Friendship & Penn Ave Arts District : Development News

Eat + Drink is Pop City's roundup of restaurant and food news.

- Cure, Chef Justin Severino’s Lawrenceville restaurant, has obtained a liquor license. While the restaurant will offer a full-service bar, its full menu of wines and specialty cocktails won’t be ready for another few weeks. “Right now, they’re just testing some stuff out,” says restaurant spokesperson Gita McCutcheon.

- A new addition to Pittsburgh’s food truck scene, the PGH Crepes cart sets up at the corner of Penn Avenue and 20th Street on weekends and makes its way around town during the week.

“We really like the carts in general. We think it speaks well the entrepreneurial spirit of Pittsburgh,” says Leigh White of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. “It’s a new twist on things, and a nice compliment to the many restaurants downtown.”

To find the crepe cart, follow it on Twitter @pghcrepes.

- Waffalonia, the Squirrel Hill-based makers of Belgian-style Liège waffles, will open a kiosk in Schenley Plaza in mid-May.

And now that the weather is good, it’s time to dine outdoors. Here are some of the latest openings:

Make Your Mark Artspace & Coffeehouse in Point Breeze opened its serene back patio last week.

The garden portion of Pusadee’s Garden in Lawrenceville is ethereal and lovely.

The partially re-done patio at Kelly’s Lounge in East Liberty is open, as is the spacious back patio at Lawrenceville’s Round Corner Cantina.

Marty’s Market in the Strip has tables around the outside of its corner location, as well as stools at its garage-door coffee counter.

Orange chairs adorn the patio at Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina.

The Porch in Oakland has some of Pittsburgh’s best outdoor seating, and plenty to go around with school out for the summer.

Biddle’s Escape, a coffee shop tucked away off the main drag in Regent Square, has a spacious and tree-shaded deck.

And Il Pizzaiolo, in both Market Square and Mt. Lebanon has outdoor spaces. In the Mt. Lebanon location, the charming terrace in the back just opened and in Market Square, you'll find tables outside the new location next to Starbucks.

Writer: Matthew Wein
Sources: Gita McCutcheon, Leigh White

With the  Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) celebrating 25 years at its upcoming Community Development Summit, the organization is currently seeking nominations for the awards ceremony portion of that event.

Categories include the Community Development Awards and the Neighborhood Leader Award in Memory of Bob O'Connor.

Community Development Awards are given to projects or programs that create a positive, lasting impact on the physical, social, or cultural fabric of a community, says Katie Hale, PCRG’s Neighborhood Policy Manager.

Recent winners include the Gardens of Millvale, a borough-wide greening initiative that includes land acquisition for community gardens, education outreach, and the engagement of over 300 volunteers.

Hale says the Gardens of Millvale has become “one of the most thriving community garden efforts in the region.”

Another recent Community Development winner is the Green+Screen streetscape beautification initiative of the Penn Avenue Arts District. A project of the Bloomfield Garfield Corporation, Green+Screen engages designers to use sustainable materials to “screen” the view of empty lots or parking lots.

And the Neighborhood Leader Award, given in memory of Bob O’Connor, recognizes an individual who exemplifies the late mayor’s dedication to neighborhood improvement.

The deadline for nominations is Friday, April 19th, and the awards ceremony will be held on May 21st.

The Community Development Summit will take places May 21-22nd, at the Omni William Penn Hotel, in Downtown Pittsburgh. The summit will include four mobile workshops, highlighting revitalization efforts in Pittsburgh neighborhoods, as well as several keynote speakers and networking events.


Writer: Andrew Moore
Source: Katie Hale

Master artists and students travel to the Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) from throughout the country and all over the world, and now they’ll have a place to stay.  PGC has purchased a vacant building in Garfield to be used as artist and student housing.

In addition to being a convenience for artists, PGC Executive Director Heather McElwee says the added space will likely expand interest in week-long classes and workshops.

“Not only will the house help to generate some earned income from the Glass Center,” McElwee says, “but we actually think it will increase the number of people participating in our Summer-Intensive program.  I think there are a handful of people who don’t even consider our program because there isn’t a housing option right now.”  

PGC was founded in 2001 by Kathleen Mulcahy & Ron Desmett as a public access school, gallery and art glass studio dedicated to teaching, creating and promoting glass art.

