Beyond Pittsburgh’s pretty downtown, transformation and momentum reign, with former industrial areas giving way to restaurants, shops and art venues.
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Tag Archives: Lawrenceville
Bodies Of Kochu, Gray Found In Ohio River In West Virginia
The hearts of the families of two missing Pittsburgh men were broken Thursday when they learned that bodies recovered from the Ohio River in West Virginia last week were those of their loved ones.
The deaths of Andre Gray, who had been shot to death, and Paul Kochu, who might have drowned, “are not related” and are being investigated separately, city police Cmdr. RaShall Brackney said at a news conference Thursday night.
“I’m thankful to God for bringing my son home,” said Gray’s mother, Victoria Gray-Tillman, as she and other family members stood next to Brackney. “Now I can have closure. … I knew all along the Lord had my son.”
City Public Safety Department spokeswoman Sonya Toler said Hubert Wingate, 30, who has been in the Allegheny County Jail since Feb. 21 on unrelated fugitive from justice charges, has been arrested for the slaying of Gray.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8057552-74/gray-kochu-death#ixzz3Vb2UTLWV
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Lawrenceville Interior Designer Gets Some Fresh Recognition From HGTV
Her work transforming an awkward, cramped kitchen into an inviting space ideal for entertaining has earned a Pittsburgh newcomer national attention.
Interior designer Lauren Levant Bland, 32, of Lawrenceville won for “Most Dramatic Transformation” in HGTV’s Fresh Faces of Design competition identifying the Top 10 American designers under age 35.
“I was really thrilled” says Levant Bland, owner of Lauren Levant Interior. “I always like it when I know the design I’ve done pleases the client, and to think it’s also been intriguing for other people to see is a wonderful honor.”
In their search for the newest crop of up-and-coming talent, HGTV invited designers from all over the country to submit their work. A panel of industry leaders then selected finalists for awards in 10 categories, and the public voted to select the winners.
Read more: http://triblive.com/lifestyles/morelifestyles/7464029-74/kitchen-bland-levant#ixzz3O3Y1bJkr
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Bloomfield, Friendship Neighborhoods See Real Estate Price Upsurge
A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It didn’t matter to Kate Hansen that the temperature had dropped below zero on the January day when she went house hunting in Bloomfield. It didn’t matter that so much snow and ice covered the region she couldn’t even tell if the property had grass in the backyard or a decent roof.
Location was everything for Ms. Hansen, 32, a project manager for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council’s Office of Public Art.
She wanted more than anything to own a home in the Bloomfield neighborhood. At the rate house prices in that area were rising, she didn’t feel she had the luxury of waiting until spring. She made an offer that day.
“I was a little nervous not being able to see it,” she said, adding that the house also was the first she looked at. “I knew the street, though. My best friend lives across the street from the place I bought. I knew it was a good location just from him living there.”
Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield Neighborhood Gets Its Turn To Become New Hot Spot
Locator map with the Bloomfield neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Stability has been one of Bloomfield‘s strengths. During the East End’s worst years of blight and crime, Bloomfield went about its business while other neighborhoods got triage.
The drawback was being ignored.
Lawrenceville, Garfield and East Liberty came out of the mire with high-capacity staffs of community development nonprofits, while the Bloomfield Development Corp. morphed out of a merchants’ association with one staff person, Karla Owens, who left in 2012.
Now the Bloomfield Development Corp. is coming around the track on the inside, ready to assert the neighborhood’s presence with six years of funding, a new executive director and positive trends afoot.
Ross Firm Strives To Make ‘Pittsburgh Neighborhoods Viable Again’
A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Josh Adamek and Scott Hastings believe their work is a form of neighborhood-building.
“A lot of these properties are distressed, so they aren’t worth anything,” Adamek said of the houses they are renewing. “With some work, they are homes and they help the tax base.”
Adamek is president and Hastings is vice president of Synergy Capital in the Perrysville section of Ross. The 3-year-old real estate development and investment firm is renovating homes in what Adamek calls “trendy neighborhoods” such as Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and the South Side.
“They are doing quality work,” said Aspinwall architect Susan Tusick, who has worked with the pair on several projects. “They are trying to make these city neighborhoods viable again.”
Read more: http://triblive.com/business/realestate/5011466-74/adamek-hastings-homes#ixzz2lghMlszE
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30 Years Of Change: A New Direction For Pittsburgh
English: Downtown Pittsburgh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Morphing from steel industry collapse to eds-and-meds rebirth, from a too-gray place that young people flee to one that attracts them as a “green” center of culture and recreation, from a tale of Rust Belt woe to one of urban transformation, it is indisputable that the Pittsburgh region is a far different place than it was 30 years ago.
And by most standards, it would seem to be a far better place as well.
Since 1983, when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a special section chronicling the unique and worrisome issues confronting the region during Depression-level hits to its workforce, Pittsburgh has lost people, corporations, churches, schools and, yes, even a prothonotary.
But it has rebuilt its economy; added museums, theaters and riverfront trails; replaced its sports facilities, airport and convention center; and reinvented the Pittsburgh Downtown as a place to live, while serving the thousands more who commute to it by opening a subway, busways and a highway to the north.
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