Marty's Market Coming To The Strip

Right By Nature in the Strip

A new market is coming to the strip to replace Right By Nature which closed last year.  Marty's Market's new proprietor, Regina Koetters, is not as anxious about her new venture as one might suspect.  Her last assignment was a tour in Iraq, so this by contrast should be a piece of cake.  Marty's will open in late spring, at Smallman and 23rd streets, in the same building that Right By Nature vacated.

Ms. Koetters sees the new market becoming a "destination" in a neighborhood whose chief draw is its unique collection of specialty food stores and produce wholesalers.  She hopes to invite celebrity and amateur chefs to teach culinary classes or to prepare dinners to go. The store will focus solely on food, stocked with fresh produce and meats as well as staples like bread, milk and eggs. There will be freshly prepared meals and other items shoppers can grab for lunch or on their way home from work.  The market also will feature a coffee bar and a cafe with outdoor seating.

She said she will buy and sell produce grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. The meats will be free of antibiotics, steroids and added hormones. She also plans to make ample use of producers located within 150 miles of the store.

Ms. Koetters arrived in Pittsburgh in 2008 from Ann Arbor, Mich. She spent more than 12 years in the Navy, eight on active duty. As a naval flight officer, she flew missions over Iraq in early 2003 while on active duty. She also was stationed in Iraq as a reservist for a year ending in November 2009.
She got the idea for the new market while walking around the Cork Factory apartment complex and seeing the vacant store space. Right By Nature closed last April after less than three years at the location, saying it could not generate enough traffic to "maintain and grow the business."
Nonetheless, Ms. Koetters isn't the least bit anxious about taking over the spot, noting that Right by Nature was more of a full-scale supermarket than Marty's Market, with its focus solely on food, intends to be.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Strip District

Solar Company Opens Office In Green Tree

Sunetric, an Hawaiian solar company, has opened an office at Foster Plaza 5, Suite 300, 651 Holiday Dr., Green Tree. It also has offices offices in Washington and Denver on the mainland.

Founded in 2004, Sunetric is one of the country's largest renewable energy firms.  With approximately 100 employees, it manages every stage of the design, development and installation of photovoltaic (PV) systems nationwide.  It has designed and installed 40% of net-metered PV systems in Hawaii, is responsible for over 100,000 solar panels and 30 megawatts of solar across the United States, and is currently developing solar farms totalling more than 30 MW.

Green Tree
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Sunetric

Robot Repair Shop In Downtown Pittsburgh???

"Fraley's Robot Repair Shop" at 210 6th Ave

If you do a double-take (or triple-, quadruple-take) while passing by 210 6th Ave in Downtown's Cultural District ..... You're not alone.  Right there in the window of Fraley's Robot Repair Shop is an anxious-looking robot apparently looking for a way out.  But who in the world is repairing robots?  Who even has any robots to repair?

The truth is that robots are not actually being meticulously restored to mint condition in our tech-savy city.   And Fraley's is not a repair shop of any kind, either.  Rather, it is part of "Project Pop-Up: Downtown", a public art installation created by Toby Atticus Fraley, artist from Washington, Pa.  The installation, which was launched publicly during November’s 51st Annual Light Up Night, gives downtown passers-by a chance to glimpse into a future wherein robot ownership – and  the bothersome repairs that accompany it – may be quite commonplace.

"Project Pop-Up: Downtown" is a partnership between the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Department of City Planning and Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) which aims to inject new life into abandoned downtown Pittsburgh storefronts, playing off of the many other positive downtown developments already underway. More than 90 entrepreneurs from throughout the nation submitted grant proposals in hopes of making their “pop-up” dreams a reality in Pittsburgh. These applicants were whittled down to 12 recipients – seven of which launched their projects in November.