Located at 5447 Penn Avenue, the three-story building is in the middle of Bride Row, named for the “Bride on Penn Avenue” mural created by artist Judy Penzer, in collaboration with Jill Watson, Corolla Zap, and Dan Anthoniesen, in 1995.  The homes are unique on the avenue as they are set back and atop a small hill.

The building, just one block from the Glass Center, was most recently home to the former Kim’s Coffee Shop, a Vietnamese restaurant.  The sale of the building was faciltated through the Bloomfield Garfield Corporation.

Although renovations are needed, McElwee says the Glass Center plans to keep with the architectural tradition of the home and the row.

McElwee expects the first-floor former restaurant space to be repurposed as a community space, available to visiting artists.  The upper floors would be developed as private and semi-shared housing space.

Ben Imhoff and Anne Chen, of EDGE studio, are working with the Glass Center on the building’s renovations.  McElwee anticipates the housing to be open by summer of 2014.

There are eight other Victorians along Bride Row, with at least one that is owner occupied.  The others are owned by Friendship Development Associates, who are working to find redevelopment plans for the remaining homes.
 

Writer:  Andrew Moore
Source:  Heather McElwee

The Saxifrage School is ready to remake higher education. Enrollment has begun for its first ever, full-length course, and the school has just opened a new headquarters in Garfield.

“It's a pretty big deal for us because it's our first substantial prototype that will actually start to look something like the eventual college that we hope to found in the future,” says Saxifrage founder Tim Cook.

The school is a college redesign project that is challenging the concept of higher education.  A goal of the school is to have graduates that leave as "seasoned thinkers, skilled producers, engaged citizens, and social entrepreneurs."

The new headquarters are located within a storefront at 5452 Penn Avenue, across from the new Commonplace Coffee (formerly Voluto).  Cook says substantial renovations were done to the space, including refinished floors and walls, and soon-to-be-completed façade work and window installation.  Funds for the physical improvements were provided by the school’s Sprout Fund grant, and from private donors.

The new prototype class, titled "Web Development 101: Hacker Theory and Practice," will have a focus in both theoretical and practical content.  Students will explore hacker culture and the open-source community while learning to program computers, and establish a foundation for continued skills development.  

Tuition for the 12-week course is $300, and includes a meal during each 3-hour session.  Although the school is not yet accredited, Cook notes that this course is approximately 1/7 the cost of other institutions in the area.  That substantially lower price is a major tenet of Saxifrage’s redesign of higher ed.

On June 19th, the school will kick-off its latest run of short, one-night "courses," titled Pie and Pedagogy. Every Tuesday, various thinkers will engage to the central question, "Why school?," and discuss the future of higher education over pie and coffee.  Past speakers have included artists and farmers, and professors from both Pitt and CMU.  

And although these developments are big milestones for the project, plans are already in motion to kick-off a complete, year-long program in the fall of 2013.  Skills studies will include organic agriculture, building construction and design, and computer development.

For more information, or to enroll, visit the Saxifrage School’s website.


Writer:  Andrew Moore
Source:  Tim Cook

Pittsburgh’s newest co-working community, Catapult Pittsburgh, has opened in a permanent location on Penn Avenue.

Catapult was launched last October in a temporary, trial location by Elliot Williams and Kevin Boyle.  Recipients of a Sprout Fund grant, the partners were given just one month to experiment with a co-working space that operated on a flex-time pay scale, and featured a gourmet coffee bar that was open to the public.

Williams says the purpose of the Sprout Fund grant was to turn an idea into reality, with enough capital to cover start-up costs.  The trial generated sufficient community interested, and the Catapult idea was able to take-off thanks to that support.

Their original goal was to find eight to ten professionals with an interest to share a workspace.  They have accomplished that, and Catapult is now home to graphic designers, artists, a visual note-taker, and a fiction writer, among other freelancers.  The space is currently full, but will be adding three additional work areas in the coming weeks.

According to Williams, the point of Catapult is to allow those who would otherwise work from home an opportunity to interact with others.  Unlike other co-working spaces in the city, he says Catapult is geared specifically for designers, developers, and other freelancers.

The new space, at 1,800 square-feet, is double the size of their temporary digs, and features an open floor-plan with no cubicles separating desks.  Williams says the openness is integral to Catapult’s co-working philosophy.

“If I wanted walls I could work at home,” he says.  “We’re never going to have walls.”

