Craft and Food Production Incubator Space (1527 Brighton Road)

Funding: Privately Funded, Donations Accepted

Status: Actively being developed. Commercial garage in back of the garden is under development and will be used for tool share, produce and food craft preparation area. Shared labeling, packaging and commercial kitchen will be used as an incubator space for food and craft producers an seller. Garden portion of lot has been 80% developed.

Project Manager: Brad Spencer

Designer: Elena Firsova

Organization: Green for Profit Enterprise

Brighton Corridor Value: This highly visible lot is one of the key development areas which will help change negative perceptions of Brighton corridor.

Allegheny Market House Cooperative Value: The creation of a production space will further prove the Allegheny Market House Cooperative Business Development Initiative Information Here Future funding depends on visible progress and proof of concept. AMHC is a non profit market house initiative which shall use private grass roots food producers and sellers to fill its shelves. 1527 Brighton and back commercial garage is the first private food production space with a focus on incubating small businesses.

Green House Description:  The 1527 Brighton road green house will be used to teach grassroots business owners how to plant, grow and harvest food. Along with the  commercial kitchen and packaging area the community will be able to see local enterprise possibilities in our food system from beginning to end.

 

 

 

Craft and Food Production Incubator Space (1527 Brighton Road)

North Side Slopes Arboretum-Greenway

Western PA Conservancy Brighton Lot

Corner of Brighton Road and California Street

McCullough Street Garden

Martha Graham Memorial & Humming Bird Sanctuary

AMHC/TreeVitalize Brighton Corridor Street Tree Planting Initiative

North Side Slopes Arboretum-Greenway

Intro: A long swath of urban forest filled with deer abandoned foundations and sweeping city views is the location for this project. Plantings for animal cover, removal of debris and digging a small pond on one the slope terraces is currently taking place. Fruit trees and wild berries will be planted in the natural environment and the original animal trails will be untouched save for some erosion controls. There is a very old Belgium block street several feet below ground along a portion of the slopes which will be uncovered to make a small foot path. Public art may be added along some of the winding paths or inside some of the abandoned foundations. West Jefferson Street has a buried brick sidewalk which will be uncovered which will act as a scenic path along the border of the arboretum which allows for easy viewing of many beautiful terraces.

Funding: none

Status May 2009: During the winter of 2008 and Spring of 2009 AMHC volunteers pressed for inclusion of this greenway into the Central Northside Neighborhood Council plans. Pfaffman and Associates has included the greenway plan into the CNNCs plans. This is consistent with AMHCs Growing Community" master plan. California-Kirkbride does not have greenway plans yet however AMHC has dedicated an exhaustive number of hours from multiple members in attempting this inclusion.

Project Manager: none

Needs: City owned properties should be moved into a land trust. URA is a possible entity able to do this. Local CDCs would be best to manage this effort. 

Collaborators & allies: The Slopes Working group and Western PA Conservancy may be a resource. Association with a Landscape Architecture department and public art installation organization should be found. Need direction and leadership to see it through.

Challenges: Bringing in volunteers without informing speculators – lots need to be secured or else work in the area will likely need to halt.

 Positives: The south facing greenway faces a very near downtown Pittsburgh so the very natural feeling area with an urban backdrop is absolutely gorgeous. The site is filled with remnants of the 1800s which gives the terrace and trail volunteers a sense of discovery. Just recently we exposed a gothic marble mantelpiece buried in one of the terraces. Old clean brick is plentiful for reuse.

Martha Graham Memorial & Hummingbird Garden:         DRAFT

A Memorial garden as a means of revitalization of Brighton Pl

Background on Proposed Martha Graham Memorial & Hummingbird Garden

Approximate Square Footage: 15,000sf.

Among five vacant lots on Brighton Pl is the Martha Graham childhood home. A garden and memorial is proposed at the Martha Graham site which will include a memorial to Martha Graham and a hummingbird sanctuary.

Institutionalization of Brighton Place: Reason for the Martha Graham Vacant Lot.

Brighton Place is an at risk street bordering the Western Mexican War Streets. Historic buildings are deteriorating and under threat of being demolished. The majority of homeowners who once owned the row houses on Brighton Pl either fled or sold out to section 8 and low income subsidized housing groups. The critical mass of institutional ownership can be seen in the frequent chain link fences and the impersonalized stoops and windows. Swaths of land where recent demolitions occurred pock the streetscape and houses are boarded up. The street was a major part of a Mistick nominated National Historic District called the “The Old Allegheny Rows” similar to the designation of Allegheny West and the Mexican War Streets. Mistick sold his property and the Martha Graham row was demolished within a year as well as other buildings on Brighton Rd. Mistick is now focused on new construction. The end of Brighton Pl is a chain link fence dead end where the historic street grid has been somehow purchased and developed by Mistick – disconnecting Brighton Pl from the rest of the Northside.

Proposed new Garden:

Hummingbird memorial garden which connects hummingbird flocks to strategic hummingbird plantings to other Northside gardens and the slopes in the Central Northside. The plantings in the garden attract humming birds and reconnect Brighton Pl with the Northside. The proposed garden memorializes Martha Graham, her life and her work. The garden may also memorialize the struggle to save Brighton Pl from demolition. Funding will be sought through the various Martha Graham foundations, dance and performing arts institutions, residents of Brighton Place and others. Please contact Elena Firsova Firjya@gmail.com for more information.

Background on Martha Graham:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham

In 1998, Time magazine named Martha Graham as the dancer of the century, a creative icon on a par with James Joyce and Pablo Picasso.  http://www.londondance.com/content.asp?CategoryID=1300

The Historic University Of Pittsburgh maps confirms the location. 1901 Volume 1 - Allegheny City: Wards 1-8, 12 and 13: Plate 5

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/maps/showmap.pl?client=maps&image=01v01p05&levels=5&originx=6818&originy=4118&lastlevel=1&fullheight=6464&fullwidth=8528&level=1&size=1&tnail.x=127&tnail.y=63

Brighton Corridor Business District Value: A major memorial and garden on Brighton Pl will attract Pittsburgh wide dance and history enthusiasts. This Brighton destination will add to the success of future Brighton businesses.

Martha Graham Garden Property Ownership:

Land abutting the site of the Martha Graham home is owned by a nonexistent and heavily tax delinquent group called Northside Tenants Organization.

Art work used to conceptualize the Martha Graham Memorial.

Freedom Corner:

After the URA removed 1,300 buildings, 413 businesses and 8,000 people from the Hill, a billboard appeared near Crawford Street and Centre Avenue. "Attention: City Hall and the URA," it read. "NO Redevelopment Beyond This Point."

The message worked. Further demolition of the Hill stopped at an intersection known as "Freedom Corner."

http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20000521eastliberty1.asp

Martha Graham