SUMMER 2002

The Magazine of The Heinz Endowments

The LEEDing Edge Shaking off its polluted past, Pittsburgh is becoming a center of smart design and green building.

INSIDE: Girls Count On Stage in East Liberty inside Founded more than four decades Our fields of emphasis include apart, the Howard Heinz Endowment, philanthropy in general and the established in 1941, and the Vira I. disciplines represented by our grant- Heinz Endowment, established in 1986, making programs: Arts & Culture; are the products of a deep family Children, Youth & Families; Economic commitment to community and the Opportunity; Education; and the common good that began with Environment. These five programs work H. J. Heinz and continues to this day. together on behalf of three shared The Heinz Endowments is based in organizational goals: enabling south- Pittsburgh, where we use our region western Pennsylvania to embrace and as a laboratory for the development realize a vision of itself as a premier of solutions to challenges that are place both to live and to work; making national in scope. Although the majority the region a center of quality learning of our giving is concentrated within and educational opportunity; and southwestern Pennsylvania, we work making diversity and inclusion defining wherever necessary, including statewide elements of the region’s character. and nationally, to fulfill our mission. That mission is to help our region thrive as a whole community — economically, ecologically, educationally and culturally— while advancing the state of knowledge and practice in the fields in which we work.

h magazine is a publication of The Heinz Endowments. At the Endowments, we are committed to promoting learning in philanthropy and in the specific fields represented by our grantmaking programs. As an expression of that commitment, this publication is intended to share information about significant lessons and insights we are deriving from our work. Editorial Team Linda Braund, Nancy Grejda, Maxwell King, Maureen Marinelli, Grant Oliphant, Douglas Root. Design: Landesberg Design Associates About the Cover Built on the site of an abandoned rail yard, PNC Financial’s Firstside Center is a glowing icon on the shore of the Monongahela River in downtown Pittsburgh. Combining architectural grace with environmentally sensitive design, the building is helping to distinguish Pittsburgh as a leader in the international green building movement. 4 A Theater By Any Other Name The old Regent Theater rose and fell with the fortunes of its East Liberty neighborhood. Now both are making a comeback. 14 The Green Standard Volume 2 Number 3 Summer 2002 Once one of the country’s most polluted cities, Pittsburgh is emerging as a national leader in the green building movement. 26 Girls + Math + Science Catchy signage is just the first step in a regional campaign to keep girls interested in math and science. In the LEED, page 14 36 Tribute Remembering J. Carter Brown

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Pittsburgh’s “Noble Bet” (Spring 2002) Pittsburgh. But I also had to find daycare more equitable. While this has become nearly We are parents of children enrolled at the for my children — quality, affordable, early a cliché in reference to telecommunications 4 Kids Early Learning Center in Braddock. We care and education that would prepare them technology, it is critically important that your were honored to learn that 4 Kids was featured for school. Quality is always available, but, readers understand that the gap between the in the most recent edition of h magazine, and unfortunately, most of the centers that provide haves and the have-nots is still wide. are very glad that funding is continuing for the it are out of my price range. I feared that I In fact, families in low-income neighbor- quality care provided to our children. They are would be forced to quit school to stay home hoods are still behind in access to the caliber of thriving here — learning more than we even with my children. communications power that the more affluent hoped they would. They are healthy and happy. Then I came across a brochure for the among us take for granted. This is especially 4 Kids is the kind of partner most parents 4 Kids Center in Braddock. Our 15-minute fact- true for African-American children, who are would like to have in helping their children finding tour of the center turned into a 4-hour being denied a tool critical to full educational grow into good students and successful adults. learning experience for my children. And I was development in this society. A study by the We wish every parent and child could have this amazed as much as they were with the fun, wel- Consumer Federation of America, Consumers excellent opportunity. coming and learning-centered childcare facility. Union and the Civil Rights Forum on Physically, it reminded me of the center on base Communications Policy shows that households Beth Markatan in Okinawa, Japan, when my husband was in with more than $50,000 in annual incomes Erica Daye the Marine Corps. However, what amazed me are still three times more likely to have Internet Katrina Long most was the attention my children received. access in the home than households earning Kimberly Lucas I automatically assumed that this fine facil- less than $25,000 annually. Proud Parents of 4 Kids Children ity would also be out of our price range. But But with foundation support, like the we discovered that ECI funding support would consistent commitment shown by The Heinz After reading your honest analysis of how allow them to attend. My youngest was well Endowments, Pittsburgh has a unique opportu- Pittsburgh fared in one of the most comprehen- cared for while I was in school. nity to stand as a model for closing the divide. sive early care and education programs ever As a parent, and now, a social worker, I have Your story points out vividly how shared undertaken, I felt compelled to respond and seen the various levels of the ECI demonstration software applications, joint access to servers share a more scaled down, family view of the project. I have sat at meetings with the funders, housing students’ work and assignment materi- Early Childhood Initiative. After my husband’s participated in advocacy groups and brought my als, video conferencing projects across neighbor- eight-year tour of duty with the US Marine children to the center three to five days a week. hoods, computer-aided literacy training and a Corps, we returned to the Turtle Creek area What I have seen tells me that ECI is not a digital, multimedia magazine produced by with our two children to begin the task of “noble bet” any longer, but a “righteous venture” young people are enhancing the quality of so settling into the community. that has had a powerful positive impact on my many lives in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. This is My husband found a job, but, unfortunately, life and my family’s future. occurring because of well-organized partnerships it paid less than he received as an enlisted between local government, funders and non- Concetta Hillman member of the military. My own personal profit groups like ours that have the ability to Turtle Creek experiences of growing up in poverty made me implement programs at the neighborhood level. realize that I wanted something better for my 5- Nonprofits and local government officials in year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. The stress Down To The Wire (Spring 2002) other sections of the country would do well to of poverty had resulted in a mental breakdown As one of the nonprofit organizations leading visit here to see firsthand what can be accom- for my mother. My father spent so many hours the effort to create a more wired Pittsburgh plished through these critical connections. away from our family, working for little pay as community, your story on the grass-roots effort Rick Flanagan a janitor, that we never had the time to develop to make wireless technology available to groups Youth Development Director a good father–daughter relationship. that otherwise would not be able to afford it is Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. I knew that education was going to be my a great public service. ticket out of poverty, and that I needed to get You use the phrase “digital divide’’ at going on a career that would help support the several points in the story to refer to this effort family. Fortunately, I qualified for enough to make access to the Internet and to high-speed financial aid to attend the University of transmissions of video, sound and messaging By Maxwell King Executive Director

Toour readers  t is notoriously difficult in the nonprofit world to know the Riverlife Task Force to the expanded David L. Lawrence for certain whether a given investment is responsible for Convention Center to the creation of its own Civic Design Ispecific changes happening in the broader community. Task Force, the Endowments was expanding the idea of Occasionally, though, the connection is obvious — and design excellence to encompass principles of environmental immensely gratifying. Such is the case with Pittsburgh’s grow- sustainability. Today, the Endowments will not provide sup- ing stature as a national leader in green building, which is the port for any capital project that does not incorporate green subject of this issue’s cover story. building principles in its design and construction. In many ways, Pittsburgh’s preeminence in green design The Heinz Endowments has not been alone in this. Other can be traced directly to Teresa Heinz’s leadership of The partners include the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Heinz Endowments in the early 1990s. One of her first moves American Institute of Architects, Carnegie Mellon University’s as chairman of the Howard Heinz Endowment was to persuade School of Architecture, Pennsylvania’s Department of the boards of the Howard and the Vira I. Heinz Endowments Environmental Protection and a small but growing group of to create a grantmaking program in the environment. This forward-thinking business executives, to name just a few. All new program carved out a focus on green design and immedi- have been energized by a vision for better design, healthier ately began building up a local intermediary, the Green buildings and a more sustainable community. A tangible Building Alliance, to spread the environmental gospel to local measure of this group’s effectiveness can be found in the architects, contractors and businesses. buildings profiled in this issue, and in numerous others we In keeping with Teresa’s pragmatic style — and the emphasis didn’t have space to feature. of her late husband, Sen. John Heinz, on market forces — the The greatest measure of their effectiveness, though, can Alliance’s mission was not to preach, but to guide. The notion be found in the extent to which the idea they have shep- was to translate an ideal — the design and construction of herded is now being embraced by Pittsburgh’s broader environmentally sound buildings — into terms that everyone community of builders, designers and tenants. Today from builders to tenants could appreciate. This included both Pittsburgh can lay claim to one of the strongest green the benefits of green building — healthier employees, greater building organizations in the country (the Green Building productivity and lower operating costs — and practical guide- Alliance is routinely sought out for advice by other commu- lines for achieving them in a cost-effective manner. nities seeking to promote green design at home); a strong The first time I attended a board meeting of the base of financial support for green design initiatives; and Endowments as incoming executive director in 1999, Teresa one of the most extensive and impressive collections of and Vira I. Heinz Endowment chairman Jim Walton sum- environmentally friendly buildings anywhere. moned their fellow board members to a window overlooking There’s no doubt the cause of green design in Pittsburgh the Allegheny River, where they delivered a stirring case for will continue to need the ardent support of those who have the crafting of a grand vision for riverfront development. It brought it to this point. Other communities elsewhere in might have seemed unremarkable at the time. After all, the the country have embraced it as a matter of civic policy and Endowments had long supported a holistic approach to design may quickly move past us. But the concept clearly is gaining of the public realm (there is probably no finer example than momentum here, and we have reason to look forward to that Pittsburgh’s superb Cultural District, originally the brainchild most gratifying of all moments in this type of work: the point of Henry J. Heinz II). at which an idea launched by a few no longer belongs just to But as the idea began to take shape, it was clear that this them, but to an entire community. h was something new. In its support for projects ranging from 

A THEATER BY ANY OTHER NAME

BUILT IN 1919, THE OLD REGENT THEATER ROSE AND FELL WITH THE FORTUNES OF THE PITTSBURGH NEIGHBORHOOD AROUND IT. NOW, ITS LATEST REVIVAL AS THE NAMESAKE OF TWO WORLD-FAMOUS CITY SONS IS USING THE SAME POWER OF ART TO REVIVE A COMMUNITY.