Learn more about "Project Pop-Up: Downtown" and the other six “pop-ups” by clicking on the link below.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Project Pop-up: Downtown

Historic Designation for Historic McKeesport Hotel

Penn-McKee Hotel has stood vacant for many years

In April 1947, at what was then McKeesport's premier hotel, the Penn-McKee, a 90-minute debate on labor law took place between future U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.  The freshmen congressmen took opposing positions on the proposed Taft-Hartley Act, which, when it became law, eventually curtailed much of the labor activism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.  Thirteen years after that debate, the two politicians faced off again as candidates for the presidency on national television. While the audience and stakes were greater in that debate, local groups have ensured that McKeesport's role in the early history of two giants of American politics is not forgotten.  At its October board meeting, the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission approved a historical marker for the site of the 1947 debate.

The designation caps a campaign by the McKeesport Preservation Society and the Battle of Homestead Foundation to obtain the coveted blue-and-gold state historic marker to be erected outside the hotel, which now stands vacant.  The unveiling of the marker and a symposium on the debate and the Taft-Hartley legislation are planned for April 21, 2012, the 65th anniversary of the debate.   Society director Maryann Huk said her group is forming partnerships to start restoration to reopen the Penn-McKee Hotel on Fifth Avenue, which had hosted numerous civic and private events since it opened in 1926.

McKeesport Preservation Society
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Tiramisu Now A Treat For PAT Buses

In July, Carnegie Mellon University announced a public transit iPhone app that has grown steadily since that time.  The university has now expanded on the platform with their current release of the Android version.  These apps track the location of public transit vehicles using riders' smartphones. Riders can tell other riders where and how full buses are.

Tiramisu, Italian for "pick me up," uses the GPS feature in smartphones to identify the rider's location and display a list of nearby bus stops, and when the next vehicle is expected to arrive.  When the rider boards, he or she hits a button that allows the Tiramisu server to track the vehicle and issue information to riders farther along the route. The rider also tells the system how full the bus is. If no one is using the Tiramisu application on a particular bus, the system uses accumulated historical data to predict arrival times. And if that is not available, it will deliver arrival times based on the Port Authority schedules -- which is usually the case for now, until more riders are participating.

Another Tiramisu feature is the ability of riders to instantly report any problems or make suggestions to the Port Authority. If a seat is broken, for example, the rider can take a photo, add text and notify the authority, and the message will automatically convey the time, bus and location from which it was sent. So far, CMU officials report that nearly 4,800 iPhone users and 930 Android users have tried the app.

Project leaders are hoping that over time it will blossom into a full-fledged real-time tracking system that will enable riders with smartphones to know when the next bus is coming, and whether they'll get a seat. The app can be downloaded from the iTunes Store, Android Market or the project's website, www.tiramisutransit.com , which also has a tutorial and frequently asked questions page.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
PAT Transit

YouTube Sensation "Pittsburgh Dad"

 

Meet Pittsburgh Dad

Pittsburgh Dad:  Slip-N-Slide

Pittsburgh Dad:  Snow

Pittsburgh Dad:  Basement Pop

Pittsburgh Dad:  Thanksgiving

Pittsburgh Dad:  Cutting Grass

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Bike Racks On ALL Buses

 

Port Authority Transit buses have had a face lift. The entire fleet of buses had been outfitted with mounted bike racks. The installation of the bike racks should open up a wide variety of recreational opportunities for cyclists. For example, city dwelling mountain bikers will now have easier access to urban trails such as those at Frick Park which are considered the best mountain biking trails available inside the city limits.  You could ride to the trail, but a lot of times mountain bikes aren't suitable for riding on city streets.  So being able to jump on a bus and take your bike to the trail is pretty huge.


Conversely, city cyclists can now easily head to the suburbs and ride beautiful country trails or experience portions of the Montour Trail that may not have been easily accessible before. The buses can also transport those looking to pedal the Great Allegheny Passage to trailheads in McKeesport and Duquesne.
 
For suburban cyclists who may fear city meter readers or shy away from the high price of a city parking garage, the bus bike racks make it easy to access the city trails.  A lot of people come into the city on the weekends to ride the trails.  Every bus goes to Downtown and the trail system starts there, so that just makes life very easy for all biking enthusiasts. 

MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

PAT Transit

Bakery Square Might Expand

The development group responsible for Bakery Square wants to acquire the former Reizenstein school building and replace it with a $119 million project called Bakery Square 2.0 that would include housing, retail and office space.  The proposal was included in the lone bid for the Reizenstein building, one of three city school buildings that are being offered for sale by Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Bakery Square 2.0 is a partnership that includes Walnut Capital and RCG Longview. It offered to buy the site for $5.4 million, demolish the school building and replace it with a $119 million development.


The proposal calls for replacing the "functionally obsolete building" with about 20 new single-family homes and more than 70 new rental townhouses -- in the rear of the site near existing housing -- as well as about 400,000 square feet of first-class office/retail space on Penn Avenue.

Reizenstein is on Penn Avenue, across the street from the new Bakery Square, which was a project of Walnut Capital and RCG Longview. Bakery Square is the home of Google, a Spring Hill Suites Hotel and other businesses. Bakery Square's early plans included a residential component that didn't work out.


Bakery Square 2.0 developers said they plan to improve street lights, sidewalks and bike paths along Penn Avenue.  The proposal included letters of support from the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Pittsburgh Technology Council and Carnegie Mellon University.




Bakery Square
Larimer
MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

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

McKees Rocks Gets "Jiffy" Park

Volunteers "create" Third Street Park in McKees Rocks

The flat 3.2-acre Third Street Park in McKees Rocks received a mountain of mulch on Friday morning but was otherwise barren except for a picnic pavilion that had been erected earlier this summer by 25 corporate volunteers.  But by 3 o'clock, the park had a KaBOOM! playground with slides, swings, ladders and other climbing devices in vivid shades of orange, yellow and blue.

More than 200 corporate and community volunteers -- including Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma-- labored mightily to excavate the mulch mountain. That was after they dug holes, mixed and poured cement, installed playground equipment and built a gazebo, a horse shoe pit, eight picnic tables and four benches. The workers used shovels to load mulch into wheel barrows and big sheets of plastic and rakes to spread mulch around the swings and slides and into a winding walkway. Though a mid-morning storm with thunder and lightning mandated a 30-minute halt to construction, workers beat the 3 p.m. completion deadline by 10 minutes.

The Pens sent 45 employees from the front office and Mr. Bylsma. They worked the entire playground construction shift, with the coach wearing a purple do-rag on his head and the same grey teeshirt worn by all the volunteers.

The corporate sponsor of this endeavor was the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. The group is spending $15 million over three years to build or fix up 2,000 playgrounds across the country.  About $75,000 went to the Third Street playground. Forty Snapple Group employees worked on the McKees Rocks project. Other volunteers include elected officials and employees of McKees Rocks, the McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation and organizers from KaBOOM! as well as borough residents. Duquesne Light Co., which sent volunteers in June to build the pavilion, returned on Friday to help with the playground.
 

Neighborhood children were consulted about what equipment should go into their park. Some of them even showed up to help, including Andy Cochran, a fourth-grade student. "This is like my second home," he said of the park that is within walking distance of his house. "I've been here since 10:30 and I've done a little bit of everything, including hauling mulch."

Future improvements are planned for Third Street Park, including the installation of bocci courts.

McKees Rocks
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Good Things Happening In East Liberty!!

Emily & Sten Carlson work on their Borland Green rowhouse.

For many years, Maria Piantanida has been part of a group who had a dream of creating a "co-housing" development in the Metro Pittsburgh area.  A co-housing community is a group of residents who share a lifestyle vision.  And so for many years, Maria and her group kept searching for a place that was suitable or had potential to accommodate them. The group eventually split into those who wanted to build new and those who wanted to be in the city and reuse existing housing.  Maria's group, the "City" group, found exactly what they were looking for in a stretch of (seven) brown-brick rowhouses on Black Street behind Peabody High School.

