Recent News
- Strada Wins Historic Preservation Award for Mifflin Elementary School Renovation
PITTSBURGH, PA – Strada recently received a Historic Preservation Award from Preservation Pennsylvania recognizing the firm’s role in planning and designing Mifflin Elementary School’s new addition and renovation. The new addition and renovation of the original historic Art Deco school and 1956 building addition were needed to solve accessibility and space issues. Strada led the programming of the new addition creating accessibility, a new gym, cafeteria, and expanding classroom facilities. John Martine, AIA, principal-in-charge of design at Strada, incorporated elements of both the original art deco building and the “modernist” 1956 structure into the new addition. He preserved the original 1956 entrance and incorporated it into the new interior “street.” Alan Cuteri, AIA, principal-in-charge of the project at Strada, also incorporated green design elements into the new addition. “We used natural light to illuminate the interior spaces and gymnasium, provided natural cooling and ventilation through temperature and humidity relief dampers, and specified long-lasting, maintenance-free building materials.” Michael Stern, principal-in-charge of landscape design at Strada, created a new courtyard in the former service driveway/drop off area and designed new landscaping elements around the addition and entrances. Completed last Fall, the school has already received a Historic Preservation Award from Preservation Pennsylvania and will be dedicated on May 20, 2005. As part of the Pittsburgh Public School District, Mifflin Elementary School serves the communities of Hays, Lincoln Place, and New Homestead with 351 students in grades kindergarten through eight. The Mifflin School opened in 1898 in a log farmhouse that was replaced by a wood frame schoolhouse in 1901. In 1929, the school merged with Pittsburgh Public Schools and hired Link, Weber, and Bowers to design a larger building due to overcrowding. This new Art Deco school was completed in 1932 and is recognized as a city and state historic structure. Preservation Pennsylvania is the Commonwealth's only statewide, private non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of historically and architecturally significant properties. In 1985, the Preservation Fund merged with another statewide preservation group, the Pennsylvania Trust for Historic Preservation, and assumed their educational, advocacy, and membership functions. In 1990 the board voted to change the organization's name to Preservation Pennsylvania. In its capacity as the statewide historic preservation organization for Pennsylvania, Preservation Pennsylvania acts as a resource for and provides expertise to the many local and regional preservation organizations and agencies throughout the Commonwealth. Strada, an architecture, interior design, landscape, and urban design firm, is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Strada embraces projects that create places for people including academic buildings, master plans, mixed-use urban developments, corporate offices, and retail spaces.
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