Rent is $150 a month, which gives the worker a key, a desk, and access to all of the office’s amenities: a conference room, white boards, printer, WiFi, a small kitchen, and of course the shop’s signature siphon-brewed coffee.

Boyle is still hoping to bring the public coffee bar to Catapult, with a pilot model expected to open in May.

Catapult Pittsburgh, 5139 Penn Avenue, Garfield.  412-979-1774.


Writer:  Andrew Moore
Source:  Elliott Williams

After 15 years as a management consultant, Jeff Catalina decided it was time for a change. With help from his wife Erin, they will open Verde Mexican Kitchen and Cantina in Friendship's Glass Lofts in October.
 
Featuring tortillas made in-house, guacamole made tableside and a bar stocked with 80 to 100 kinds of tequila, Verde will bring authentic Mexican cuisine to the area. The menu will include local foods where possible, but they will need to import items not readily available in the region, says Catalina.
 
"It's authentic Mexican with a modern, upscale vibe to it," says Catalina. This differs from most other Mexican restaurants that tend to be more casual in their approach, he adds.
 
At 3,400 square feet, diners will feel transported to interior Mexico with warm hues on the walls and a hand-painted mural at the back of the restaurant. Catalina and his wife are using their world travels as inspiration, ensuring that Pittsburghers don't get the cliché Tex-Mex restaurant atmosphere.
 
"I think Pittsburghers love independent restaurants," says Catalina. "When one comes to the market, and they invest the time and money into the quality of décor, then they will be rewarded."
 
He is working with Moss Architects to create the unique atmosphere.
 
"If Erin and I are able to create another upscale dining option for the community, then we've helped improve the neighborhood in which we live."

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Writer: Alex Audia
Source: Jeff Catalina, Verde Mexican Kitchen and Cantina

What better way to enjoy Pittsburgh's great neighborhoods and architecture than on a bike? That's the goal of Pedal Pittsburgh's 18th annual ride scheduled for Sunday, May 22.

A fundraiser for the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh (CDCP), the various bike rides will all begin and end at SouthSide Works. Attracting more than 2,000 riders each year, it's the only ride of its size within the city limits says Jennifer Fox, director of administration at CDCP.

"It's not about the first one to the finish line," she explains. "It's really about a leisurely ride that's going to take you past some fantastic views and places." With routes ranging from six to 60 miles, and many refreshment stops along the way, riders and families of all skill levels can take part.

The six routes travel through the South Side, Northside, Lawrenceville, Squirrel Hill and Mount Washington, giving cyclists--especially those who travel the entire 60 miles--a great way to experience the city and its neighborhoods, says Fox.

One group joining the ride is Team East End Brewing Company and OTB Bicycle Café (EEB/OTB). The first 50 riders to RSVP for their team will get half of their registration covered for the event and a Team EEB/OTB t-shirt.

This year, Fox explains, CDCP will have activities for riders at its rest stops to showcase what good planning and design brings to communities.

Over the past 10 years Fox has coordinated Pedal Pittsburgh, she says they have consistently seen more people get involved. "It's amazing to see that many people on bikes," she adds.

Registration begins at 6:30 a.m. at SouthSide Works, with the first group of riders taking off at 7 a.m.

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Writer: Alex Audia
Source: Jennifer Fox, CDCP

Art and tech are quickly becoming the next peanut butter and jelly. They just go together. Assemble, a new venue opening in June along the Penn Avenue Arts District, will foster this togetherness to anyone who walks through the door.

Located in the old Thomas Merton Center at 5125 Penn Avenue, Assemble is about creating connections, says Executive Director Nina Barbuto. School-aged or middle-aged, the space will have activities for all, including movie nights, art exhibitions, and workshops.

Though they aren't open to the public just yet, Assemble is starting to host programs. Coming up in May, they will have one that includes paper tubes and exploring what can be created with them, Barbuto explains.

"It's not just a studio space," says Barbuto. "It's a place to demystify art and technology." This will give attendees, and kids in particular, a chance to see that they too can create anything through art and technology without being judged, she adds. This can be high-tech or low-tech, Barbuto continues, from computer gadgets to, well, paper tubes.

Assemble is also about connections and meeting others who are going through similar situations, Barbuto says. This will be done through specific programs for the under-18 and over-18 age groups, as well as some activities where the two are integrated.

"It has to be approachable, but academic," she explains. "It's learning through making and trying to understand the world through what means we have."
 