The rowhouses had been in the process of falling apart when East Liberty Development Inc. bought them out of foreclosure last year. Since then, the agency has assembled eight more residences on the blocks within Borland, Black and Beatty streets as part of a bigger plan.  It was this "bigger plan" that caught the eye of Piantanida's group.  They took the plunge, bought the distressed properties and promptly named their new co-housing community "Borland Green".

The community started ahead of renovations by establishing a garden on a large tract that was remediated by three years of sunflower and canola planted by the non-profit GTECH. The 18,000-square-foot garden lot will be developed to include an orchard and other edible plants. East Liberty Development still owns that land and is working with the city to get title for two more parcels. Maureen Copeland, GTECH's community programs manager and now a Borland Green resident, bought and moved into the most habitable unit in May. Pat Buddemeyer, an original member of the co-housing group, expects work to be done on her unit in October.  Sten and Emily Carlson are other members of the group who presently live in North Point Breeze as they renovate and restore the unit they recently bought.

Piantanida says it was the green space Borland Green had to offer which cinched the deal for the group.  She and her husband live in Churchill and do not have a move-in date yet. "I've lived in [Churchill] for 32 years and hardly know anybody. This is sort of where my heart is now."

What are some of the benfits of "co-housing"?

"Sharing resources so you don't need seven lawnmowers, just one," said Sten Carlson.

"Having someone look out for your house while you're out of town," added Ms. Piantanida. "Another advantage is that elders have support while they pool their resources to get care at home instead of having to go to a nursing home."

These are the staples of what makes co-housing attractive to a growing number of people. Diana Leafe Christian, a national expert on co-housing, said at least 116 communities are established across the country and roughly another 150 are in the stages of finding and purchasing land.

For further details on this exciting project, read the entire Post Gazette article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11227/1167402-53.stm

Re-Born Victorian on Manchester House Tour

Steve & Linda Hansen in their renovated kitchen.

The gutted and totally renovated Victorian at the corner of Manhattan St and West North Ave will definitely be a highlight of this year's Manchester House & Garden Tour.  Steve Hansen lived on West North Avenue in the North Side's Manchester neighborhood for almost 30 years without noticing this house a block away. Obscured by a pair of overgrown trees and abandoned for 10 years, it was quietly decaying when he stopped and peered inside one day in 2005. Curious, he began stopping by for a closer examination and in April 2007, he climbed in a second-floor window for a look around.  Extensive water damage from a leaky roof (and the raccoon family living there) would have frightened away most people. But Mr. Hansen, who partnered with Jimmy Roach as the WDVE-FM morning radio duo in the 1980s, saw a chance to bring a Victorian house back from the dead.

 After nearly two years of begging the city not to tear it down and 18 months of hard work by Mr. Hansen, his wife Linda and two teams of contractors, there's new life in this old Victorian. New life for this home and the neighborhood as well.

The Hansens' house at 1337 W. North is one of six houses open next weekend for the Manchester House and Garden Tour. Its renovation is further along than its neighbor, but both have come up a long way from what they were two years ago.

The Hansens bought 1337 W. North from the city in February 2010. Much of last year was spent in demolition and gutting the three-story, 5,000-square-foot space that has been apartments, a speakeasy and possibly a brothel (that would explain all the mattresses Mr. Hansen dragged out).  Stalczynski Contracting worked on the exterior, replacing roofs on the house and two garages, rebuilding box gutters, sandblasting and repointing the brick and priming and painting the exterior. A carpenter installed 38 new double-hung windows by Allied Millwork, This January, RW Ripley & Sons leveled and reinforced the floors before laying bamboo, installed drywall, redid the electrical, repaired original tin ceilings and woodwork, and fashioned a modern kitchen and bathrooms that are showstoppers. Architect Bob Baumbach designed the kitchen, where just this week contractors installed concrete countertops by Outlaw Studios and stainless-steel counters by Bishop Metals.

Crew chief Brian Ripley is particularly proud of the master bathroom he helped design and build with his brother, Adam, and Ed Cerra Plumbing.  They ended up with a stunning L-shaped space with dual shower heads, Cifre Oxido wall tile from Spain and a nubby, river-rock tile floor.  To add to the contemporary feel, Mrs. Hansen hopes to install an old paneled door on sliding barn-door hardware across the water closet.