The Ebenezer Mime Group performs at the Kelly-Strayhorn. The theater in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty section is staging a revival that parallels several struggling neighborhoods. Early 1900s

Regent Theater opens as a silent movie house in 1915. In 1917, it is remodeled to accommodate live shows, joining six other theaters in the bustling neighborhood.

East Liberty has become one of the hottest, high-end real estate markets in Pittsburgh. Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, By Christine H. O’Toole George Westinghouse and Henry Heinz all live on its fringes. To accommodate mogul Photography by Joshua Franzos wannabes, there are 23 real estate offices in the neighborhood.

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y day, East Liberty resident Lynette Drawn- At the project’s nadir in 1996, the theater’s padlocked Williamson sees the dark side of childhood as doors reinforced a perception of East Liberty as a community deputy director of Shuman Juvenile Detention with a broken heart. Too many civic projects had failed to Center. But on many weeknights, she celebrates deliver. Too many of its youngsters had fallen, victims of gang the best parts of it, playfully mimicking her son violence — one in a drive-by shooting steps away from the and daughter in a family acting class at the Kelly- theater. The neighborhood’s 30-year spiral of decline seemed BStrayhorn Community Performing Arts Center. irreversible. Being onstage, she says, “makes you understand the bigger But on the evening of its rededication this spring, the picture. We want our kids to be comfortable in any environ- theater’s neon marquee glowed with excitement. The patrons ment they’re in. The more comfortable we are, the more we who streamed into a bright, refurbished Kelly-Strayhorn were break down barriers and help resolve conflicts.” At the Kelly- celebrating a resurrection. Strayhorn, she’s found a generous spirit. “There are lots of life and death metaphors here, and, con- The theater’s name conjures the neighborhood’s gifts to the sidering that, it’s pretty amazing that the funders came back,” arts: dancer Gene Kelly and composer Billy Strayhorn. The says Stephanie Flom, a local resident who has worked on the 14-year struggle to revive it reflects the belief that the arts can theater’s redevelopment since the late 1980s. return the neighborhood’s gifts — that the difficult rebirth of “It was a really difficult decision, because we knew that the an old silent movie house can be a catalyst in a neighborhood project was not just about a theater,” says Mary Navarro, Arts stigmatized by violence, poverty and failed renewal schemes. & Culture Program officer for the Endowments, which has There were very few national models for the theater’s mis- helped lead the theater past its near-death experiences. “It was sion. Nor was there always local consensus on its role. What about community revitalization, it was about safety, it was did exist was determination: to confront disparate viewpoints about race, it was about deteriorating neighborhoods. We felt on community development and cultural expression, and to it was important to go forward. The positives are the amount sustain a theater that synthesized them. of community support — and the size of the theater is perfect.” “The Kelly-Strayhorn [formerly the Regent] symbolized The debut of the 350-seat theater showcased a renovation why I was doing work in that area,” says community activist that included professional light and sound equipment and a Karen LaFrance, the former executive director of East Liberty revamped, dance-friendly stage. Those improvements make Development, Inc., who enlisted the support of The Heinz the Kelly-Strayhorn a dream venue for the city’s smaller arts Endowments for initial funding in the early 1990s. “Where groups, which were early allies of the community activists who the races came together were shopping districts and the arts, sought to reopen the theater. and we had both: a multiracial, multicultural place.” “A building does capture people’s imaginations,” Flom says. The community development corporation’s vision for the There was always strong local interest in seeing the old movie former silent movie house took years to achieve. Dark since theater come back to life, she notes. “That’s what happens to the mid-1970s, the Regent had opened briefly as a live venue people when they experience art — in this case, a movie. Art in 1995. But financial and management problems, coinciding becomes part of community memories. Everyone can tell you with community violence, beset the theater almost immediately. what movies they saw there.”

Chris O’Toole is a freelance writer based in Mt. Lebanon who has written for regional magazines and national newspapers. This is her first story for h. 1930s

Playing at the Regent on May 17, 1935: Rumba, featuring Carole Lombard and George Raft, along with Case of the Curious Bride.

May 12, 1935 — New East Liberty Presbyterian Church dedicated on the South Highland Avenue site of 1819 church destroyed by fire.

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“Theaters are difficult, because they cost a lot of money designed to lure 1960s suburbanites back to shop in the and they don’t make any money,” says Navarro. “We had district, acted as a slow poison. By replacing a bustling, walker- looked at enough models in other cities to understand why friendly street grid with multilane ring roads and pedestrian this was different. The only real analogy is Pittsburgh’s Cultural malls, this well-meaning urban renewal erected a barrier District,” a two-decade effort supported by the Endowments between East Liberty and the rest of the city, discouraging to develop a downtown neighborhood for professional arts commercial growth. New public housing high-rises looming programming. “To use the arts as one mechanism for commu- over the mall supplanted neighborhood home ownership. nity revitalization is something we learned in the Cultural Even street names disappeared. It was as if a concrete moat District. The other thing we learned is that you need to stick had been dug to keep the riffraff away from the manicured with these things over a long period of time.” manor homes in the nearby upscale neighborhoods of Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. Development and Redevelopment By the late 1970s, streets were deserted; shops were shut- In the 1950s, East Liberty was the third-largest business tered. It was clear that the redevelopment had been a disaster. district in Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh’s prosperous second down- “The Penn-Highland building was our ‘Main and Main’ town, with jewelers, clothiers and seven thriving theaters corner, in real estate terms,” Flom recalls. “And when they surrounding the Gothic spires of East Liberty Presbyterian put cinder block over the windows, when it was leased to Church. Now both poorer and older than surrounding city the welfare agency, it looked like an armed fortress. It said, enclaves, the neighborhood has been the focus of ambitious ‘We don’t care about the community. It can look like a slum.’” development plans. “We knew, before the concrete on some of those projects A massive concrete-and-parking-lot redevelopment effort, was dry, that there was a negative image,” recalls Karen 1950s

1955 Regent Theatre closes — reopens in 1959 under the banner of Associated Theaters.

East Liberty becomes the state’s third- largest business district —after the down- towns of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — with seven theaters, a roller-skating arena and a shopping district that includes boutiques and a department store.

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Scenes from a theater’s grand re-opening, from left: the results of a buy-a-brick campaign, grass-roots fundraising key to foundation support; East Liberty resident Vanessa Minecone models a balloon sculpture; the venerable East Liberty Presbyterian Church, crucial to the Kelly-Strayhorn’s long-term success, rises protectively across the street from the theater entryway. Says one neighborhood resident of now-retired Pastor Bob Chestnut: “He helped us see the changing community around us not as a detriment, but as an opportunity.”

LaFrance, who worked at East Liberty Development from End,” recalls Bill Joyce, who headed police narcotics investiga- 1987 to 1995. In 1987, its subsidiary bought the city block sur- tions at that time. “There were 83 homicides in 1993, and rounding the theater and set about undoing the redevelopment. probably half were attributed to gang activity.” (It was a high- The organization’s revitalization strategy was built on an water mark for city violence; the city’s annual rate is closer to image survey conducted in 1984, which identified crime, lack 38, much lower than cities of comparable size.) “They were of access to the business district and safety fears as key problem basically turf battles, with kids in their early teens to early issues. But the survey also found that the positive historical twenties. There were neighbors, or cousins, who were members image of East Liberty as an entertainment center persisted — of different gangs. It tore families apart.” and gave community organizers hope for the resurrection of While citywide numbers show that gang violence took the theater. more of a toll elsewhere, increased drug dealing and other With a 1989 fundraiser called “The Regent Returns,” local crimes in East Liberty’s business district reinforced the public performers launched a campaign to raise funds for a theater sense of the neighborhood as a danger zone. Crime reports on in serious disrepair. A grass-roots “Buy a Brick” effort netted the evening news — many broadcast from the nearby police an astonishing $100,000 in individual contributions over the Investigations Unit with the close, “reporting live from East next few years. Liberty”—didn’t help. But as the fundraising effort continued, the community’s Despite its travails, the neighborhood continued to respond attention was diverted by a surge in gang activity, semiauto- to the fundraiser. matic weapons and drug dealing on its streets that crested in “These little envelopes just kept coming back,” says Flom. the early nineties. “They ranged from $2.50 offered by a student who sent a “In 1993–94, most of the city’s shootings were in the East refund from some coupon, to a donation sent in by a 1960s 1970s Regent Theater reopens in 1965 after a three- month shutdown for renovations. This was the first major rehabilitation project in East Liberty’s redevelopment program. In Harm’s Oct. 31, 1979 — Regent Theater closes Way was the first feature at the new Regent, after struggling for more than a decade starring Kirk Douglas and John Wayne. with diminishing profits.

East Liberty becomes the victim of federal Pittsburgh Police reports describe gangs of urban renewal with the construction of teenagers who have been mugging patrons 1,400 public housing units. The project in local theaters, including the Regent. includes a massive high-rise apartment In another police report, city police close tower straddling the eastern gateway to down the Regent after groups they described the neighborhood. as “wolf pack gangs” begin fighting in the theater.