Assemble is currently seeking out volunteers and a summer intern. For more information on getting involved, email assemblepgh@gmail.com.

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Writer: Alex Audia
Source: Nina Barbuto, Assemble

Photograph copyright Alex Audia

The Glass Lofts condo building is nearing completion, and is expected to be certified by occupancy by May 1.

The model unit, staged by Christine DreGalla of Strip District-based Emphasis Interiors, opened during Friday's Geek Art/Green Innovators Festival in conjunction with Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's monthly Unblurred art crawl.

The $6.4 million project has been taking shape at the intersection of Penn Avenue and Fairmount Street since its mid-2008 groundbreaking. Units range from 831 to 1,959 square feet, and from $127,500 to $375,000. All units have polished concrete floors, high ceilings, Dwell magazine-worthy plywood walls and retractable glass garage doors that open to personal balconies. Many units also have skylights. The building features high efficiency heating and cooling, and low-impact materials. Indoor and outdoor parking will be available to condo residents.

The Glass Lofts was designed by Arthur Lubetz Associates Architects, and the general contractor is Sota.

None of the 18 units have been sold yet, but Matthew Galluzzo from Friendship Development Associates says that several are currently under agreement. Galluzzo says the condos' modern, industrial design and green features are only part of the appeal; the Keystone Opportunity Zone tax incentives are also a big draw (Galluzzo explains that, depending on income, a Glass Lofts condo could cost only $400 a month plus condo fees, which start at around $150 for the smaller units).

Plus, there's the ground-floor artist studios and restaurant/bar (details are classified for now, but more info will be released soon), as well as proximity to area amenities such as Voluto Coffee, the Quiet Storm vegetarian cafe, and a variety of hospitals, schools and grocery stores, including Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Matthew Galluzzo, Friendship Development Associates

Photograph copyright Caralyn Green

You started the month with every intention to get healthy and happy; Creative Fitness in Friendship wants to make sure you keep that New Year's resolution.

The private fitness studio opened in late November, and is offering individualized sessions that stress spiritual, mental, physical and overall well-being. The first-floor space, at 5406 Penn Ave., is nothing special--there's an office, a backroom stuffed to the gills with basic equipment and then a wide, open main room with mirrored walls and charts breaking down heart rates and BMIs. What's special about Creative Fitness is Cathy Fink, who comes to Penn Avenue with 15 years of health-related experience and unbounded energy that'll push you to achieve your goals. Fink's got a degree in exercise physiology from Gannon University in Eerie, Pa., and she's worked as a massage therapist, a physical therapy assistant and a personal trainer.

Creative Fitness classes include cardio kickboxing, Zumba, a "boot camp" and personal training sessions to fit your schedule.

Fink, who's originally from Syracuse, NY, moved to Pittsburgh a few years ago. She was living and working in Florida, and ready for a change. Fink had been visiting Pittsburgh ever since she moved to Florida more than a decade ago (it was a good spot to meet up with family; in between New York and Florida, and full of museums and other attractions). After the move, Fink worked as a trainer at Bally's in Penn Hills, but decided to pursue her dream of being her own boss and creating the kind of environment she'd like to see in a gym--less about signing up tons of people who will never come in after the initial motivation wears off, and more about developing one-on-one relationships with her clients.

"We're in a healthcare crisis, and I believe better health starts with communities, and Pittsburgh is a community-oriented city," Fink says. "Pittsburgh has a willingness to change. This is a city that's open to change."

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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Cathy Fink, Creative Fitness

Photograph copyright Caralyn Green

In the past decade, the vacancy rate along Penn Avenue has gone down from 45 percent to around 20 percent. About $58 million has been invested into the area over that time. And, currently, about 20 percent of the space is occupied by artists or arts-sympathetic users, like the Quiet Storm, that complement the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's goal of reviving the 10-block business corridor through arts-based economic development.

"There are opportunities for building ownership and for leasing along Penn Avenue," says Matthew Galluzzo, arts district manager with Friendship Development Associates (FDA). "Two and three-story spaces ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet are abundant across the region in little mill towns and urban neighborhoods, but Penn Avenue has additional incentives at our disposal for arts-based users."

FDA's strategy of buying buildings and selling them to artists at discounted prices--and providing additional tools to help them succeed--is "an innovation we started that is now a national model," says Galluzzo. Some of those tools include grants for facade renovations, and inclusion in the monthly Unblurred gallery crawl, which increases public awareness and can offset an individual organization or artist's marketing budget.