Only some of the tin ceilings in the first and second floors could be salvaged. Several panels in the master bedroom had rusted through from roof runoff. Luckily, the Hansens were able to find exact duplicates online at Chelsea Decorative Metal Co.

Mr. Hansen also has his mind on the future. Inspired by a newspaper he found tucked in a wall -- dated July 4, 1876 -- he created his own time capsule and hid it in a wall for future owners of this house.
In it, he packed 20 photos and a long essay in which he identifies himself, his wife and all the contractors who worked on the project. He describes his fortunate discovery of a forlorn house, the ups and downs of renovation and the incredible amount of work that has gone into reviving this piece of history. He closes this way:

"We hope that we have added to the future vitality and livability of Pittsburgh by saving and restoring this magnificent house. We hope that the Manchester you know is a dynamic destination neighborhood that attracts and nurtures a diverse tapestry of residents, lifestyles and views. We hope you enjoy this house as much as we hope to."

---

13th annual Manchester
House and Garden Tour

• What: 6 houses, 2 gardens, benefits Manchester Historic Society
• When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 6, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 7
• Tickets: $15 on tour days at Conroy School, 1398 Page St.
• Information: www.manchesterhistoricsocietypa.com.

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Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Brownsville Community Festival August 6th

Last year's Community Festival attracted about 1700 people to the Brownsville downtown area and officials are hoping for a larger turnout this year.  The festival will begin at 10am on August 6.

A highlight of the day will be the "duck race," which will take place at 3:30 p.m. along the Monongahela River, starting at the historic Inter-County Bridge, which was recently renovated.  Numbered rubber ducks will be dropped from the bridge into the river and the first three "sponsored" ducks carried by the current over the finish line at the wharf will win prizes.  Nearly 1,000 ducks were dropped last year.  It costs $5 to sponsor a duck.

First prize is a two-night stay in Pittsburgh with dinner and a show, valued at $500.  Second place will receive a $250 Dick's Sporting Goods gift card. Third place will receive a $100 Walmart gift card.
There will be a corporate duck race that coincides with the main race. The ducks can be purchased leading up to the festival by calling Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp (BARC) at 724-785-9331 or at the BARC tent on the day of the festival.

Other festival activities include games, face painting, a climbing wall, play spaces, a petting zoo, pony rides and other forms of entertainment along Market Street throughout the day, ending at about 6 p.m. There will be a morning 5K run sponsored by Brownsville Area High School and a community parade will take place at 11 a.m. Following the parade, dance companies will perform and a Brownsville Rotary talent show featuring local students will take place on stage in the downtown area's center parking lot.  A classic car show will be set up downtown and restaurants, fire companies and community organizations will man ethnic food booths.

There will be a break from activities around 4 p.m., when a motorcycle run sponsored by the Nicholson Cancer Fund of Connellsville travels through downtown. More than 350 motorcycles are expected.
Those wanting to participate in the motorcycle run can register by calling Jeff Halfhill at 724-331-6243. Vendor space is $25 plus $5 for electricity, if needed. To register a classic car in the festival, call Charlie Perkins at 724-970-7462.

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

Book Published About Mt Washington's Chatham Village

Women play cards in Chatham Village, 1932

Pittsburgh history buffs will love the new book published about Mt Washington's Chatham Village. "Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City" has a paper jacket which feels almost like suede, giving the cover photographs extra depth. The book's design, by Kachergis Book Design of Pittsboro, N.C., is enjoyable, too, with wide margins and an abundance of photographs, drawings and plans.

Author Angelique Bamberg was the city's preservation planner from December 1998 to 2006 and it was her job to inform and guide commission members in their decision-making. A native of Germany who grew up in the American South, she first came to Pittsburgh earlier in 1998 as a Cornell University graduate student researching her master's thesis on Chatham Village, out of which this book has grown. It's the first book-length treatment of the subject, and Ms. Bamberg has detailed its design and establishing how and why the community is significant, the role it played in the history of planned developments and why it was both a smashing success and a disappointing failure.

