Press

2015 ReClaim Northside Ambassador and Fineview resident Nicole Flaherty is helping reclaim a lot that was left vacant 25 years ago by a house fire. The site will be peaceful gathering space open to anyone who lives or visits the neighborhood.

A weedy lot near the Propel Northside charter school will become a classroom when students return, thanks to the owner’s donation of its use for the benefit of children. It’s just a small lot, 24 by 40 feet. You can’t see it from the nearby thoroughfare, Brighton Road, because it’s behind a house. It’s one weedy lot among thousands in the city. But a vacant lot that eases so generously to a higher purpose is notable. It could serve as…

Henry “Hank” Gostkowski, 66, was approved as one of the ambassadors for the projects, which began in May. He planned to build a volleyball court in memory of his wife, Rachel, so that his granddaughter and other neighborhood children in the city’s 6th Ward could have a place to play. Each of the 10 ambassadors were given a $3,000 grant for their project. “I was lucky to be chosen as one,” Mr. Gostkowski said. However, the lot he wanted to…

412Build, a new program developed by Innovation Works (Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southwestern PA) in the East Liberty area of Pittsburgh, is doing its part, encouraging teens to consider high-tech careers. The initiative instructs participants in the use of advanced manufacturing equipment, product design and the basics of starting a business. And the impact goes beyond the enrolled young people -- during each of two five-week sessions, students use their new skills to improve local neighborhoods, helping them become…

There’s an old saying that Pittsburgh business and government leaders have an ability to come together to transform the city. That may have been true in the 1940s and 1950s; today, the dynamic is more complex. In the wake of the collapse of the steel industry, many rust belt cities rolled up their sidewalks for a long time, says Grant Oliphant, president of the Heinz Endowments. Pittsburgh, however, had the foundation community that continued to invest. Even while the city…

Imagine having the chance to pitch your entrepreneurial idea to the executives at Google. Imagine being 17 and having that chance. That’s just part of 412 Build, a five-week program that accepted its second cohort of 12 teenagers last week. With funding from the Hillman Foundation and using Chromebook computers donated by Google, the entrepreneurial training program brings the nonprofits GTECH Strategies and City of Play together with the TechShop, Innovation Works and AlphaLab Gear on behalf of young people…

Each August for the past three years, GTECH Strategies has hosted a fundraiser—Two Wheels Lots of Green—that is not your typical high-priced schmooze fest. Their take on fundraiser begins with a guided bike tour through a community that is seeing a spate of resident-driven development—and ends with a party at a former vacant lot, now the Wigle Whiskey Barrelhouse and Whiskey Garden.

GTECH Strategies says its Fourth Annual “Two Wheels Lots of Green” bicycle event Aug. 22 “is not your typical high-priced schmooze fest.” That’s an understatement. It begins with guided bike tours from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. through a community that is experiencing “a spate of resident-driven development” and ends with a party at a former vacant lot, now the site of the Wigle Whiskey Barrelhouse and Whiskey Garden in Spring Garden.

Nine McKeesport residents will be honored as graduates of the ReClaim McKeesport program during a ceremony to be held Sept. 30 at the McKeesport Heritage Center.

GTECH landlord Craig Marcus explains the effects of installing an array of 54 solar panels on the roof of the building and 52 panels on a shed behind it. The array is expected to pay for themselves in five to six years. Then, Mr. Marcus will be able to sell excess energy back to the power company while his tenants, GTECH Strategies and Grow Pittsburgh, get 70 percent of their electrical needs supplied by solar.

GTECH's annual Wethoptober fundraiser is featured in NEXTPittsburgh's column Eat. Drink. Do., as the "Do." for the week.

Nine GTECH Ambassador projects were celebrated Wednesday at a graduation ceremony for the first class of ReClaim McKeesport ambassadors at McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center.