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gentleman in his nineties who remembered his days at Peabody for itself. When the theater’s then– executive director approached High,” Flom remembers. “We went back to the funders and Flom in 1996, the conversation was blunt. “The start-up showed them a list of hundreds of people who’d sent money.” money is all gone,” the director told her. “I think I may have This time, previously deferred grants to complete the to lay myself off.” Regent renovations finally went through. But following The theater’s poor performance and the departure of the expensive repairs, first-year bookings in 1995 were sporadic. executive director led to a crisis of faith among community “We started hearing rumors that people called to use the supporters. “The seminal question of how to do community theater and were turned down,” recalls Flom. The neighbor- revitalization,” says Karen LaFrance, “is belief. The belief has to hood’s take on the Regent was that it was indeed a beautiful exist both within the community and outside the community.” stage, but not for regular folk who wanted to see East Liberty But by 1996, the theater had few believers. productions or even an occasional movie. Increasingly, says Flom, the theater was viewed as a playground for interlopers Starting Again from wealthier sections of the city. “When it closed, I got the keys,” recalls Maelene Meyers, Some activists, alienated from the theater programming who joined East Liberty Development as director that July. and the community development corporation’s agenda, began “I remember sitting there, trying to figure it out. What do we to campaign for changes. LaFrance resigned as director of do next? The only thing I could do was go back to the funders East Liberty Development, and Regent board members began and say, ‘Okay, guys. What are we going to do? It’s an asset. arguing among themselves over how to chart the theater’s We have $1 million invested.’” future. But by early 1996, the turf battling was moot. The The Endowments and other funders, McCune, Richard dismal financial records showed that the Regent couldn’t fend King Mellon, Pittsburgh and Hillman Foundations chief 1980s

Community activists take on the Regent as a neighborhood revitalization project. East Liberty Development, Inc. eventually buys the Regent (1987) in an attempt to keep it alive and stem business district erosion.

Pittsburgh City Council holds hearings in 1986 on the continued deterioration of East Liberty’s Penn Center Mall. The ses- sions are packed with business owners and residents angered over the economic disas- ter resulting from 1960s and 1970s rede- velopment schemes that cut off traffic and pedestrian flow into the district. 

East Liberty neighborhoods are learn- ing to share the Kelly-Strayhorn stage with outside touring groups and a church music program that pay the bills. From left, the Sounds of Heritage gospel choir performs at the theater’s opening night celebration; dancer Kristi Ward of the Rising Sphinx Artistic Collective makes the most of her group’s time in the limelight; and Kelly-Strayhorn Board Member Greg Mims tries to coax a group of students into an impromptu performance while leading a tour on the opening week- end’s community day.

among them, helped retire debts from cost overruns on the appreciative church member. With a massive endowment and theater renovations. Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood a growing congregation, the church has run effective social Development, also funded in part by the Endowments, agreed service and outreach programs for decades. Its Hope Academy to sponsor an expert, third-party analysis of the theater’s situation. of Music and the Arts, an outgrowth of an ambitious music The 1998 report by SR Associates recommended improve- ministry, provides low- or no-cost tutoring and performance ments to increase the theater’s appeal to arts renters: reducing opportunities for 100 children in music and dance. seating, improving the stage floor, and adding dressing rooms “Lots of people were interested and could use it two weeks and first-class technical equipment. It also reprised a dilemma a year. But the foundations were looking for [a regular user]. faced by community theaters nationwide. While many smaller That’s how our idea of the academy as the anchor tenant groups were eager to rent the venue occasionally, no one entity originated,” says church music director Richard Szeremany. could guarantee enough usage to pay the bills. The theater Because the program uses the building mainly on weekdays, needed an anchor tenant with strong community ties. Through the arrangement left prime weekend evenings free for a heavenly bit of coincidence, that perfect tenant faced the other renters. theater across Penn Avenue. When the consultant’s report identified the Academy as the During the 1990s, East Liberty Presbyterian Church most suitable anchor tenant, the church’s bona fides with East had begun to embody more than the neighborhood’s most Liberty Development and the community recommended it as magnificent structure. Under the charismatic leadership of its a worthy partner. The agreement provided a small but critical pastor, Bob Chestnut, it also brought needed activism and base for the theater’s fiscal health and neighborhood profile. ecumenism. “He helped us see the changing community Funding of $1.3 million, led by the Endowments, allowed around us not as a detriment, but as an opportunity,” said one theater improvements to proceed in 2000. 1990s

Despite renovation grants from funders, the Regent is imperiled for lack of an anchor tenant. East Liberty Presbyterian Church comes to the rescue.

East Liberty becomes the staging area for gang-related violence. By 1993, most of the city’s shootings are in the area. In the late 1990s, public housing high-rises come down and mixed-income town house communities spring up. Construction crews begin dismantling the “Concrete Moat,” the business district’s one-way traffic circle. 

While East Liberty residents have reconnected with their neighborhood theater, the outside world is recon- necting with the community. Struggling for years, East Liberty now has been tagged as one of the hot development areas of the city. Two heavyweight retailers, Home Depot and Whole Foods, have placed their stores there and managers remark about the community’s enthusiasm. That’s also true for performances at the Kelly- Strayhorn. From left, student Wesley Gadsen performs a piano solo for a supportive audience; Soulful Spirits works up the crowd; and storyteller Leonora Kivuva, a local favorite, captures the imaginations of adults and children.

“By this second round, we had learned some things,” says we have a performance, we expect 50 people—and 150 the Endowments’ Navarro. Negotiations overseen by the fund- people attend.” The schedule acknowledges community ers spelled out the contractual responsibilities of the theater ownership but it also shrewdly makes room for professional board and anchor tenant, and established the ratio of rentals productions. by arts and community groups. Those engraved donor paving Drawn-Williamson, the Shuman Detention Center official, bricks — a dramatic symbol of the theater’s solid community was among the vanguard of East Liberty residents who had support from the first fundraising effort —were finally laid on their faith renewed in the theater and were cheering perform- the front walk. The Kelly and Strayhorn families enthusiasti- ers from the front rows. Her belief in the power of art to cally endorsed the renaming of the theater for the two artists, change lives deepened, she said, when she got her chance to and the local Chamber of Commerce mounted a lobby “Wall perform in the Academy’s family acting class. As a result of her of Fame” to honor a century of East Liberty–connected artists experience with the arts program, she has asked Academy and celebrities. teachers to offer summer courses in African drumming, story- The theater’s baptism as the Kelly-Strayhorn came in April telling and dance to her charges at the county detention center. 2002 as the curtain was raised on an ambitious but carefully “Families come in different forms. Any positive role model in planned season. Groups ranging from Dance Alloy to Shona a child’s life can do something for them,” she says. Sharif African Dance and Drum Ensemble to the Bach Choir Audiences entering the theater are finding a more welcom- had booked the theater every weekend through mid-July, ing neighborhood, as well. and bookings through the end of the year are strong. Hope By the late 1990s, East Liberty Development had achieved Academy performances lure families to applaud young hard-fought gains toward its goals. Separated from the com- performers. Says co-director Linda Addlesburger, “Every time munity theater board, it refocused its priorities on housing By 2000 2002 East Liberty Presbyterian Church sup- porters and East Liberty activists band together to raise $1.3 million to cover renovations and start-up costs for the Marquee lights go on for the opening Regent. Contributors include foundations, celebration of the Kelly-Strayhorn the city, corporations and individuals. Community Performing Arts Center.

East Liberty becomes a hotbed of arts- Private developers begin construction of a related growth through the development high-end grocery and prepared foods store. of an arts district on Penn Avenue that Also, two historic office buildings are saved includes subsidized loft housing for artists, from demolition and undergo renovation. art galleries, dance studios and a glass center. In February, The Home Depot opens on the site of the long-abandoned Sears store, a coup for the neighborhood. 

and commercial development. Bustling two-way traffic and The board’s focus is now to boost use and attendance. on-street parking are now replacing the pedestrian moat; “We’re doing a good job of controlling costs,” says board chair public housing high-rises have been replaced with several Fritz Okie, a retired banker, “but the building itself is an blocks of attractive new town houses. Local gang leaders have uncertainty. We’ll need about $80,000 in basic repairs and been prosecuted, and an assurance of safety has returned to services in the next couple years,” out of a current operating the neighborhood. budget of just under $200,000. Meanwhile, East Liberty has been tagged as one of the hot When lights flood the stage and the applause begins, says development areas of the city. Two major new retailers, The Navarro, the Kelly-Strayhorn dream inspires its audience. Home Depot and Whole Foods, have been lured to within “It really does become a centerpiece of the community — several blocks of the theater. A commercial bakery, employing a place where people can be a part of something happening hundreds, has been saved and expanded. An artists’ cooperative, that’s larger than their own circle of family and friends, a place a dance troupe and a cooperative glass studio are renovating to go and feel safe and see a relaxing, beautiful performance. vacant industrial buildings. We need a lot more of those kinds of nights.” h But the challenge of making the Kelly-Strayhorn as self- sustaining as possible remains. The expectations of its current board are tempered by rough experience. The young theater must grow into a new role as a cultural anchor of the commu- nity. Part of the solution for accomplishing that, says Navarro, TIMELINE PHOTO CREDITS Pages 4 and 7: Greetings from Pittsburgh by Ralph Ashworth (taken 1915), Vestal Press, may be to find more balance between neighborhood uses and 2000; page 8: courtesy of East Liberty Presbyterian Church, The Cathedral of Hope; page 10: Cinema Photo/Corbis; page 9: Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh; professional productions, which generate income and audiences. page 11: Pittsburgh Then and Now by Arthur G. Smith; pages 12 and 13: Joshua Franzos The Green Standard Once one of the country’s most polluted cities, Pittsburgh is emerging as an environmental jewel where green building principles put people and smart design in the same quarters. ong before some of the most famous architects in the world rolled up their sleeves to create models in the design competition for Pittsburgh’s new David L. Lawrence Convention Center, there was a roomful of Pittsburghers with a weighty task. The members of the project’s design commission, all citizen-volunteers, had to fill in some Lof the blanks around the immense project to make sure the architects and engineers sculpted their submissions along the character lines of the city. There were the expected requirements such as components for parking and a new hotel. But high up on the Make-Sure-to-Include List was a precept of design and construction that caused many of the architects in cosmopolitan centers like Miami and Manhattan to drop their drawing pencils and recheck their maps. Pittsburgh, that Mid-Atlantic medium-opolis forged from industrial fire and brimstone, the place with a sooty history around belching smokestacks, rivers of belly-up fish and coal dust–covered homes, was insisting on building “green.” One of the largest public projects ever undertaken in the city, and, at $252 million, a construction effort bound to get national attention, would have to meet high quality-of- life standards for both people and the natural environment.