Chatham Village, while widely known in planning circles, is one of Pittsburgh's best-kept secrets. The community was built in two phases on 45 acres on a Mount Washington hilltop -- the former Thomas Bigham estate -- between 1931 and 1936. It was a demonstration project of the Buhl Foundation, which wanted to show that quality, affordable housing could be built for middle-class families at a profit by the private sector. It also wanted to demonstrate that Pittsburgh's hilly terrain could be developed economically and beautifully. At Chatham Village, 197 terraced red-brick row houses surround village greens, gardens and paths, all stepping down the sloping site.

The 208-page hardcover edition (University of Pittsburgh Press, $29.95) opens with a look at the four men who were most influential in the development's launch, beginning with Charles Fletcher Lewis, a former Pittsburgh Sun editorial writer who headed the then year-old Buhl Foundation.  Lewis hired three consultants, Clarence Stein, Henry Wright and Frederick Bigger, all architects, planners and housing reform advocates who were members of the Regional Planning Association of America.

To combat sprawl and the ills of the city, the association's members had devised plans for a series of communities called New Towns, with homes grouped around greens, gardens and paths, limiting cars to roads and garages on the perimeter. Clarence Stein believed the automobile had made the traditional urban grid unsafe for pedestrians, especially children who made the streets their playgrounds. Inspired by the English garden city movement, Mr. Stein and Mr. Wright had collaborated on two previous projects, Sunnyside Gardens on Long Island, N.Y., and Radburn, N.J.

Mr. Lewis' consultants convinced him that Chatham could not be built and sold for a profit as individually owned homes, he shifted its focus to rental properties for the struggling middle-class. Designed by Pittsburgh architects Ingham and Boyd, the row houses were no ordinary rentals. They had limestone door surrounds and stone cartouches over some doorways, modern amenities like steel kitchens, and utility and power lines were buried underground, enhancing the aura of an urban Eden designed by landscape architect Ralph Griswold, who emphasized lush lawns accented and shaded by trees. At the first open house, 20,000 people lined up to have a look and there soon was a waiting list for occupancy.

To assure the "model community" was a "model success", the first tenants were carefully screened. They were uniformly Protestant, white-collar and white -- a demographic that has widened over time. Once geared to families with children, Chatham Village now caters more to the needs of adults.  Satisfied that the Buhl Foundation's housing experiment had come to a successful conclusion, Mr. Lewis' successor, Charles Nutting, turned it into a co-op in 1957, offering tenants the chance to become owners at extremely reasonable cost. Most of them did. 

Ms. Bamberg is currently a planning and preservation consultant and instructor at the University of Pittsburgh. 

 

Chatham Village

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Mt Washington

Kennywood Gets A Little Make-Over

Phantom's Revenge

Kennywood is getting a little spruce-up for the opening of this season.   Opening day at the West Mifflin amusement park gets under way at 10:30 a.m. May 7. Closing will be about 10 p.m., based on crowds and weather.  Spruce-ups and other changes are ....

-  The old black top leading to what was formerly the (circa 1901) Old Mill, now the dark ride called Garfield's Nightmare, was replaced with red and tan bricks of various sizes and shapes for a striking design effect. 
-  The classic arcade Kandy Kaleidoscope was repainted mostly green with tan accents and has a new red roof.
 -  Starting on Memorial Day, Potato Patch fries -- a perennial park favorite -- will be available at a second location: the Star refreshment stand between the Log Jammer entrance and Arrow360.
-  Kiddieland's Mother Goose facility, which housed restrooms, was replaced with a new building with handicap-accessible family restrooms with changing stations.  The front of the building features a refreshment stand, which is the first in recent years in Kiddieland. Snacks offered will include healthy options such as juice and fruit.