Another of those tools is the annual Building Ownership Workshop, which generally attracts about 25 to 35 participants, and has directly resulted in at least one building being renovated each year for the past eight or nine years.

The event "demystifies the process of owning and rehabbing a building on Penn Avenue," says Galluzzo. "It helps artists understand this is a real estate development project, and not just a romantic notion about being an artist, doing cool stuff in a cool space. Though that's part of it."

The workshop presents participants with the chance to sit down and talk with architects, business development specialists, FDA staff and artists who have gone through the process of purchasing and rehabbing buildings along Penn Avenue. Programs that will be reviewed at this year's workshop include Artist Loan and Grant Fund (through Penn Avenue Arts Initiative), Small Business Program (through URA), FDA's Business Assistance, REN-Program (through Community Design Center of Pittsburgh), Small Business Development Assistance (through University of Pittsburgh Small Business Development Center), Housing Recovery Program (through URA) and various conventional lending products.

This year's Building Ownership Workshop occurs Thurs., Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. at EDGE studio, 5411 Penn Ave.

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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Matthew Galluzzo, arts district manager with Friendship Development Associates

Image courtesy of Friendship Development Associates

By now you've surely noticed the mirrored mosaic adorning the facade at 5006 Penn Ave. The 25-by-20 feet creation, which proclaims, "The Irma Freeman Center for Imagination," took Sheila Ali six months to complete, and stands out--sparkling--amongst the aluminum siding, red brick and glass block windows that make up the majority of Garfield/Friendship's storefronts.

The center opened quietly over the summer with some initial classes and outreach programming, and hosted its grand opening Friday night for its inaugural show--"The Art of Salvation & The Vision Art a Irma Freeman," a group exhibition paired with pieces by Ali's grandmother and the center's namesake, Irma Freeman, who left a legacy of more than 500 paintings before passing away in 1994 at the age of 90.

The center, which has been in the works since Ali bought the building in January 2008, pairs art with education and sustainability. The center's goal, according to its website, is to "enrich and diversify the local community by building positive experiences in a multicultural progressive setting." In other words, as Ali explains, "More than an art gallery, we want to be a community center," along the lines of the Union Project in East Liberty or the Kingsley Center in Larimer.

Ali says she's noticed many of the residents of Garfield feeling alienated from the changes along Penn Avenue, and wants to help residents connect with the arts, the environment and one another. In addition to exhibiting visual art (including a rotating collection of her grandmother's paintings), the Irma Freeman Center offers classes (for now, yoga, mosaic-making and parent-child workshops in green technology), and maintains a strong focus on sustainability. Ali and the center's other staffers--including director of operations Brett Boyle--installed radiant floor heating under the mosaic floor, and sprayed soy-based insulation in the walls and ceiling. Long-term green goals include the construction of an indoor atrium using grey water systems, and a small garden roof.

Writer: Caralyn Green
Sources: Sheila Ali and Brett Boyle, Irma Freeman Center for Imagination

Photograph copyright Caralyn Green

Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business has completed as 4,700-square-foot, three-story addition.

Designed by Friendship/Garfield-based EDGE studio, the $3.3 million addition includes a new accessible entrance on the west side of the building, a first-floor undergraduate student lounge (with floor-to-ceiling windows and a flat-screen TV), eight faculty offices (all with outward-facing windows) and a technologically advanced conference center and seminar space. Intended for Tepper academic and social events, this top floor space can be divided by a movable partition, and can accommodate up to 100 people.

"By adding more space for the undergraduates and faculty, it's alleviating some of the stress from all over the building, and opening up new possibilities for Ph.D. students," says Jonathan Golli with EDGE studio. "Sometimes Tepper would have to go outside the complex to hold classes and seminars because the rooms would be booked up. With this additional space, they can accommodate their needs right in the Tepper building."

The addition is a precursor to the comprehensive reorganization and renovation of the second and third floors of the adjacent structure, part of a master plan for the Tepper School also being completed by EDGE studio.

The addition broke ground last fall, was completed in July 2009 and has been occupied by faculty and students since classes began in late August. The contractor was Jendoco Construction Corporation, and Andrew Bajuszik served as project manager.

