Good afternoon and welcome to Pittsburgh City Council's cable cast public hearing for Friday, December 5th, 2025, relative to bills 2025, 2296, and 2025 2333.

Will the clerk please read the title of the bills?

Bill 2296.

Resolution providing for the designation as a historic site under Title 11 of the Code of Ordinances.

That certain site known as Westinghouse Park, located at 320 North Mertland Street in the Point Breeze North Neighborhood.

In the 14th ward, City of Pittsburgh.

The owner of the property supports the nomination.

And there is no cost to the city.

Bill 2333.

Resolution providing for the designation as a historic site under Title 11 of the Code of Ordinances.

That's certain structure known as police station number three, also known as the Office of Municipal Investigations.

Oh MI building at 2603 Penn Avenue, located in a strip district neighborhood, second ward city of Pittsburgh.

The owner of the property supports denomination.

There's no cost to the city.

Hi.

I'm city planning staff.

I'm going to do the presentations for both of these.

I'm wondering, are we going to do should we just do the Westinghouse one first and take public comment and then do the OMI, or should I give the presentations for both?

I guess we could do uh, I mean, we have just a short number of speakers, so yeah, we can we can break it up.

Okay, all right.

So I'll do the Westinghouse one first.

Yeah.

Um, let me share my screen.

Oh, there we go.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh the first uh nomination is for Westinghouse Park.

Uh the details of the nomination are that it was nominated on May 27th, 2025 by Preservation Pittsburgh.

It's located in the Point Breeze North neighborhood, and it's in Council District 8, and it's zoned parks.

Here's location map that shows the location of Westinghouse Park in reference to the entire city.

And here is a neighborhood specific map.

Showing it there where the red dot is.

And this is a site plan that shows Westinghouse Park.

Uh so the nomination process for uh local historic landmark has a number of steps.

Um, the first step is a determination of reasonable cause before the historic review commission.

This nomination uh went on July 2nd, 2025 and uh received a positive determination, and then uh went to Historic Review Commission uh on September 3rd, 2025 and received a recommendation to City Council, and then to planning commission on September 9th, 2025, where it also received a positive recommendation to City Council.

Right now we're at the public hearing um December 5th, 2025, and the next step will be a city council vote, the date of that to be determined.

So this uh nomination meets two of the 10 criteria for historic designation.

The first is criteria two, it's identification with a person or persons who significantly contributed to the cultural, historic, architectural, archaeological, or related aspects of the development of the city of Pittsburgh, state of Pennsylvania, Mid-Atlantic region, or the United States, and also criterion six, its location as a site of an important archaeological resource.

Um Westinghouse Park uh retains a high degree of integrity of location design workmanship and materials.

And based on the results of the phase one um archaeological survey that was completed, uh ground disturbance within the Westinghouse site and the grounds of solitude have been minimal.

Um removal of the main house and stable laboratory buildings has resulted in some disturbance within the immediate immediate vicinity of the structures.

It's evidenced by the presence of intact below ground features such as tunnels, gas wells, gas piping.

Um, demolition did not impact the site to any significant degree below the ground surface.

Given the overall good archaeological integrity of the site, geophysical survey was undertaken to further identify associated below ground features.

So our um our city uh Pittsburgh Cultural Heritage Plan that was adopted in 2012 supports uh the Department of City Planning.

Um the Department of City Planning's Cultural Heritage Plan supports designation of city-owned structures.

Uh the following frameworks for the goals for the framework goals for the city are documenting cultural and historic resources, which this is committing to preservation, increasing awareness and recognition of the city's historic resources, and uh being stewards for the system.

This meets specifically the preserve policy 1.2, identify and designate additional historic structures, district sites, and objects.

Um, identify, I don't need to read this whole thing, but basically uh looking to identify um uh assets that are significant or unique for their architecture or engineering and would severely or adversely impact the neighborhood's um form character economic growth if uh uh demolished or negatively altered.

Here are a few historic photos of Westinghouse Park.

Um, the one in the lower right is from the archaeological survey that was done.

Um on that one.

Um so I guess we'll take public comment and then I'll present the second one.

And before before we go to public comment, I do just want to state for the record that uh we are joined by uh councilman Bobby Wilson from the first district.

Um and uh now we could take public comment uh around the Westinghouse Park designation.

And I believe there's two registered speakers.

Yeah, I believe Mr.

Bear is the one.

David Bear.

Hello.

Um, can you hear me now?

We can.

Good afternoon, David.

Hi, sorry.

Uh so as I'm David Baer, and I'm president of the Westinghouse Legacy, and I speak in support of Westinghouse Park's nomination for the Pittsburgh Historic Landmark status.

And I wanted to thank Matthew Falcone and Preservation Pittsburgh for helping advance this application.