By several accounts, some barely suppressed giggling erupted among some of these architects’ staffs, whose images of Pittsburgh were more than a half a century behind the curve. The architect who eventually won the convention cen- of Teresa Heinz, who created the Environment Program at ter contract, New Yorker Rafael Viñoly, went to considerable The Heinz Endowments. effort to research the reasons behind the city’s effort. Public officials on the order of Mayor Tom Murphy and Beginning in the late 1940s, a series of development renais- then–Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge summoned the political sances had allowed Pittsburgh to clean up the worst of its will to tie green policy to the list of requirements for public pollution. During the past decade, Viñoly noted to his staff, funding on projects like the convention center. So, too, in Pittsburgh had made a determined effort to set a national more private efforts like the construction of PNC Financial standard for urban environmentalism. Local green building Services’ Firstside Center, a national model lauded by the U.S. advocates are determined to put sustainable development at Green Building Council, business leaders like then–Chairman the center of that commitment. Tom O’Brien and CEO Jim Rohr embraced the concept. But A decade ago, the pioneers of the national green building the shapers and implementers of these policies —those who and green living movement were small in number but large build the standards into formal Request For Proposals and in spirit and influence. Their ranks included only a handful hound the chosen team to make sure they are followed — of forward-thinking architects, developers and clients. But the are the unsung heroes. They include the 15 members of the foundation community did the early championing, much of convention center’s design commission, people who run that beginning in Pittsburgh with the activist philanthropy restaurants, hotels and convention center operations mixed in with people from architectural firms, environmental groups

Doug Root is a member of the h editorial team. Michele Fetting is a Pittsburgh-based writer who specializes in environmental issues. By Douglas Root with reporting from Michele Fetting Photography by David DeNoma

Left: At PNC Financial Services’ Firstside Center, an L-shaped corridor begins at the stair tower and links the northwest and southwest wings. The corridor is brightened by a series of skylights, which also serve to spotlight a suspended aluminum sculpture titled “Two Rivers and Turbulence,” by Seattle artist–engineer Koryn Rolstad. The idea for the piece, which takes its cue from the Monongahela River and the other water themes integrated into the building, was the winner in a national competition.  and public relations firms who slaved over the details and have and has coordinated Pittsburgh’s green growth in key quality- stood behind them throughout the construction process. of-life areas. They also include leaders of public authorities and agencies, The Alliance is one of several shining success stories com- like real estate executive Tom McCargo, former chairman ing out of a decade-long green building education effort led of the Sports and Exhibition Authority Board, who opened by The Heinz Endowments in partnership with other regional the door to greening the convention center, and Stephen foundations. When Pennsylvania Sen. John Heinz’s death in Leeper, the Authority’s executive director, who has managed 1991 left his widow, Teresa, in charge of the family’s philan- to do justice to sustainable development principles despite thropies, she set a course to prove that green building and political and budget obstacles. smart design could become the rule rather than the exception. The unified front from all these disparate officials was The Endowments was the sole supporter of the Alliance for so strong, in fact, that most architects vying for the center’s several years. With expertise and a long-term funding base, the contract made green building central to their proposals. group was able to transform itself from a lackluster nonprofit Viñoly personally reviewed the list of requirements for energy with little clout into a powerful advocate for change. Heinz efficiency and design elements that would bring people closer herself has practiced what she preaches by turning her per- to the natural environment. On his first visit ever to Pittsburgh sonal and philanthropic offices in Pittsburgh into national in preparation for the competition, he had been so astounded showcases of great design and good environmental steward- by the city’s sparkling environment that he hired a helicopter ship. Like the signature projects that have followed, these to take pictures so he could study the way bridges, land and offices shatter the myths that building green means building rivers interacted with the convention center site. He would weird — with straw poking later wow the judges by morphing his convention center out of walls or compost “A community that still has model into the aerial photograph. Some of the ways in which piles in the basement — or fresh memories of what it’s the architect’s design meshed with green building goals were that building green means like to live in a polluted envi- lucky happenstance, as in the gleaming stainless steel roof that building expensive. The ronment often becomes the rolls downward and seems to spill into the Allegheny River. ranks of true believers — most committed believer in But the roof also is a key component of the building’s ventila- from CEOs to private protecting the environment — tion system. Other elements have been tweaked and shaped to homeowners — increase meet the demanding requirements. with every new project and that includes the built With construction nearly complete, the new convention that catches the eye and environment.” center will be an internationally celebrated standout in a series minds the budget. Rebecca Flora of buildings that have helped garner Pittsburgh top-tier status On the following pages, Green Building Alliance from the U.S. Green Building Council for an impressive list of Pittsburgh photographer green-certified additions to its urban landscape. Dave DeNoma has captured the design magnificence of some “A community that still has fresh memories of what it’s like of the city’s green-certified buildings along with the range of to live in a polluted environment often becomes the most quality-of-life improvements that can settle in on a city will- committed believer in protecting the environment — and that ing to respect its environmental surroundings. Accompanying includes the built environment,” says Rebecca Flora, executive the photographs are short story pieces and captions that director of the Green Building Alliance, which set the environ- describe how, as Winston Churchill wrote, “we shape our mental design standards for the convention center competition dwellings, and afterward, our dwellings shape our lives.” FIRSTSIDE CENTER: As director of corporate real estate for PNC Financial building on choice riverfront land. The project has gained international Services, which among its companies is one of the largest banking systems renown for weaving green into a design that’s high-tech sizzle. in Pennsylvania, Gary Saulson was the executive charged with the high- “When I was first approached about the idea of green building, I pressure assignment of putting together the deal and the details for a new thought it meant dirt floors and straw walls,” says Saulson. “What we’ve office building. What would be created had to be functional but it also found in the nearly two years that the center’s been open is that people needed to stand out from the crowd of downtown Pittsburgh office towers. want to work here, even to the point of seeking certain jobs just to be Saulson became committed to green building as a way to accomplish that able to be in the building.” when he saw how it would enhance design, and benefit both employees No wonder. Firstside has wowed architectural and environmental and the company. He developed a $120 million budget incorporating green experts and captured the imagination of work-a-day Pittsburghers. elements and sold it to PNC President Jim Rohr and Chairman Tom The soft pastel of Minnesota limestone colors the outside walls. There are O’Brien, who became big supporters of the brick and aluminum to set some dramatic texture, and there is so much concept. The architects from L.D. Astorino glass that 95 percent of the building offers exterior views. And & Associates were enthusiastic, setting to many fortunate employees have offices fronting the work on designing a 650,000-square-foot Monongahela River.

Firstside’s round-the-clock open U.S. Green cafeteria includes bacteria-resist- Building Council ant stainless steel cabinets and inspectors deter- food preparation counters. The mined that Firstside has Denny Earhart, PNC operations colorful Marmoleum flooring the largest amount of recycled manager, loves his window-cen- supplied by a Swiss company, carpet in the world. The colorful tered office with spectacular river Forbo, is made from renewable, material from the (no kidding) views and a daylight connection unprocessed ingredients such “Déjà vu” line from Interface to the outside. If the sun gets as sawdust and linseed oil, Carpets is 100 percent recyclable to be too much, though, Denny which have little negative envi- and made of 72 percent recycled doesn’t lift a finger. Solar-sensi- ronmental impact. The same materials. It’s great for mainte- tive shades roll down at the first flooring is used in the bath- nance, too, as it’s laid out in sign of glare. rooms. Practicality meets aes- random patterns of replaceable thetics on the outdoor terrace squares. where diners can sit on alu- minum bench sculptures wildly colored by Phoenix artist Pam Castano. “It didn’t have to be this way,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Architecture Critic Pat Lowry wrote in September 2000, a month before the building opened for business. “To shelter back-of-the-house operations the public never sees, PNC could have warehoused its equipment and employees in a bland, ribbon-window box in the ’burbs.”

The Astorino architects, who have been commissioned to work on the restoration project around Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, give a nod to the master architect at Firstside by letting a one-story waterfall cas- cade to ground level along the Firstside’s location along First First Avenue side. The tempera- Avenue, from Grant Street to the ture-sensitive fountain shuts Light Rail Transport Bridge, down at the freezing mark and allows employees to get to and drains its water into a holding from work with fewer commuter tank, where it is electrostatically headaches. There is a city-owned charged and then re-employed parking garage with easy access when temperatures rise. for the center’s workers and an LRT public transit stop at the building. Employees also can make use of the Eliza Furnace Trail for commuting or exercising. Restrooms are equipped with showers and changing areas. REDESIGNED DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER: From the dramatic The safe course would be to let some other city be the green building roll of its gleaming stainless steel roof, cantilevered out over a busy city pioneer for such a large-scale project. boulevard, to the river that inspires its design, the new David L. Lawrence But state, county and city leaders, environmental activists and the Convention Center already has been judged a world-class model for merg- foundation community decided years earlier that Pittsburgh would shake ing superior architecture with good environmental stewardship. Given the off its once-toxic environmental reputation. They embraced the convention size of the building — more than one million square feet with a length that center greening as a way to step out ahead of other cities and make extends more than three football fields, the project makes a powerful Pittsburgh a quality-of-life showcase for both people and the natural statement about the ability of communities to implement green building environment. principles without breaking budgets or sacrificing aesthetics. So key stakeholders in the project agreed to put green building and At more than $252 million, the center’s cost puts it in the league of green engineering requirements at the heart of the design selection the world’s most ambitious building projects. At that scale, with so many process. Before budgets had even been outlined, a juried design competi- risk factors — political capital, public money, professional reputations and tion funded in part by The Heinz Endowments ensured that environmental the future of a regional economy among them — the temptation might standards would be integral to the project and not merely add-ons. The be to build a convention center…well, in the conventional manner. result, shown in the eye-catching architecture of New York’s Rafael Viñoly  and in the creative engineering of Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, Food catering and office products will be made from environmentally is a first-of-its-kind public center meeting exacting sustainable development responsible materials, and recycling will be employed throughout the center. standards. Rebecca Flora, executive director of the Green Building Alliance, the The administration of then–Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge added a community conscience for environmentally sound design in southwestern powerful incentive: $150 million in state funds for the project were tied to Pennsylvania, says that while achieving “certified” status from the U.S. ensuring that the center was a high-performing green building. “It illustrates Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design how well the public’s long-term interest is served by including environmen- (LEED) rating system would be precedent-setting for a structure the size of tal performance alongside functional and economic performance as goals a convention center, advocates are hoping for a gold ranking, which is of public projects,” then–state Department of Environmental Protection three notches up in degree of difficulty. Sec. James Seif said at the press conference announcing the funding. “If Pittsburgh can set a high green standard for a convention center,” The center’s key green features range from smarter treatment of heat, says Flora, “there’s no reason why other cities can’t meet green water and light sources into the building to the use of construction materials certification in smaller building projects.” friendly to people and the environment. The building is shaped to capture the natural air flow off the river and integrate it into ventilation and cooling. 

