Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 6:44PM |  53°
MENU
Advertisement
The Robert Venturi House at 118 A Woodland Road has been nominated by the Pittsburgh Historic Commission for historic landmark status, despite its poor condition. Its owners are hoping to demolish the structure.
4
MORE

Pittsburgh historic commission recommends famous Venturi house for landmark designation

Rebecca Droke/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh historic commission recommends famous Venturi house for landmark designation

Despite its dilapidated condition, a house on Woodland Road in Squirrel Hill was recommended for historic landmark status because it exemplifies post-modern architecture. 

Members of Pittsburgh’s historic review commission voted 3-2 Wednesday in favor of the nomination by Donald Kortlandt, a city resident and general counsel to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the city’s oldest preservation group. 

Mr. Kortlandt argued that the home deserves the designation because its architect, Robert Venturi, won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1991. Mr. Venturi, who died in September, designed the house with his widow, Denise Scott Brown. The house has attracted architecture enthusiasts from all over the world.

Advertisement

The historic landmark recommendation will be reviewed by the city’s planning commission and then voted on by Pittsburgh City Council. 

A view of the first floor of the Robert Venturi house at 118 A Woodland Road, Squirrel Hill, showing disrepair.
Marylynne Pitz
Historic Venturi house is one step closer to demolition after City Council preliminary vote

Mr. Kortlandt contacted the home’s new owners, William and Patricia Snyder, before he nominated the Venturi house for historic designation. For many years, Mr. Kortlandt said, Betty Abrams had promised to give the home to PHLF. The preservation group would have placed an easement on the property to protect its exterior from being altered and then resold it, he said.

PHLF, Mr. Kortlandt said, never considered buying the house because it doesn’t invest in “high value homes in neighborhoods like this.” The Snyders offered an interest-free, 18-month loan to PHLF so that the organization could take the house apart, store it and rebuild it elsewhere but that plan did not come to fruition, Mr. Kortlandt said. PHLF, Mr. Kortlandt added, wanted a grant, not a loan. The Snyders also offered to give the home to PHLF.

Mrs. Abrams died in February. Stanley Levine, an attorney for the Snyders, said during Wednesday’s hearing that if Mrs. Abrams had truly wanted to preserve the property, she would have offered PHLF a preservation easement while she was alive. 

Advertisement

In a written statement filed with the historic review commission, Mr. Levin said that instead, in her will, Mrs. Abrams’ gave PHLF an option to buy her home but attorneys for her estate and PHLF could not agree on a price.

“It was not a true gift, as it required PHLF to fund and deliver an annuity to Betty Abrams’ two children before her estate was required to transfer title to the house,” Mr. Levine wrote in his statement.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Levine said the Snyders told lawyers for Mrs. Abrams’ estate that they planned to demolish the property and use the land as their back yard. The Snyders are restoring a  significant white home designed by Richard Meier that stands directly in front of the Venturi house. 

Woodland Road, Mr. Levine noted, is a private road restricted to property owners, employees and students of Chatham University and their guests. Tourists who want to see the Venturi house would have to trespass twice by driving on Woodland Road and then on the shared driveway that runs between the Venturi and Meier homes. 

The Robert Venturi House at 118-A Woodland Road in Squirrel Hill won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1991.
Ashley Murray
Pittsburgh City Council votes down historic designation for Venturi house

“The house is in poor condition,” Mr. Levine said, partly because it sits in a gully and “water has drained onto this property for 35 years. There’s a mold infestation and rotten wood.” 

The Snyders bought the Venturi house on July 20 and applied for a demolition permit on July 23. Mr. Kortlandt nominated the house for landmark status on Aug. 3. 

Joel Senchur, a local contractor who said he has remodeled homes in Manchester and the Hill District, told the commission that he talked with Mrs. Abrams’ about repairing the home’s broken windows. Mr. Senchur said the house is in poor condition and also has falling dry wall, mold in its interior walls, many leaks and an ant infestation. Mr. Senchur said the house could be built from scratch for less than what it would cost to preserve it.

Two commission members opposed the nomination.

Architect Karen Loysen said the Venturi house, constructed between 1979 and 1982, went up at a time when construction standards for residential homes were not high.

“It’s not really built all that well,” Ms. Loysen said. Another commission member, Richard Snipe, also opposed the nomination, saying that the home’s workmanship was not worth restoring.

Marylynne Pitz at mpitz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1648 or on Twitter:@mpitzpg

First Published: November 8, 2018, 12:12 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
The two Franks worked with pizza legends Chris Bianco and Chad Robertson to perfect their craft.
1
life
A beloved pizzeria is expanding beyond Brooklyn. First stop, Mt. Lebanon.
Students at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus in Lemont Furnace, walk to class on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
2
news
Penn State to close some commonwealth campuses, President Bendapudi announces
Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.
3
sports
Steelers GM Omar Khan says 'all options are on the table' for 2025 QB plans
Broderick Jones of the Pittsburgh Steelers takes to the field before the game /a at Acrisure Stadium on December 08, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
4
sports
Steelers plan to move Broderick Jones to left tackle
Traffic backs up near Millvale after a multi-vehicle crash closed Route 28 north on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.
5
news
Man dies after possibly jumping from moving vehicle on Route 28 near Etna, police say
The Robert Venturi House at 118 A Woodland Road has been nominated by the Pittsburgh Historic Commission for historic landmark status, despite its poor condition. Its owners are hoping to demolish the structure.  (Rebecca Droke/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Robert Venturi, architect, whose house he designed in Squirrel Hill has been nominated for historic landmark status.  (VSBA, LLC)
The living room of the Robert Venturi House at 118 A Woodland Road in Squirrel Hill. In this 2008 photo it featured a wall of windows and a Roy Lichtenstein print.  (Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette)
A photograph from the 1981 construction of the Abrams house at 118 A Woodland Road. It's a significant post-modern house designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.  (Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
Rebecca Droke/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Advertisement
LATEST ae
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story