Showing posts with label preservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preservation. Show all posts

14 May 2008

Going Downtown

Kudos to Mark Peyko for a wonderfully enlightening tour of downtown's business district. Federal Street has always drawn my attention as I've walked along it, and I will now have a deeper appreciation for its history and its details thanks to the tour.

You can catch another tour next month, so keep your ears open for the date. I have always wanted to learn about the theaters and skyscrapers and department stores and banks here and gone. Mark covered all these and more!

Be sure to check out Lincoln Avenue's interview with Phil Kidd:
One of the things that has impressed me about Phil is his ability to turn ideas into action. I’m excited about all the thoughtful conversation that has developed out of the “thinkers and drinkers” gatherings, but I’m also always a little skeptical about the value of talk. And yet I know from my own experience how easy it is to comment on issues and how much harder it is to go out and do something. But Phil has a philosophy about how to make things happen. He believes that getting people involved means creating opportunities for them to speak and act, and those who have the resources and power to make things happen need to listen to what others want, not just forge ahead on their own. He understands, too, that community engagement is not only a good way to get things done but also a way to transform the community by building relationships and changing attitudes. He also knows how to organize a project, a skill he says he learned in the military.
Audio available here

11 February 2008

make every effort to promote preservation

Attention Youngstown City Council and existing downtown landowners and future ones, Randy at GLUEspace has some things to tell you:
"A new era in urban living is beginning to emerge, and even our most distressed central cities are becoming attractive places to live again. They have certain inherent qualities that the hottest Sunbelt cities can never match: solid, beautiful and abundant historic urban fabric. Because cities such as Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Baltimore and many others boomed prior to the Automobile Age, they were built for people first, and their architectural traditions reflect their distinguished, established legacies.

It is imperative that cities of the Rustbelt make every effort to promote preservation of their aging infrastructure, as these features are their greatest competitive edge."

25 November 2007

Tod Engine Heritage Park Progress Report

The Youngstown Steel Preservation blog has provided its review of the last year. You can read the post here.
"2008 will be a big year for us, and if everything goes as planned it will be the year that the Tod Engine is fully enclosed in a permanent building and restoration work can begin in earnest."

17 November 2007

the history of the Mahoning County Courthouse

The Mahoning Valley History Blog presents a fascinating lesson about the construction of the courthouse downtown.

The cornerstone was laid on June 11 1908 and the structure was composed of lavish terra cotta, marble and Honduran mahogany as county leaders attempted to “build the finest courthouse between Chicago and New York.”


Wonderful pictures throughout the post are displayed, including the first courthouse downtown by the amazing african-american architect P. Ross Berry in 1876.

You will also learn about how Mahoning County came to be (after forming from both Trumbull and Columbiana counties), Youngstown's only execution, and how the historic preservation of the building in the late 1980s won national preservation awards.