Chuck Fabric-covered tubes known Pitchford, as DuctSox, made of the same director of material in boat sails, arc system commissions for across one of the cavernous Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann meeting rooms of the new Associates, the engineering convention center. The tubes and design firm partnering provide a striking design ele- with Viñoly on the convention ment, inflating and deflating Against a shimmering bridge center project, checks a tem- like an art sculpture installa- backdrop, a worker helps perature gauge in the build- tion. They also mimic cables with glass installation at the ing’s Dolphin Hydronic Series. of bridges that dominate the north bow of the Convention The treatment system zaps air water views from the center. Center. Aesthetics and envi- conditioning system water with But they’re also practical, ronmental science merge with an electrostatic charge, killing acting as energy-efficient every window in the building. bacteria and eliminating the conduits for heated and Strategic placement of glass need for chemicals. cooled air when natural helps meet a key green ventilation isn’t feasible. certification requirement that calls for a minimum daylight standard in the spaces where critical visual tasks are taking place.

Construction continues on one of the building’s primary green features — a giant sky- light built into the stainless steel roof. The extra lighting effort shows how green build- ing principles can actually encourage dramatic design Excavation begins for a Workers cover the building’s elements. The reflective roof- building that will house the crescent-shaped clerestory ing materials help reduce convention center’s own with a white Teflon fabric that temperature differences water reclamation system. allows conventioneer-friendly between the building and Equipment made by the natural daylight to pass the surrounding natural Zenon Co. filters waste through while blocking dis- environment. water to make it suitable for ruptive glare. The material, flushing toilets, and watering which also covers London’s indoor plants and outdoor Millennium Dome, doesn’t landscaping. The deteriorate, needs no cleaning reclamation process and helps lower energy costs. pays for itself by It’s also a hit aesthetically: slashing potable suspended from the metal water consumption roof indoors, the panels look by 80 percent. like soft, translucent muslin and provide warmer cover for cavernous meeting rooms. PRIVATE HOME, FAMILY OFFICE: When John and Jana Martino decided to Building green wouldn’t mean having to skimp on quality. build a new home on a remote hilltop with a commanding view of several It took some convincing, but John Martino, who as a utility site Beaver Valley communities, they wanted only top quality for the 2,900- developer is experienced with construction, agreed to give it a try. The square-foot dream dwelling whose various amenities had been meticulously Martinos were able to employ some significant green features and still get planned for years. their expansive windows with Craftsman-style casings, cathedral ceilings, But when their designer–builder, Chris Leininger, recommended walls and even a 20-foot sandstone fireplace that rules over the great room. made from bales of hay, the Martinos blanched. All the walls? They were The notion that building elements responsive to people and the natural going to spend $365,000 for a house built of straw? At the core, yes. But environment can enhance quality also extends to the workplace. On the except for one 4-by-5-foot glass section, the “truth window” for the house, top floor of one of downtown Pittsburgh’s premier office towers, the Heinz the straw wouldn’t be visible. Leininger, who teaches about sustainable family offices are ornamented with Arts and Crafts furniture and American development systems at Slippery Rock University, wanted to make the antiques. The high-style decorating dovetails with Teresa Heinz’s mission Martino home a green project without sacrificing style. The dwelling to foster respect in the workplace for people and the environment. By would show that energy-efficient elements and recyclable materials embracing sustainable development principles, offices can become could be meshed with conventional, high-end building materials. healthier, more inviting places to work. 

Heinz Family Foundation Offices: Open spaces off of individual offices are situated around large windows that make maximum use of natu- ral light. Each office has its own sensor to shut off lights when unoccupied. Ventilation systems include fresh air intake controls.

Sustainable woods, like vitex from New Guinea for the flooring, and mersawa and rosewood for desks and bookshelves, are used throughout the offices.

The heating and cooling sys- Martino House: Packed into tem in the house uses ceiling the Martino home’s 18-inch- fans in combination with air thick walls are 1,000 bales of conditioning to circulate fresh hay purchased from, no kid- outside air. In cold weather ding, Grandma Harley’s Farm months, the fans circulate a few miles up the road. Not heat produced by radiant only is the material an excel- elements built in under the lent insulator, it also works as flooring. a fire retardant because of its density. Aside from the straw, other locally produced and minimally processed materials include the timber framing, harvested by an Amish com- munity nearby. Chamfered posts and beams are locked together with wooden dowels instead of nails. RESEARCH CENTER, PROFESSIONAL WORK SPACE, COMMUNITY BUILDING: the site of the former J&L Steel Corp. plant. The team, led by IKM Architects In August 1998, KSBA Architects took over a 19th-century undertaker’s and environmental-sustainable development experts from the University of stable in the working-class Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh has developed a significant enough list of green features that historic, 100-year-old structure was in tough shape: its most recent itera- it expects the facility to earn a high rating from the U.S. Green Building tion had been as an auto repair garage. Council’s LEED system when the project is completed this fall. Still, KSBA was excited about the building’s potential as a model of Preceding the McGowan Institute as a model of what can be achieved designing for adaptive reuse in an urban setting. Public support on the on a former brownfield site is the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food project required some basic green components, but KSBA officials decided Bank, a 95,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center built in to go much further and, says Gary Moshier, a KSBA associate and senior 1999. The building is the centerpiece project in the redevelopment of a project manager, were able to do all the work themselves. former steel mill in Duquesne, just a few miles from Pittsburgh’s city line. Sustainable development also was prominent on the design and construc- The steel, brick and glass structure, laid out in sharp lines by Gardner + tion team supervising the building of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Pope Architects, makes a dramatic statement about how some of the Medicine, a University of Pittsburgh–connected tissue engineering research steel era’s worst environmental damage can be reversed. The building center at South Side Works, a new residential–retail–office development on has earned a silver rating from the Green Building Council. h 

A reflective roof coating reduces cooling costs. KSBA Architects Building: It’s part of an efficient At just 9,200 square feet, energy system that recovers the building is the smallest leftover heat from air as it in the country to earn U.S. leaves the building’s ventila- Green Building Council tion system and channels it certification. Part of the back into fresh air coming Lawrenceville Neighborhood into the building. Development Corp. revitaliza- tion initiative, the building saves energy by making the most of natural light. McGowan Institute: One of Also included in the project the Institute’s green high- is landscaping that makes The use of local and lights is a 5,000-gallon rain- substantial use of indigenous recyclable materials in water storage tank under plants. construction, an energy- the building. The system will efficient heating–cooling recover water collected on system and an integrated the center’s roof and pipe access raised floor for it directly to bathrooms for modular cable and other toilet use. It also dramatically wiring fit in well with reduces water runoff. KSBA’s historic building renovation project. These innovations also earned it green certification.

valuable scrap, helps save the food bank as much as

$40,000 annually in garbage Robert Casey & Associates, Ltd. Food Bank: Nearly 70 tipping fees. Crews were percent of the building’s steel hired to recreate an ecosys- structure was salvaged from tem around the site that had other buildings. The ware- long since been destroyed house’s function as a food by pollution from the mill. storage center called for the Landscapers created five bio- design of a more efficient retention areas by applying refrigeration system. That, new topsoil and replanting in addition to a can-recycling native vegetation, including machine that discards out- wildflowers, trees and shrubs. dated foods but preserves the metal containers for Taking the National LEED

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When the dozens of disparate stakeholder groups involved in the creation When Paul Von Paumgartter began his work as a co-chair of the of a new convention center for Pittsburgh began considering the possibility Council's LEED Standards Commission, he was leery of a ranking system of taking the project green, there were probably as many interpretations of where building owners compete for gold, silver or bronze status. “Frankly, what that meant as there were people involved in the discussion. Fortunately, I argued against it,” says the director of energy and environmental affairs the group didn’t have to invent its own definition of what it means for a for Johnson Controls in Milwaukee. “But what I’ve seen from the results building to be environmentally friendly. of this built-in competition is tremendous. This has been so successful that Thanks to the U.S. Green Building Council, a national nonprofit made up of we're overwhelmed with requests for certification.” some 1,400 leading international organizations, a relatively simple and consis- From Fortune 500 CEOs to nonprofit executive directors, the trend is tent formula has been developed for assessing life-cycle sustainability in exist- to be able to point to a workplace that is cutting edge — high-tech, but ing or proposed buildings. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental also hospitable and kind to the environment. Even city officials are getting Design) Green Building Rating System identifies specific attributes that build- into the act, says Rebecca Flora, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Green ings must incorporate in order to qualify as a green building. Buildings can Building Alliance. “Increasingly, cities across the country want to be able qualify for anything from basic certification to silver, gold and platinum ratings. to market themselves as green by having a significant number of buildings,