-  The Parkside Cafe has larger handicap-accessible restrooms, air conditioning has been added and the roof is being repainted.  The cafe will retain its original tin ceiling and wooden beams from 1898 -- the year Kennywood was founded as a small trolley park by the Monongahela Street Railway Company, which was controlled by industrial baron Andrew Mellon.

Kennywood is one of only two amusement parks designated as a National Historic Landmark.  This season will cost a little more; there is an across-the-board admission increase of one dollar from 2010. 

Kennywood

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Connellsville Airport Gets New Runway

The Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport has started work on a new runway.  At a ribbon-cutting Thursday for the new runway, officials spoke of the importance of having a county airport and the impact of improvements to the facility which will hopefully attract more corporate users.

The runway is just one part of the larger project whereby the airport will demolish 11 storage hangars, replacing them with seven aviation T-hangars capable of storing corporate jets. That project will cost about $1.8 million.

Baker Engineering in Moon will design the upcoming projects. Engineer Jennifer Andy said she is designing the apron reconstruction. Work will begin this summer. The hangar project should start later this year.

Connellsville

Joseph A Hardy Connellsville Airport

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

One Church's Move Makes Room For Another

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on the North Side

After nearly 90 years in the North Side, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is closing, but its move to new quarters in the North Hills will trigger the rejuvenation of another Pittsburgh congregation. Earlier this month, Holy Trinity officials agreed to sell their distinctive building at West North and Sherman avenues to the North Side Institutional Church of God in Christ. Fire destroyed North Side Institutional at 1200 California Ave. in January 2009, and the congregation has been meeting since at a North Side location.

For Holy Trinity, the sale expedites a planned move to a church and community center in McCandless. In 2007, the church purchased 10 acres at Babcock Boulevard and Thompson Run Road from La Roche College and plans to break ground later this year, finishing construction by December 2012. Over the past 50 years, most of Trinity's congregation has move north and they are not moving to the demographic center of their church community.

North Side Institutional will begin renovations to the Holy Trinity sanctuary after Holy Trinity's last service there on Easter. It plans to move in by June or July.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Former Lutheran Church Now Artist's Home

641 Linden Ave in East Pittsburgh

Dan Riccobon purchased the former Emanuel Lutheran Church in East Pittsburgh in 1998 and slowly but surely turned it into his home and studio. A retired Woodland Hills art teacher, Mr Riccobon has done most of the work himself, acting as architect, contractor, carpenter and interior designer.  The renovation work ahs been varied and wide-ranging, from removing the rotting steeple to building the bathroom and kitchen to painting the ceiling of the nave, on his back on a scaffold, with the constellations and the creatures that inspired them.

The congregation that built Emanuel Lutheran Church pretty much lived and died with the Westinghouse plant just across the street. Westinghouse Electric built its primary plant in East Pittsburgh in the Turtle Creek Valley in 1895, making electric railway motors, generators, switches and other railway equipment. Two years later, German immigrants founded Die Reformations Gemeinde and built a frame church on a narrow, elevated triangle of land on Linden Avenue, then a bustling commercial street.  In 1923, the church was demolished and the triangle leveled to build the new brick church. The congregation sold the building 75 years later, a decade after the Westinghouse plant closed in 1988.

For a dozen years Mr. Riccobon had a studio in Oakland, where he worked on sets and costumes for the late Don Brockett's productions (Mr Roger's Neighborhood).  For Mr. Riccobon, the best part of having home and studio in the same building is not the easy commute but having work in progress so close at hand. There's an advantage to "being able to look at what you're working on as you walk by, rather than leaving it and not beginning to think about it until you see it again," he said. "As an artist, about 80 percent of the work you do is thinking about it, judgmental things, rather than the actual painting."

The 12-year renovation process had its drawbacks but also had some advantages.  "It allowed me to live here and get a feel for what I needed," he said. "If I hadn't, it would have been a disaster. I had thoughts of putting in a second floor. What I finally decided I should do is make everything look like it belonged here in the beginning.  Nothing's nicer than these giant ceilings."

East Pittsburgh

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Mr Roger's Neighborhood

Westinghouse Electric