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Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to Relocate Pittsburgh Headquarters to Washington’s Landing
Reclaimed Brownfield Site Along Allegheny River Offers
Office, Meeting and Lab Space for
Pennsylvania’s First Conservancy
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. December 11, 2006.) The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) has purchased 800 Waterfront Place on Washington’s Landing for use as the Pittsburgh headquarters of Pennsylvania’s first nonprofit conservancy. WPC headquarters are presently located downtown in the Burke Building, located at 800 Waterfront Drive.
E. Michael Boyle, Chairman of the board of directors and Acting President explains, “The idea of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy moving to riverfront land in the city that has been reclaimed and restored from a state of deterioration and abandonment symbolizes the commitment that WPC has to protecting and conserving our region’s natural resources. The Conservancy’s hands-on conservation work has greatly expanded during the past decade. As the number of staff members working in the Pittsburgh office has grown from 22 in 1996 to nearly 70, the space needs have far exceeded the capacity of our current location. Beginning in 2005, efforts were undertaken to address WPC’s space needs.”
Seventy-one locations within the immediate Pittsburgh area were initially identified and the field was subsequently narrowed to ten properties. In evaluating properties, the WPC considered the factors of affordability, location, building qualities and amenities.
Boyle continues, “The building on Washington's Landing will suit our needs into the foreseeable future with significantly increased and more efficient office space as well as lab space, meeting space, natural lighting, outdoor green space, direct access to bike trails, free parking and other amenities. We anticipate moving in the spring.”
Washington's Landing was formerly known as Herr's Island and is a 42-acre island on the western banks of the Allegheny River, near the 31st Street Bridge. The island is a once-blighted brownfield that has been reclaimed and redeveloped into a multi-use development with commercial buildings, recreational facilities that include a rowing center, riverfront trails and marina as well as a restaurant and residential area.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy will seek to find an appropriate buyer for the historically-significant Burke Building, which was built in 1836 and is downtown Pittsburgh’s earliest surviving office building. The Conservancy renovated the Burke Building in 1996 using environmentally sustainable approaches that have less impact on the natural environment, such as energy-saving heating and cooling systems and low-toxic and non-toxic building materials.
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About the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy:
Since its founding in 1932, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected more than 212,000 acres of natural lands in Pennsylvania, restored watersheds and saved natural habitats for a diversity of life and uses. The Conservancy has been responsible for the founding of six state parks, including Ohiopyle, Laurel Ridge, McConnell’s Mill, Moraine, Oil Creek and Erie Bluffs. In addition, WPC created the 300-acre Wildflower Reserve at Raccoon Creek State Park, and added land to Blue Knob State Park.
The WPC also preserves Fallingwater®, the masterpiece home designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar J. Kaufmann in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann jr. (sic) entrusted Fallingwater to the Conservancy. Today, WPC continues its award winning preservation efforts and offers a wide variety of educational programs to more than 135,000 annual visitors. The preservation of Fallingwater is a symbol of living in harmony with nature.
Each year, WPC also partners with 5,000 volunteers and dozens of community organizations and businesses to plant and maintain more than 135 gardens and greening projects in 20 western Pennsylvania counties.
A high resolution photograph is available upon request.
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