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Expanding love of the arts
archived from: 2006-10-12
by: Patricia Bartos

Renovation work has begun on a $3.4 million project to convert the former Desks, Inc. building in McKees Rocks into the Sto-Rox Cultural Arts Center.

Some parts of the new arts facility at 420 Chartiers Ave. may be up and running within a year if sufficient funding comes through, according to Father Regis Ryan, executive director of Focus on Renewal, the community services agency that is coordinating the project.

The structure sits across the street from the FOR library.

FOR purchased the building three years ago to house a center that will bring music, dance, drama, crafts and art education and performances into the economically hard-hit community.

The group hosted a kick-off celebration recently to mark the beginning of Phase 2, which will include ripping out walls, excavation and installing concrete foundations, stairwells and steel beams to support the U-shaped mezzanine area, work to be done by Arcon Contractors.

The first phase covered removal of asbestos and interior demolition.

The three-story brick building’s structure is not going to change.

“It’s a wonderful building,” Father Ryan said.

It will provide 26,000 square feet of space for the arts center programs.

Architect John Baverso, a former student of Father Ryan’s at St. Thomas High School in Braddock, is working pro bono designing the project.

Funding of $520,000 covering this new phase came through Allegheny County from the Sanders Task Force decree on eliminating racial discrimination in housing in seven area communities.

“It really evolved from local plaintiffs in the consent decree,” Father Ryan said. “We sat down with them and they thought it was a good idea to improve the quality of life for people in the Rocks and for keeping folks together.”

By the completion next spring of the second phase, the community may be able to use the 120-seat theater on the first floor, Father Ryan said.

The first floor and mezzanine will feature theater space, with classrooms, studios and offices filling the second and third floors. The lower level will house facilities. The entire project should be completed in 2008.

“We’re in the process of approaching foundations,” Father Ryan said of the fund-raising campaign. “They’ve been very responsive. People are very enthusiastic and committed.” The community has already seen positive results.

“Point Park University asked us to team with them in a community outreach partnership,” Father Ryan said.

In the last two years, university teachers and students have been leading classes for children through the high school level.

“Some 200 kids have done performances,” he said. “That’s a big group and their parents, forming a large cohort of folks who are more than interested.”

Father Ryan also wants to entice the region’s many elderly residents through crafts and line dancing classes, plus space for coffee and socializing.

For information, call Sister Sarah Crotty, assistant executive director of FOR, at 412-771-6460, ext. 230. The Web site is www.forstorox.com.

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