Almost seven years ago, to the day in response to neighborhood advocacy, City Council uh proclaimed that December 1st, 2018 was Westinghouse Park Centennial Day.

The declaration marked 100 years since the city acquired solitude, the 10.2 acre estate of George and Marguerite Westinghouse.

Shortly after that declaration, I and other interested individuals organized the Westinghouse Park Second Century Coalition to continue to advocate for the park and to honor the remarkable individual whose name it bears.

A prolific inventor and progressive industrialist whose companies have employed many hundreds of thousands of Pittsburghers, George Westinghouse arguably had a greater impact on the world and modern history than any person who ever called this city home.

His accomplishments and those of the companies that he founded here, including Westinghouse Airbreak, Union Switch and Signal, Westinghouse Electric, and his natural gas empire, the Philadelphia Company, are so vast and so varied, their total impact has never been calculated.

The WP2CC achieved numerous noteworthy accommodation accomplishments, including having the park declared eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and also certified as an arboretum.

Already a wonderful, well-used, well-maintained park.

Westinghouse will only get better in the coming years as the master development plan becomes a reality.

Then three years ago, to be more effective, the WP2CC evolved into the Westinghouse Legacy, which is a Pittsburgh-centric Pennsylvania registered 501c3 nonprofit.

Its mission is to advance advocate for the park and to raise awareness of George Westinghouse throughout Pittsburgh, across the country, and around the world.

Despite George Westinghouse's enormous impact, the Westinghouse Legacy is the only entity on Earth to honor him and advance his ideals and ideas.

Your positive impassion today to designate Westinghouse Park as a Pittsburgh Historic Landmark will both further the declaration that City Council made eight years ago and be a significant step forward in advancing this vision.

Thank you, Mr.

Barron.

Thank you for your words today, as well as for your ongoing advocacy for this historic site.

Our next registered speaker is Mr.

Falcone.

If you're online.

No, he's not on the line.

Okay, so now we can go back to city planning and uh for our our second our second presentation of the day.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh the second presentation is for police station number three, which is also known as the Office of Municipal Investigations Building.

Uh it's located at 2608 Penn Avenue.

Uh this property was nominated on May 28th, 2025.

It was nominated by Preservation Pittsburgh, and it's located in the Strip District neighborhood, which is council district number one.

The zoning is RIV IMU.

Here's a location map showing where this is located in the city in the strip district, as I just said.

Here's the neighborhood map showing the property at the corner of 26th and Penn.

And here's a site plan.

Again, uh the nomination process, uh pretty similar.

It received a determination of reasonable cause from historic review from the historic review commission on July 2nd, 2025.

It received a recommendation, positive recommendation to city council on August 6th, 2025 from the Historic Review Commission.

And the Planning Commission gave it a positive recommendation to City Council on September 9th, 2025.

Today is the public hearing for city council, December 5th, 2025.

And the council vote will come uh at the date to be determined.

So the police station/slash OMI meets three of the criteria for historic designation.

It meets criteria three, it's exemplification of an architectural style, type or design distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design detail, materials, or craftsmanship.

Criterion four, it's identification as the work of an architect, designer, engineer, or builder whose individual work is significant in the history of development of the city of Pittsburgh, the state of Pennsylvania, the mid-Atlantic region, or the United States.

And criteria seven, its association with important cultural or social aspects or events in the history of the city of Pittsburgh, the state of Pennsylvania, the Mid-Atlantic region, or the United States.

Going back to the Pittsburgh Cultural Heritage Plan, uh, city planning supports the designation of city-owned structures.

Um there are several uh pieces of framework goals for the city.

One of them is documenting cultural and historic resources, which this meets.

It's committing to preservation, increasing awareness and recognition of the city's historic resources, and being stewards of the system.

Uh, this particular umination uh meets preserve policy 1.2, identify and designate additional historic structures, districts, sites, and objects.

Um, and we're focusing on structurally sound resources that are significant or unique for their architecture and or engineering and would severely and adversely impact the neighborhood's form character or economic growth potential if demolished or negatively altered.

Uh, here are some recently landmarked city-owned buildings from left, uh 200 Ross Street was designated on October 28th, 2020 and went through the URA's RFP process.

It's currently being redeveloped as housing by Action Housing.

Engine Company 28, which is located in Shady Side was designated uh historic landmark in December 30th, 2021.

The Troy Hill Firehouse was designated on July 21st, 2022.

It went through the URA RFP process and now houses a biotech company.

And 412 Boulevard of the Allies was designated on January 4th, 2023, and it's now home to City URA and uh Housing Authority offices.

So the police station is going to go going to also go through the URA RFP process.

It's expected that that will be released during the first quarter of 2026.