PLATINUM GOLD

1. Donald Bren Hall, 2. Philip Merrill 1. Cambria Office Building 2. Jean Vollum Natural 3. Vancouver Island School of Environmental Environmental Center COMMISSIONED BY: State Capital Center Technology Park Science & Management COMMISSIONED BY: Department of Environmental COMMISSIONED BY: COMMISSIONED BY: COMMISSIONED BY: University Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Protection, Ebensburg, Pa. Ecotrust, Portland, Ore. British Columbia Buildings of California, Santa Barbara Annapolis, Md. ARCHITECT: Kulp Boecker ARCHITECT: Holst Architecture Corporation, Victoria, B.C., ARCHITECT: Zimmer Gunsul ARCHITECT: SmithGroup, Inc. Architects CONTRACTOR: Canada Frasca Partnership CONTRACTOR: CONTRACTOR: Miller Bros. Walsh Construction Co. ARCHITECT: HIGHLIGHTS: This four-story, Clark Construction Group Construction, Inc. HIGHLIGHTS: This 15,000- Idealink Architects, Ltd. 85,000-square-foot building HIGHLIGHTS: What better way HIGHLIGHTS: This 30,244- square-foot building was CONTRACTOR: is a showcase for green to show the power of good square-foot district head- the first historic restoration Campbell Construction design, and with its extensive environmental stewardship, quarters reflects lessons project in the nation to earn HIGHLIGHTS: This 165,000- use of recycled materials especially in the mission learned from the Department the gold LEED rating. The square-foot building is the (100 percent of the construc- to reverse the ecological of Environmental Protection’s Natural Capital Center retains first project in Canada to tion demolition materials damage to the Chesapeake first green building project. character from its original achieve gold certification have been reused) it Bay? This group’s two-story, Highlights include an 1895 brick-and-timber frame, under the U.S. Green Building also serves as a teaching 30,600-square-foot building integrated design process, but at the same time boasts Council's LEED rating system. laboratory for environmental is a showcase of welcoming sustainable site choice and modern innovations such as Originally the Glendale Hospital, program students. design and environmental improved energy efficiency. 98 percent reclaimed and it was built in the late 1960s respect. recycled debris, 32 percent when energy efficiency was water savings, and 30 not a primary design feature. percent energy savings. The buildings now housing the tech park went through an energy audit and achieved a performance rating 31 percent higher than required. 

recreational amenities and government policies that attract desirable busi- category. The maximum possible point count is 69, and the cut-off total for nesses and residents. It’s a rapidly growing movement.” the Council’s highest rating, platinum, is 52 points. The 39-to-51–point Some governments, Seattle, Austin and Portland, Ore., among them, have range qualifies for gold; 33 to 38 points for silver; and 26 to 32 points for gone so far as to merge LEED-based evaluation into the design review and minimum ranking as certified. building permit process. Others, like Arlington, Va., offer density bonuses and The categories range from the complex Energy and Atmosphere tax abatements to development projects that earn high LEED marks. Also section with 17 possible points to Indoor Environmental Quality, 15 points, adopting the system are the National Park Service, the Navy and the Air Force. to an Innovation and Design option, five points, that allows the designers While qualifying a newly constructed building for LEED certification is to devise new strategies not included in the current LEED system. increasingly popular, it does require planning and budget commitments Along with its rating system for commercial and institutional buildings, early in the planning process. the Council is developing a rating system for single-family homes and The LEED system defines six categories in which points are low-rise residential units. h accumulated. They are weighted according to the degree of difficulty, which usually corresponds to the number of requirements within each

SILVER

4. Q Building Lab 5. Department of 1. Brengel Technology Center 2. Nidus Center for 3. Steelcase Wood Furniture COMMISSIONED BY: Pharmacia Environmental Conservation COMMISSIONED BY: Johnson Scientific Enterprise Manufacturing Plant Corporation, Skokie, Ill. Headquarters Building Controls, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis. COMMISSIONED BY: Monsanto COMMISSIONED BY: ARCHITECT: Flad and Associates COMMISSIONED BY: New York ARCHITECT: Johnson Controls Company, Creve Coeur, Mo. Steelcase Inc., Caledonia, CONTRACTOR: Turner State DEC, Albany, N.Y. Architectural Department and Architect: Hellmuth, Obata + Mich. Construction Company ARCHITECT: Woodward, Zimmerman Design Group Kassabaum ARCHITECT: URS Corp. HIGHLIGHTS: Pharmacia Connor, Gillies & Seleman CONTRACTOR: MA Mortenson CONTRACTOR: Paric Corp. CONTRACTOR: recycled 78 percent of the CONTRACTOR: Beltrone Company HIGHLIGHTS: This two-story, Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. total building material when HIGHLIGHTS: This 15-story, HIGHLIGHTS: The $25 million, steel-frame building averages HIGHLIGHTS: The plant, which it removed its old D Building 471,000-square-foot building seven-story building boasts 50 percent total heat waste runs 13.8 acres and employs in Skokie to make way for earned gold status at the an energy-efficient personal- recovery for significant sav- 700, has all the standard its new Q Building Lab. beginning of this summer. ized control system that ings in energy costs. It also Council-recognized environ- It will cost 40 percent less allows building workers to is built next to a carpool mental efficiencies but also annually in energy costs to decide the temperatures in parking center to encourage has moved to make its operate than a similar-sized, their office environment. It’s workers to buddy-up on manufacturing process more non-green building. Among also, conveniently, a system commuting. environmentally friendly: its features: a 35 percent manufactured by the company. nearly all its production reduction in peak electric processes use water-based load and a 640-ton annual finishes. That move has

reduction in CO2 emissions. reduced toxic emissions by 70 percent. An inseparable foursome from Hampton Middle School celebrates coming up with an answer to one of the teacher-assigned Physics Day problems around The Phantom’s Revenge, a roller coaster ride at Kennywood Park outside Pittsburgh.

GIRLS + MATH + Try a quick physics lesson while waiting in the roller coaster line. How about a science quiz before the rock concert? A math tip at the mall? A foundation-led program is using catchy signage as the first step in a regional campaign to pique girls’ interest in math and science. SCIENCE For 15 years, Pittsburgh area junior and senior high school students have converged on a large amusement park to work in teams solving physics problems. The answers are developed in a fun environment that shows students the practical implications. Here are some samples →

By Brian Connelly Photography by Joshua Franzos

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t’s Physics Day for thousands of middle and high school students at Kennywood Park south of Pittsburgh. Across Ithe Monongahela River where the smokestacks of the former U. S. Steel Edgar Thomson works are preserved as a memorial to the region’s industrial past, future engineers and designers of its emerging high-tech economy step off school buses and file through the gates. Physics Day may be one of the few school field trips where an academic exercise is dressed up around a treasure hunt theme and ends in a group picnic. In the midst of it all, students enjoy rides while calculating the number of bolts in the frame of a roller coaster or determining the surface area of all the corn dogs sold in the park. Among the 13-to 17-year-olds traveling in packs, there is a foursome of Hampton Middle School girls looking uncharac- teristically serious as the brightly painted animals on the park’s historic merry-go-round bob to the music. Two girls stretch a tape measure along the radius of the ride from center to edge; two of their friends pace the circumference while letting out a ball of string; two other girls ride the ponies while holding up a scalar plane to help calculate their speed. Their science teacher, Michele Hurst, can’t say what draws the girls to the merry-go-round, where there are few boys. “I just know that, in their problem packets, the girls take more time to explain things, to write out what they have been observ- ing. I think they like the fact that they can work together.” The girls say it’s easy to concentrate on the problems even in a crowd of gabbing teens. “Me, personally, I like to do hard math problems,” says Alison McKelvey, a sixth-grader at Hampton Middle School, explaining why the girls have been at the same ride for two hours. Several of the girls working on problems at the merry-go- round describe science or math as their favorite subjects. Gauging from the sixth-graders’ excitement in tackling math and science problems, it’s a mystery why statistics show that only a few of them will pursue university degrees in

Two high school juniors do some quick calculating, responding to a Physics Day question on Kennywood Park’s carousel: “Count the number Brian Connelly is managing editor of FOCUS, of horses. Count the number of rotations and the distance that the horses Carnegie Mellon University’s faculty and staff newspaper. travel in a set amount of time. Calculate the acceleration of the carousel.” 1 Noah’s Ark 2 Calculate, by any means you can If a spring were stretched from devise, the distance the end of one end of the ark and generated the ark rocks upward above the only a transverse wave that had a horizontal. speed of 3 meters per second, what would be the wavelength of the wave? (velocity = frequency x wavelength)

 3 Flying Carpet 4 Calculate the centripetal force Do the riders at positions produced by the rotating arm on A and D experience the ride the Flying Carpet. differently than the riders at points B and C?

