Pittsburgh Homes Daily

Members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation will be touring Pittsburgh in preparation for a conference this fall.  In connection with the visit from my GoodSearch charity of choice, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an article today about the revitalization of Pittsburgh neighborhoods, the major players, and the work that still needs to be done.

The point of the article is clear: Neighborhoods are enhanced when old buildings are preserved and reused, rather than bulldozed.  It is an important lesson for Pittsburgh; it is unfortunate that nowhere in the article is the redevelopment of the Fifth-Forbes corridor mentioned.

When a local developer, Millcraft, was named to create a plan for Fifth-Forbes, I hoped that they would recognize what the Post-Gazette article does and preserve the history of the area.  A shadow was cast on that dream on Saturday when I read an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review titled “Building owner casts wary eye.”  The discussion centered around the inclusion of the location of the former Bolan’s Candies building in a preliminary proposal for redevelopment.  In response, Lucas Piatt, Vice President of Real Estate for Millcraft said that the discussions were very preliminary and that they planned to have discussions with key players “about what’s historic and what’s not historic.”

I had hoped that, being a local firm, they would know what has historical importance already.  If they don’t, they shouldn’t get an exclusive right to purchase the Urban Redevelopment Authority properties.