The addition was designed to meet LEED Gold standards. Eco-friendly features include: lots of natural light; efficient light fixtures with occupancy controls and dual-level switching that supplement the natural daylight; automatic blinds that reduce heat load and glare; and an infiltration pit that controls stormwater.

The addition's gray exterior stands out from the yellow brick of the original Tepper building--not unlike the gray exterior of the Gates Center for Computer Science and the Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies, a $98.6 million complex dedicated in September.

The Tepper School of Business consistently ranks among the top business schools in the world. In 2007, the Wall Street Journal ranked the Tepper School No. 5 among the top MBA programs in the U.S., and the undergraduate program has been ranked a Top Ten business program by U.S. News & World Report for several consecutive years.

Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Jonathan Golli, EDGE studio

Photograph courtesy of EDGE studio

The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC) announced this month it has received funding of $600,000 from PNC Bank.

The grant--$100,000 each year for six years--is aimed at the long-term revitalization of portions of the Garfield, Friendship and Bloomfield neighborhoods, and represents almost 25 percent of BGC's annual operating budget. The agreement is part of the state's Neighborhood Partnership Program.

BGC is in year two of its PNC funding, but is just discussing the grant publicly now.

"We want to be accountable for what goes on and who we work with," says Rick Swartz with BGC. "PNC is not a passive funder. They're looking for programs and activities that complement the bank's own mission. They want to know what we're doing, and how it is going to help improve the market in the neighborhood, and make it more viable for people to own homes and businesses, and move away from using check-cashing stores and into being able to utilize bank services."

BGC goals for the next year include: education and employment programs for neighborhood youth; financial education and job training and placement services for adults; access to affordable heath care for all; and the elimination of blight and the development of homeownership and rental opportunities for low-income residents, including the sale of and/or financing for 18 single-family homes and the development of at least 50 units of scattered-site, affordable rental housing units in Garfield.

"A lot of what we're doing is building economic self-reliance in the neighborhood," says Swartz.

Future BGC projects include a major upgrade of the Penn Avenue corridor, expected to begin in 2011. The 4800 to 5100 blocks of Penn Avenue will most likely see new roadways, sidewalks, curbs, street lighting and public landscaping, as well as traffic signal synchronization and crosswalk upgrades, says Swartz.

Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Rick Swartz, executive director, Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation

Photography courtesy of Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation

Friendship Development Associates (FDA) is marking its 20th year of neighborhood revitalization this weekend with its birthday celebration.

"We're a real estate nonprofit community development organization," says Sarah DiLeo with FDA. "We do the things that private developers don't want to touch. We change markets."

Over the past 20 years, FDA has leveraged more than $15 million in private homeowner investment, and has been instrumental in the success of the URA's Housing Recovery Program. FDA has constructed 142 housing units, ranging from very low to moderate-targeted categories, and has renovated and/or developed 68,000 square-feet of commercial space.

Among FDA's biggest triumphs is the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, which was formed in 1998 with Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation.

"In the late '90s we came to the realization that the future of the neighborhood rests along Penn Avenue," says DiLeo. "Spinning Plate Artist Lofts in East Liberty was one of first artist incubator spaces in the East End. Huge amount of artists wanted to be there, but there wasn't enough space for them. The idea was that if we have all these vacant buildings along the Avenue, maybe we could use them to help revitalize the neighborhood. We started by acquiring 16 buildings, and sold those to artists who converted them to live/work spaces."

Since the initiative's creation, the vacancy rate along the Penn Avenue Arts corridor has dropped from 78 percent to 21.1 percent, and the group has attracted nearly $56.5 million in investment along the Avenue, and converted nearly 150,000 square-feet of vacant property into artist live/work space.

Upcoming FDA projects include: the Glass Lofts, the second phase of a 3.2-acre development; townhouse construction at 5416-22 Penn Ave.; still in-development plans for 4800 Penn Ave.; and addressing the blighted buildings near the Bride Mural at 5439-5441 Penn Ave. with a committee of stakeholders and Penn Avenue-based architects Loysen + Kreuthmeier.

The FDA 20th birthday celebration is 6 to 9 p.m. on Fri, Oct. 2 at the Glass Lofts construction site on the corner of Penn Avenue and N. Fairmount Street. The event is part of the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's monthly art crawl, Unblurred.

FDA is supported by Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, URA, Advisory Commission on Community Based Organizations and Pittsburgh City Council.

Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Sarah DiLeo, Friendship Development Associates

Photograph courtesy of Friendship Development Associates