AB C D

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engineering or physics. Within a few years, many studies have In Pittsburgh, the foundation community is moving into found, girls like these become much less likely than boys to be activist mode through an innovative regional campaign to interested in math and science and less likely to perform well encourage girls — and their parents and teachers — to think in those subjects. positively about math and science. Last summer, Kennywood Observing eighth-grade science students in southwestern hosted an initial project by the Girls, Math & Science Partner- Pennsylvania, the Regional Benchmarking Report of the 1999 ship, a working group of educators brought together by staff Third International Math and Science Study identified a “sig- from the Alcoa Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. nificant gender bias” against girls. In earth sciences, chemistry For the project, a group of designers and researchers at and physics, boys had higher scores and described themselves Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University and the as feeling more confident than girls. The report found a less University of Pittsburgh created a series of three large signs to significant gender bias against girls in mathematics. hang along the snaking line for the park’s star roller coaster, This gender bias cycle — girls lose interest, don’t feel “The Phantom’s Revenge.” In the signs, a team of four car- confident and eventually avoid math and science courses — toon characters — two girls and two boys — present parents is worrisome to teachers and employers because it greatly limits and children with a few practical physics lessons about the women’s future choices of professions. Of physicists in the coaster they are waiting to ride. United States, only 12 percent are women. Slightly fewer than The signage project, supported by grants from The Heinz 10 percent of all engineers are women. The numbers are even Endowments and the Alcoa Foundation with cooperation more discouraging — typically below 5 percent — for women from Kennywood’s management, is only a first step, says Marge working in technical specialties, from precision machining to Petruska, director of the Children, Youth & Families Program aerospace and nuclear engineering. at the Endowments. “We wanted to experiment with a differ- While the gender gap in law, business and public service ent approach to social marketing,” she explains. “The signs jobs is closing, it’s still a man’s world in science and math — feature girls as spokespeople for physics, which right there the foundations of the research and technology economy. sends a signal, and they’re a type of stealth education, reaching Who or what is the culprit pushing girls away from math girls, as well as boys and parents, in an unusual place.” and science? It’s a question that high school teachers, univer- Social marketing is a discipline that uses advertising, public sity academics and employers in some of the country’s most relations and other communications techniques to “sell” important industries have been struggling to answer for ideas and changes in behavior. The Girls, Math & Science decades. And there appears to be a group of factors, rather Partnership is working to develop a targeted social marketing

Of physicists in the United States, only 12 percent are women. Slightly fewer than 10 percent

than one significant force. In recent years, foundations have campaign that will sell the region’s girls — and the people who become active partners in the investigation, especially in influence them — on the idea that they can excel at math and funding studies that help researchers understand the scope science and should pursue careers in those fields. of the problem. The Kennywood signs are just one small part of that broader effort. But the project is receiving broad attention as 5 Potato Patch Based on an 11-hour day, estimate how many Potato Patch french fries will be sold today.

it moves into its second summer, including an anticipated significant multi-year grant from the National Science Foundation to expand the program and to produce booklets and videos directed to parents and teachers. “It’s clear we’re on to something here,” says Petruska. Years before foundation-directed programs were in the works, Barbara Lazarus, associate provost for academic affairs at Carnegie Mellon and a leader of the Partnership, had seen hundreds of young women with a passion for math and science forced to travel a tougher road than male students. “I had an experience 10 years ago at an orientation for women starting in the Mellon College of Science. We would meet in little groups to talk. When I asked ‘What interests you in physics?’ a girl answered ‘When I was in high school, you were going to be a girl or a physicist.’” Other girls joined in with their own personal experiences in choosing science: no social life, no prom, no READING AND RIDING

boyfriends. The distinguishing features our culture ascribes to In partnership with Kennywood Park outside Pittsburgh, a those engaged in science are distinctly not girl-like, Lazarus group of designers and researchers at Carnegie Mellon explains. “A mental picture of a scientist is unlikely to be a University and the University of Pittsburgh have designed a fashion model, male or female.” series of three large, colorful signs to be positioned at kid-eye- Lazarus sees the problem in girls’ motivation to study math level along the snaking line for the park’s star roller coaster and science. “For a long time, I thought that one reason is known as The Phantom’s Revenge. Depicted on the signs is a that girls really don’t know what science is. They think that team of four cartoon characters — two girls and two boys — science is really hard, that you have to be really smart to who present their real-life peers with a few practical physics do it. People figure with math that if you don’t get it at some concepts connected to the coaster they are waiting to ride. point, then you won’t The Kennywood signage is just the beginning of a program that of all engineers are women. get it. But math is no Alcoa Foundation President Kathy Buechel admires for “a harder to learn as an direct approach that is practical and not preachy.” As one of adult than reading. We can offer adult education courses in the prime funders, Buechel sees an expanded program as a basic reading — why not basic computation? The educational national model for attracting more women and minorities to system doesn’t come in to rescue people who didn’t get it.” math and science. The concept of creating signs in parks and playgrounds began with Lazarus’s idea to do “something very simple that 6 Roll-O-Plane 7 Merry-Go-Round Calculate the centripetal force What is the approximate distance produced by the rotating arm. traveled by the stationary tiger on the outside edge of the merry-go- round in one year? (Kennywood is open about 112 days a year and 11 hours a day.)

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High School girls wait in line at The Phantom’s Revenge, the star coaster ride at Kennywood Park. “They’re the target group we want in a captive setting,” says The Heinz Endowments’ Marge Petruska. “It’s an advertiser’s dream situation, and now it’s a tool for learning.”

“The larger goal is to let people know that math and science are important for the region. 8 The Kangaroo 9 The Phantom’s Revenge 10 Corn Dogs Why do the riders in position 4 Estimate the number of bolts Estimate the total surface area experience more force than the needed to build the lift hill. of all the corn dogs sold in the other riders? last 20 years.

4 3 2 1

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has been done in zoos for the last 40 years — to make it an develop more signs for placement at Kennywood. They’re also entire educational experience — and to do the same for basic in discussions with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy to create principles of science.” She focused on experiences from family signs in public parks and playgrounds. road trips in her youth, passing by those story-telling For The Heinz Endowments’ Petruska, the reasons for Burma Shave road signs and remembering their power. “I long-term support of the Partnership are the same as those wanted to make sure that, for the people standing in the line behind job-creation funding to help lift the region’s economy. for rides, by the time you were through the line, you would Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania will not thrive in understand something.” the knowledge economy, she says, without women as full par- In the wait line for “The Phantom’s Revenge,” the first sign ticipants. “Why should we care? Our future is in industries greeting people introduces the four cartoon characters who like robotics, biotechnology and tissue engineering — areas create roller coasters together as “The Scream Team”: Can-Do where you need math and science,” says Petruska. “Half our Kay the Engineer, Raj the Design Dude, Ace the Physics Guru region is being left out.” and Mick the Mind. Kay and Ace are girls. On the two other Alcoa Foundation President Kathy Buechel also cites work- signs, the Scream Team show physics concepts that the riders force development as a key reason for support, not only tar- experience. One sign —“No engine? No way!”— describes geting women but finding ways to reach out to minorities as potential and kinetic energy by showing how the peaks and well. “We want to fix the leaks at the point where people drop valleys of the track propel the cars without an engine. out. If you don’t study algebra in seventh grade, you won’t “Choose your adventure” describes how gravity and velocity become an engineer. The signage campaign shows the rele- affect riders in the front, middle and back seats of the car. If vance of math and science in a direct approach that is practi- you want to experience the most negative G — falling faster cal and not preachy. The campaign has regional importance, than gravity — sit in the back. but national implications as a model for getting people to Peggy Stubbs, project director, is with Pittsburgh’s Family think in novel ways about math and science.” Communications, the production company founded by The Heinz Endowments’ Samantha Roth, who has worked Fred Rogers to produce the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood directly with Partnership participants, says foundations are television show. The company’s 30-plus years of experience working on an even higher plane — to promote Pittsburgh as in creating educational communications for children is now a learning region and to tear down barriers to education and being put to use in Partnership projects. job advancement. Stubbs describes the Kennywood signs as an exciting She remembers only two years ago a local tour of an prelude to a multiyear campaign that, in addition to targeting advanced manufacturing facility using robotics where the only girls, also serves the general population. “The larger goal is women in the facility were in low-paying accounting and to let people know that math and science are important for secretarial jobs. “I thought, as I watched all the men working, the region. Math and science literacy is just as important ‘Girls need to know they can do this, they need to know that as reading literacy.” With the help of the anticipated National math and science is the future. They need to know all the Science Foundation Grant, she says, the Partnership plans to opportunities that exist for them.’” h

Math and science literacy is just as important as reading literacy.” Peggy Stubbs, Family Communications hPittsburgh’s Racialere&there Disparities Aired In Radio Forum, That tip-of-the-iceberg glimpse has been filled out by Bangs, whose Leaders Survey research shows that in key quality-of-life categories, from income to Thousands of southwestern Pennsylvania public radio listeners will be able employment to education, Pittsburgh’s African-American community to get new insights on the Pittsburgh region’s struggle to correct racial comes out in the bottom 10 percent of American cities. And research differences in key quality-of-life areas like employment, housing and by The Pittsburgh Foundation shows that the city and the surrounding education from community leaders who make it their business to study region is viewed by much of the rest of the country as a place that does the extent of the problem. not welcome diversity. A radio panel program moderated by the University of Pittsburgh’s Ralph Beyond an important ideal, King argued that diversity is central to Bangs, director of the Center for Social and Urban Research, is scheduled to Pittsburgh’s aspirations to become one of the liveliest and most vibrant air this fall on Pittsburgh public radio station WDUQ. Bangs interviews Larry regions in the country. Davis of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work; Dr. The first step, he said, is to fully recognize the problem and Stephen Thomas, director of the university’s Center for Minority engage in a vigorous and honest dialogue throughout city Health; Cameil Williams, head of Allegheny County’s Minority, neighborhoods and the region. “I think the leadership here Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Office; and is in denial about the importance of this issue on its Maxwell King, executive director of The Heinz Endowments. own and about what a serious barrier it is for our The program centers on findings that show that, despite future prospects.” Pittsburgh’s improving prospects, there are still dispari- The discussion is part of the Champions of ties for minorities and women in critical areas of Sustainability Series, a series of programs daily life. produced with funding from the McKenna King, who came to the Endowments in Foundation and directed by Sustainable 1999 from Philadelphia, where he worked Pittsburgh, a public policy advocacy group for years as editor of the Philadelphia that promotes economic prosperity, Inquirer, said that, for all of ecological health and social equity. Pittsburgh’s cultural charms and the Sustainable Pittsburgh, funded honest, no-pretenses character of its by The Heinz Endowments and people, he has been confounded the Richard King Mellon by the lack of African- Foundation, plans to American representation follow up King’s in key areas of commu- remarks and similar nity life. The problem comments from the was set in stark relief, other panelists with he said, when, while a survey counting waiting to speak at the the number of December 1999 dedica- African Americans and tion of the O’Reilly Theater, a women serving in elec- major cultural milestone for the tive offices in southwestern city, he counted only 14 people of color in a VIP audience of some 400. Pennsylvania — from school boards to the U.S. Senate. The survey, con- “I left that event really shocked at the lack of diversity. Philadelphia has ducted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Bangs, will try to determine which its problems with race, but there is better representation from the African- parts of the region have the best track record for electing women and American community in mainstream events that goes well beyond popula- African Americans, how their constituents fare and how the Pittsburgh tion difference. There is more diversity in public places in the city among area compares with other regions of the country. so many different types of people than there is in Pittsburgh.” 26" 