Here's a historic uh image of the police station/slash OMI building.

That's it.

Thank you.

And now uh we will take testimony uh from the public if there is any.

I know the paper I had we didn't have any registered speakers, but I just want to check with Madam Clerk to ensure that is accurate.

Correct.

It was just okay.

So now I want to give an opportunity to my colleague, Councilman Wilson.

I don't know if there if there's any commentary that you want to provide today.

Thank you, Chair.

I did want to ask just if there's more information regarding the reasons why it will qualify.

Yeah, you just say the criteria.

Yeah.

But you want to know why?

Yeah.

Okay.

So the uh exemplification of an architectural style or design.

Um there's a lengthy description in the nomination of why it meets um why it's a sort of a good example of architectural style.

Um it's a it's a public building that uh is sort of modeled after um in a similar way as a lot of other public buildings of the era were um as a sort of Italian kind of um uh archetype of the um the um the large um like what they call the large um bank blank on the word like the the large buildings that were used for housing a lot for um wealthy people in Italy.

Um and so there's a you know there's sort of a hierarchy of um various palazzo palazzos um there's a hierarchy of the the various levels um so this is this is a very common style for that period of time and um there aren't that many examples of it uh existing still um and uh the architect um of this property is sorry I don't have it off the top of my head Edward Stoltz.

Um apologies for not having that off the top of my head uh who did a lot of work in the city of Pittsburgh and the region um and uh is noteworthy for that um this association with important cultural social aspects or events in this history of the city of Pittsburgh is just its um its use as a police station or a public building that's um uh you know heavily uh important in the early development of the strip district and um the surrounding areas okay thanks I'll read more about it uh and I I just wanted to also ask I know you showed an image of like a historic image of it uh from the past what are there any um modifications that have happened to it since uh since that time like the current state of it versus you know like does it still have all the same features that are in that historic photo um yeah it does have a lot of the same historic features there actually I can reshare the presentation if you want to see there is a current image um in um in the presentation let me just reshare this so you can see okay so this is the current image of uh what the front of the police station OMI building looks like so it it has whoops it has probably had um windows replaced but the openings remain the same as you can see there's some pretty extensive um intricate brick work to it um and it looks like the you know the base is still mostly in in place so if you compare that here to the previous image um you know it's it's it's pretty good it's not exact but there haven't been any really uh substantial changes the building to the right of it is no longer um extant so you've got sort of an exposed um wall there that wasn't previously exposed that doesn't really have any um particular architectural features to it so the front of the building is is the most impactful okay all right thanks thank you Mr.

Chair thank you councilman um and I just wanted uh just give a a brief commentary on a bill I'm sure I get it right uh built 2296 and what I want to thank um Mr.

Bear um who's a neighbor of mine uh he actually lives just a couple houses down from me uh for all of his work uh on behalf of the Westinghouse legacy project and lifting up you know a story of as as uh Mr.

Bear said in his eloquent words today, you know, someone who is truly one of the most influential people when it comes to shaping the modern world that we live in and not only the fact that he lived there and all of the technological advances that he was involved with, you know, as as an entrepreneur and an innovator, uh, but also that site, you know, really being um the place that modern electricity was born.

Um, the fact that Nicola Tesla, um, who is a true giant, you know, when it comes to innovative thought, um, spent uh a portion of uh of you know uh of his journey in those laboratories uh where Westinghouse Park is now, um, you know, preparing for the World's Fair and bringing uh modern electricity, you know, to the world.

And you know, really, you know, um, you know, there's few things that were as influential in creating the modern world and the fact that you know the city county building is closed today, but we're still able um to have this public hearing um, you know, using you know technology that George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla, you know, uh helped advance over you know 125 years ago now.

Um so it's just you know really uh amazing.

I think something that all Pittsburghers should be proud of, that the role that you know our city and and and and and our sons and daughters have played, you know, not only transforming this country, but but transforming this world.

So I think it's very fitting um to you know ensure that um that that legacy um you know is solidified into perpetuity and and future generations of Pittsburghers can know um, you know, what transformative people as well as transformative events that have happened here in the city, but in particular uh on the site of Westinghouse Park, which as uh Mr.

Bear said was once uh George Westinghouse's homestead known as Solitude.

Um so I'll I'll I'll conclude uh you know my comments with that, but uh but again, you know, just kudos and and and and and just a thank you to David Baer and all the folks from the Westinghouse Legacy Project for the incredible work that they've done to maintain the legacy of truly, you know, one one of the great Americans who've ever lived.

And being that we have uh no other uh registered speakers and we have exhausted the business of this public meeting, this meeting is now adjourned.

And thank you to the folks at City Planning and the Clerk's Office for their help in pulling this together as well, and I'm gonna be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a