewood parking lot on the north side of Forbes across from Hamburg Hall.
•  An expansion of Heinz College to include classrooms, possibly an auditorium and informal meeting space.
•  A new building for alumni affairs and other administrative offices on the north side of Forbes across from the campus cut that would require moving some fraternity houses to a nearby site.
•  Moving fitness facilities from the aging Skibo Gym to an expanded University Center and transforming Skibo into an updated headquarters for campus athletics.
•  A Margaret Morrison Hall expansion to support the College of Fine Arts.
•  Take a traffic lane in either direction on the part of Forbes running through campus and turning those lanes into bike paths.
•  Extending the east-west campus pathway and improving pedestrian access between Forbes and Fifth by developing a new sidewalk and bike path along Morewood.
•  A new hotel (operated by an outside party) south of Forbes near Craig St.



10-Yr Master Plan
Carnegie Mellon University
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Oakland

CMU On The Moon

CMU's "Red Rover"

Carnegie Mellon University spin-off company Astrobotic Technology Inc. has signed a deal with SpaceX to launch its robotic rover into space as early as December 2013. SpaceX is an aerospace company formed by PayPal founder Elon Musk and makes Astrobotic the first competitor in the $30 million Google Lunar X-Prize competition to sign a launch contract.

The competition, announced in 2007, has 21 competitors all racing to see who can be the first to put a private venture robotic rover on the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video, images and data back to Earth.
The December 2013 launch date on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is eight months later than Astrobotic said it would launch what it calls its Red Rover.  The delay is in part because of what "the customers" want.  To help pay for the mission, Astrobotic is selling 240 pounds of payload space on the rocket, and some of the customers have an interest in seeing the rover land on the moon at a certain time of year.

In addition, Astrobotic is negotiating with television companies for exclusive rights to broadcast the mission from the moon from Red Rover's high-definition, 3D cameras.  Because they are not NASA, they have the ability to do an exclusive deal.  So when the rover rolls out and turns on its camera, we here on earth will be able to see it with the clarity and depth perception of an Apollo astronaut.

Pretty cool stuff going on over at CMU!

CMU
Astrobotic Technology
SpaceX
Google Lunar X-Prize Competition

Unleash The Inner-Artist Inside You

If you have an untapped creative side waiting to come out ..... or even if you don't ..... Spending some of your leisure time indoors in these frigid temps creating a mug, collage or sketching might be a fun thing to do.  There are a surprising number of creative opportunities for the novice in the Pittsburgh Area:

Carnegie Museum of Art

Carnegie Museum of Natural History 

4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland.  412-622-3288
-  Creating Wildlife Art (Collage)   Participants will create a mixed-media collage of insect or bird illustrations.  Feb 19th, Noon to 3 p.m. $35; $30 for members (includes materials).
-  Pastel Painting   Participants will create fantastical pastel paintings using museum artifacts for inspiration, such as specimen butterflies.  Learning how to combine pastels with tempera, charcoal and watercolor. March 6th & 13th, April 3rd, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. $48; $40 for members.
-  Drawing Wildlife Class   Participants will practice their mammal-drawing skills in the Hall of North American Wildlife with scientific illustrator Mark Klingler.  April 7th, 14th & 21st, 6 to 9 p.m.  $50; $40 for members.

Sweetwater Center for the Arts

200 Broad St., Sewickley.  412-741-4405

-  Photographic Lighting Workshop  Instructor is commercial photographer David Cooper. Feb 5th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $60; $45 for nonmembers.
-  Acrylic Painting Techniques, Faux Woodblock Prints  Instructor is Tara Zalewskiy-Nease, who has a master of fine arts degree in painting from the University of New Mexico. Participants will use watercolor masking flue to create a bold image, similar to a wood block carving print. Feb 19th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  $60; $45 for members.
-  Collage and Assemblage Art  Instructor is Carnegie Mellon University School of Art graduate, Danielle Worst.  Participants will create a work that combines two-dimensional images and three-dimensional forms.  March 5th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  $60; $45 for nonmembers.


Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
1047 Shady Ave., Shadyside.  412-361-0455 -  Mosaics    Participants will make a small, decorative square with instructor Rachael Cooper.  Feb 6th, noon to 1 p.m., 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and 3 to 4 p.m.  $10.
-  Ceramic Mugs  Participants will make a decorative, greenware mug with instructor Rachael Cooper. March 6th, noon to 1 p.m., 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and 3 to 4 p.m.  $10.
-  Arts Crash Course   Participants will work with instructors in the center's printmaking, ceramics and jewelry studios to create take-home works of art.  March 19th, noon to 4 p.m.  $60; $35 for members.
-  Anatomy of the Figure   Participants will study anatomy and the human form while making drawings and sculpture with Italian artist and art professor, Eva Rorandelli.  March 20th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $100; $75 for members.
-  Introduction to Precious Metal Clay Jewelry  Participants will make silver pendants and charms with instructor Donna Penoyer.  March 26th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  $95; $70 for members.

Greensburg Art Center

230 Todd School Road, Hempfield.  724-837-6791-  Learning to Throw a Pot  Participants will explore ceramics with with instructor Ann Gravelle.  Fridays, 7 to 10 p.m. $50 per couple, or $25 per couple for two couples. The fee includes materials.
-  Still Life Drawing & Painting   Drop-in still-life sessions. Wednesdays, 7 to 9:30 p.m.  Drop-in sessions with model in pose.  4th Monday of each month, 7 to 9:30 p.m.   $3 per person.

Pittsburgh Glass Center

5472 Penn Ave, Friendship.  412-365-2145
A number of introductory workshops and classes offered are listed in their online catalog.

Society For Contemporary Craft

2100 Smallman St., Strip District.  412-261-1941

A number of introductory workshops and classes offered are listed in their online catalog.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Its Spring At The Phipps

Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park

Tired of the snow?  Well, its spring at the Phipps as their Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show opens today and runs through March 13.  Colorful orchids and plants from Phipp's tropical bonsai collection will be displayed throughout the historic glass house. The collection includes a Japanese Pittosporum which has been in training since 1991. The garden railroad will also be on display in the South Conservatory throughout the show.

Conservatory hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and until 10 p.m. Fridays. Admission is $12 for adults; $11 for seniors, 62 and older, and students with a valid I.D.; $9 for children 2-18; children under 2 are free.

Phipps Conservatory
Schenley Park
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Oakland's Panther Hollow Watershed To Be Restored

The Richard King Mellon Foundation announced a $1 million grant for the purpose of restoring Panther Hollow.  Improper storm water run-off has caused most of the problems, but crumbling public steps, a stagnant lake, dumping and trail overgrowth has added to the not-so-pretty picture.  It will take many years and many more millions, but the ultimate goal is to have the entire watershed completely restored.

Today's restoration plans are a far cry from past attempts which sought to change the locale into something more "architectural" rather than bolstering the existing natural environment.  Read more ...

Visit My Web Site ...