50" Room For A View: See-thru barrier likely to win federal approval 24" 18" One of the most important “It’s small in proportion to projects to come out of The the entire project but huge when Heinz Endowments’ new Civic you consider the impact,” says Design Initiative in Pittsburgh Arts & Culture Program Officer may not be the most expensive. Mary Navarro, who coordinates But it is responsible for saving the Endowments’ Civic Design one of the world’s most dramatic programs. Many outsiders com- and admired urban skyline views ing into the city from the air- from being blocked out by the port for the first time describe concrete of a standard safety the view as a spectacular surprise barrier. And it may help other after a lackluster drive past typi- communities struggling to bal- cal suburban landscape. Cars A task force What might have been: ance highway safety needs with enter the dark tunnel and pop recommended PennDOT’s standard concrete the desire to preserve cherished out the other end with the a new barrier barrier would have blocked off roadway views. Downtown exploding into view that provides the expansive city view, but The effort known as the from the bridge’s top deck, the for two sepa- foundations and civic leaders have pushed for a view-friendly Pennsylvania Barrier Project is city’s compact skyline framed by rate, 9-inch-high view windows design. a prime example of what can three glistening rivers and green- between horizontal steel rails be accomplished when local ery from fabled Point State Park. anchored to a 24-inch-high communities look inward to Pittsburgh’s surprise vista concrete base. If this version is find ways to improve on design was in jeopardy of being lost to accepted by Federal Highway in public spaces. For more than motorists in standard-sized Administration engineers, as is a year, the Endowments’ staff vehicles, due to state Department expected, it will replace the has been working in partnership of Transportation regulations solid, 42-inch-high concrete with two grantees, the Riverlife governing safety barriers lining barrier that state engineers had Task Force and the American bridge edges. The Heinz planned for the bridge. Institute of Architects Pittsburgh Endowments’ staff, Institute of Eloise Hirsh, former director Chapter, to guide the design Architects members and com- of City of Pittsburgh Planning, process on a tiny portion of the munity leaders on the Riverlife described the new barrier as a $84.2 million restoration of Task Force, a civic action group “great solution” that preserves the Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel. formed to establish development one of the city’s biggest attrac- That dual-level system feeds and design standards for the tions and still protects motorists. tens of thousands of vehicles riverfront property surrounding “If we can find enough room in into Downtown each day from the city, pressed state officials to regulations governing these bar- Pittsburgh’s South Hills suburbs, allow for design changes that riers to get in some good design its airport and other parts of would open up the view without without compromising safety, southwestern Pennsylvania. compromising safety. then we should be able to do it elsewhere,” says Hirsh.

Top photo by Clyde Hare. Diagram by James Hilston/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2002, All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission here&there Tribute  Remembering J.Carter Brown

Endowments Interns Tackle Girls Math–Science arly last year, J. Carter When I approached Carter Initiative Brown spent a day in about joining our board, we had A West Virginia University sophomore and a Sewickley Academy Pittsburgh touring the already known each other for graduate, who know how specializing in math and science can expand E city’s North Shore. Carter had a long time. I am godmother future career choices, are assisting The Heinz Endowments’ effort served on the board of the to one of his children. He was to get more girls interested in that academic and career track by Vira I. Heinz Endowment since the first chair of the jury for developing quality non–school hours programming. 1995, and our staff wanted his the Heinz Award in Arts and Kelli Sikorski, 19, of McKeesport, and Douglas Allen, 17, of opinion on Pittsburgh’s emerging Humanities, and I knew him as Homewood, will be assisting staff in the groundwork for developing quality non-school hours programming for girls. This year’s vision for its unique riverfront. both a colleague and a friend. His Endowments program is a return engagement for Sikorski, who will He was enthusiastic as he impeccable credentials brought begin her second year in WVU’s Forensic Science and Investigation strolled along the bank of the distinction to every organization Program. For Allen, the foundation world is a new experience, but he Allegheny River and assessed he served, but that mattered less believes the surveying, interviewing, writing and public presentation the progress of the unfinished to me than the clarity of his skills development at the core of the Endowments’ internship program Northshore Riverfront Park. thinking, his devotion to the arts will serve him well as he begins his freshman year this fall at It was one of those dreary, rainy and, what few people realize Washington and Lee University. days that can obscure the beauty about him, his equal devotion The two interns will conduct national research and do interviews of even the prettiest place, but to the environment. with community leaders to develop a “best practices” list in extra- Carter saw right through the As a board member for curricular programs targeted to girls. This will support staff in the wintry gray and the incomplete the new National Garden in Education and Children, Youth & Families Programs in their long-range construction to the potential that Washington, D.C., I had plan to address the serious gender inequity in science- and technology- based professions. An important side benefit is that the interns provide lay beneath. His voice brimmed suggested a design charette and an important youth perspective to staff. “They give us a much better with excitement as he spoke asked Carter, who chaired the sense of what works and doesn’t work for young people in their age admiringly of what he saw. jury for the prestigious Pritzker group,” says CY&F Program Associate Samantha Roth. And why not? In the still- prize for architecture, to be a “Since I’m in a science-based major, I understand the signals that developing contours of the judge. From that experience women get that suggest these courses are beyond their abilities,” park where he was standing, in I was convinced that he had says Sikorski, who also is a member of WVU’s Forensics Club. Allen’s the development plans for the something important to offer us private school experience goes in the opposite direction, he says. neighborhood behind him, in in Pittsburgh. At the time, the “The whole attitude among girls in that school environment is to go the steel skeleton of the conven- Endowments was becoming out and get as many of these types of technical-science courses tion center rising across the increasingly aware of a conver- as they can. There is a lot of encouragement.” river — all around him he could gence in our community of issues Sikorski, who is taking two summer courses as part of her pre-foren- see evidence that day of a city relating to aesthetics, urban sics program, also will be working this fall as a resident assistant. Allen is one of the first four recipients of the H.J. Heinz Co.’s four-year scholarship using the design of its physical planning, culture and economic program through Washington and space to transform itself into growth. I thought Carter would Lee. He plans to pursue a pre-law something spectacular. add much to our exploration of program and go on to law school. And he could see, too, more this convergence, and he did. than a little bit of himself. Carter was an asset in all the Through the power of his intel- predictable ways. He was gener- lect and the passion of his ideas, ous with his contacts and his he had contributed to all of it. expertise. He drew on his vast By Teresa Heinz Chairman, Howard Heinz Endowment Lucy Brown, On a Roll, Inc.

public realm, in communities design for that building was the as diverse and significant as the product of a competition spon- riverfronts, the North Shore, sored by the Endowments and Oakland, the downtown shop- other area foundations. My expe- ping district, and East Liberty. rience with the National Garden But what did we hope to make had persuaded me that a similar happen in those places? What competition here for a high- did we think was important? profile project like this would What standards should be help to set a new standard of applied? What was our vision? design excellence in the commu- Answering these questions nity. Carter forcefully backed required us to bring together our that point of view, urging our Arts & Culture, Environment board and our community to and Economic Opportunity recognize the role that aesthetics “He lived the belief that a Programs in a new way, because and good design play in shaping they represented an emerging the quality of our lives. community rich in the arts synthesis of aesthetic, environ- Ulimately, Carter’s voice mental and economic develop- was but one of many calling for is rich in the best way, and ment priorities and concerns. something new, something Carter’s insights were helpful as better and more uplifting, but that beauty has the power we developed an agenda for our he raised that voice artfully and work in this new and exciting well. He was, after all, the con- to ennoble the spirit of all arena of civic design. summate diplomat. Since his The impact of that work can passing, friends have described it touches.”Teresa Heinz already be seen in a region that him as a “democratic aesthete” increasingly refuses to accept and a “patrician populist,” some- experience as head of the same time offering constructive second-rate design, the type that one who made it his mission to National Gallery of Art and criticism that invariably we doesn’t respect enduring human share the value of art with every- chair of the D.C. Commission took to heart. needs for community, health, one. He lived the belief that a on Fine Arts. He provided But Carter’s influence nature and beauty. It can be seen community rich in the arts is important advice and counsel extended beyond his expected in the city’s emerging leadership rich in the best way, and that to the development of our new strengths in the cultural arena. in green building, which is beauty has the power to ennoble residency program for artists, of His insights and advice were par- detailed in the pages of this the spirit of all it touches. our operating support program ticularly helpful as we identified magazine, and in the inspiring For Carter, who loved music, for cultural institutions, and of the need for a new, cross-pro- vision for Pittsburgh’s riverfronts that belief was his song, the many key grants relating to the gram focus in our grantmaking. that is now taking shape in song of his life. It was his gift arts. He validated our belief in In the late 1990s Pittsburgh places like Northshore Riverfront to us, and even as we must say the richness and significance of was beginning to recognize an Park and across the river at the goodbye to the man, the song our cultural sector, praising its almost unprecedented opportu- new convention center. continues, a melody of hope quality and scope while at the nity to reinvent key areas of the Rafael Viñoly’s inspiring and inspiration. h THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS NONPROFIT ORG Howard Heinz Endowment US POSTAGE Vira I. Heinz Endowment PAID

30 Dominion Tower PITTSBURGH PA

625 Liberty Avenue PERMIT NO 57 Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3115 412.281.5777 www.heinz.org

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