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February 20, 1997

Vote expected on historic status of Pa. Hall, Mineral Industries

The Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission is expected to vote on the proposed designation of Pennsylvania Hall and the Mineral Industries Building as historic landmarks on March 14 at its 1 p.m. session in the conference room of 200 Ross Street.

A hearing by the commission on the nomination of the two buildings was conducted on Feb. 7, during which commission staff were directed to prepare a report on the buildings prior to the March meeting.

Once the commission makes a decision on the buildings, the nomination will go to the City Planning Commission for consideration, and then to City Council, which will make the final decision on the designation.

Pitt opposes historic designation for the two pre-World War I structures because it eventually plans to demolish them. The hillside on which the buildings stand was identified in the mid-range (10-year) portion of the University's 20-year master space plan approved in 1995 as a possible location for construction of small student residence halls.

Both buildings were nominated for historic designation by J. R. Daniels and John Murdoch, residents of the Garfield/Friendship area of the city. Any Pittsburgh resident can nominate any building in the city for historic designation.

According to the nomination, Daniels and Murdoch believe that Pennsylvania Hall and the Minerals Industries Building should be given historic status because they are architecturally significant and part of the "Acropolis Plan" for the University developed by Henry Hornbostel in 1908.

The Acropolis Plan, according to "Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh" by Robert C. Alberts, called for the construction of a series of buildings across the hillside, facing southeast toward Forbes and Fifth avenues. The design was dubbed the Acropolis Plan after the Pittsburgh Leader newspaper compared it to the Athenian Acropolis when it was still intact.

"The pillared facades, with their pediments highly adorned, rise one above another, the largest and most majestic being at the summit," the Leader noted. "To this the approach is by successive flights of stately steps, giving access to terrace upon terrace. The plan includes courts, an interior garden, widespread botanical gardens, greater and lesser assembly halls, halls for every department, scientific or academic, and dormitories, which, massed with artistic cleverness, are really imposing." In opposing the nomination for historic status, Richard Holmes of Pitt's Office of General Counsel, John Sysko of the Office of Facilities Management, and historic consultant John Myers of the Albany, N.Y., architectural firm Enhorn Yaffe Prescott, argued that the two buildings are not architecturally important and were only peripheral to the Acropolis Plan.

Holmes noted that there are many better examples of Hornbostel's work both in Oakland and on the Pitt campus, including Thaw Hall, the Schenley Plaza area, a large portion of the Carnegie Mellon University campus, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, and Rodef Shalom Temple.

Representatives of the University also argued that the Acropolis Plan, which won a nationwide architectural competition in 1908, "never existed on anything but paper." Holmes said Pitt already was moving away from the plan in 1909 and that by 1911 it was clear the University would not pursue it.

Only four buildings from the plan ever were constructed. Along with Pennsylvania Hall and the Mineral Industries Building, they included Thaw Hall and State Hall. The latter building was demolished in the early 1970s to make room for the Chevron Science Center. Of those four buildings, Holmes said, only Thaw Hall and State Hall were considered core buildings of the Acropolis Plan. Pennsylvania Hall and the Mineral Industries Building were secondary buildings.

"Had the plan been built, they would have been very minor, peripheral buildings on the outskirts of the plan," Holmes said.

Pennsylvania Hall and the Mineral Industries Buildings also were not built as originally planned by Hornbostel, according to Holmes. Pennsylvania Hall is only about one-third the size of what Hornbostel had planned. There also were details of both buildings that were not followed.

"Add to that that within a fairly short period of time, the Acropolis Plan was superseded by the plan for the Cathedral, which obviously was executed," Holmes said. "Our view is that these two fragmentary, secondary parts of the Acropolis Plan are not significant enough to be designated as historic." Although Pitt opposes the nomination of Pennsylvania Hall and the Minerals Industries Building as historic structures, Holmes pointed out that the University has been willing to accept historic status for property it believes "represents the best of the past." He said approximately 2 million square feet of building space on campus currently is designated as historic. According to the master space plan, the University has just over 7.3 million square feet of building space.

"We've put our money where our mouth is in that regard," Holmes said. "But where a building or a number of buildings at issue do not represent the best of the past, we don't think that we ought to incur the real life cost of designation." According to Holmes, the "real life cost" of historic designation comes into play when property owners are prohibited from making exterior changes, including paint color, to a building without approval of the Historic Review Commission.

Even if the review process goes smoothly and permission for changes to a building is readily granted by the commission, according to Holmes, there still are some costs involved in putting together and making a presentation. If there are problems, the costs can be substantial, he said.

–Mike Sajna


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