“Projects”
 Client:
SE Technologies, Inc.
Project:
Panhandle Railroad Rails to Trails
Location:
Washington County
Our Role:
Historic Resource Survey Form
CDC surveyed a 17-mile section of the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Washington County. A total of 18 bridges, 2 tunnels, a passenger station, and a freight station were identified. The railroad reflects the impact and role that the county’s rural areas played in a century of national shifts in industry and technology.
Additional Interest: The Panhandle was significant for its association with the coal and coke industry and its impact on the land-use patterns of the communities and farms through which it passed. The railroad steamed through incredible stone tunnels and over bridges in a contrasting landscape of agriculture and coal mines.
 Client:
DMJM+Harris
Project:
North Shore Connector
Location:
City of Pittsburgh
Our Role:
Phase I and II Archaeology, Eligibility for Historic Properties, MOA, Effec
This complex project involves the construction of a subway and tunnel beneath the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh to connect new developments on Pittsburgh’s North Shore with the Central Business District and Convention Center. CDC examined the project’s five alternatives and completed Cultural Resource surveys on the preferred alternative.
Additional Interest: One of the interesting discoveries was the Equitable Gas Company explosion of 1927 near Reedsdale Street on the North Shore. The tank was once the “largest gas tank in the world” and exploded when workers used an acetylene torch to repair what they believed was an “empty” tank. Industries and homes within a 20-mile radius of the tank experienced damage and 26 people were killed.
 Client:
Cranberry Township
Project:
Cranberry Township Development Site
Location:
Cranberry Township, Butler County
Our Role:
Phase I and II Archaeology; Exhibit
CDC found nine archaeological sites dating from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 95 on the rim of an ancient cranberry bog in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. More than 3,400 artifacts were found. The sites date to the Early and Middle Woodland periods and provide a continuum for these cultures in the Brush and Pine Creek watersheds. Native Americans occupying these sites were influenced by complex interregional trade systems known as the Adena and Hopewell Interaction Spheres centered in Ohio.
Additional Interest: Cranberry Township and the Cranberry Historical Society funded an educational exhibit of the archaeological artifacts. In the future, an interpretive sign project will be developed.
 Client:
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Inc.
Project:
Phipps Conservatory
Location:
Pittsburgh
Our Role:
Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form
Henry Phipps gave Pittsburgh its first conservatory, a ‘crystal palace’ designed by one of the nation’s prominent architectural firms, Lord and Burnham of New York. When Phipps Conservatory opened in time for Christmas on December 7, 1893, it was America’s largest conservatory. A few months after the grand opening, the 1894 spring flower show drew over 13,000 visitors. Another prominent architectural firm, Rutan and Russell, designed the adjacent Phipps Halls of Botany in 1901. As the Conservatory grew, other buildings and landscape features were designed by Ralph Griswold, one of Pittsburgh’s most important landscape architects. The Conservatory has been listed on the National Register since 1976.
Client:
Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.
Project:
Hot Metal Bridge Exhibit
Location:
Pittsburgh
Awards:
National Historic Planning Landmarks Award for City of Pittsburgh
“Outstanding Highway Engineering Award 2008″ ASHE Pittsburgh
Our Role:
Section 106 documentation, exhibit concept, design and installation
CDC completed all cultural resource studies for the project including the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Documentation, the Criteria of Effect Report, and an interpretive exhibit at Carnegie-Mellon University Research Institute.
Additional Interest: To preserve their important history and technology, the URA and project engineers worked together to ensure that the rehabilitation efforts were consistent with Federal standards and guidelines. Before any changes were made to the bridges, CDC documented their existing conditions through photographs, original blueprints, and a historical study. CDC also designed an interpretive sign for the Hot Metal Bridge to be placed on the Eliza Furnace Trail. As hikers and bikers cross the famous old bridge, they experience spectacular views of the city and observe the old J&L mill sites now redeveloped as new residential and commercial developments reflecting the latest chapter in Pittsburgh’s history.
Tags: Hot Metal Bridge, South Side Works
 Client:
Pressley Associates, Inc.
Project:
Point State Park Master Plan
Location:
Point State Park, Pittsburgh
Our Role:
Cultural Resource Analysis/ Phase IA Archaeological Survey
CDC prepared the Cultural Resource Analysis of Point State Park as part of the Comprehensive Master Plan. Point State Park is a National Historic Landmark in the City of Pittsburgh and the analysis involved a study of past archaeological projects and recommendations for future work. The project was sponsored by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Riverlife Task Force.
Additional Interest: The cultural resources at Point State Park are of national significance and have been deeply impacted by urban development, highway construction, and the creation of the Park’s landscape. What remains of Fort Pitt, Fort Duquesne, and other archaeological resources at the Point possess a high level of historical importance not only to Pittsburgh, but to the Commonwealth and the Nation. What is viewed on the site today is an interpretation of Fort Pitt based on the work of landscape designers with the input of historians and archaeologists. Military features are reconstructed using mid-20th century bricks created by a local brickmaker based on the color and size of the original Fort Pitt bricks. Significant changes have been made to these features to accommodate the new land-use. And the Fort Pitt landscape is presented in an exclusionary manner as the park primarily interprets only one of its many occupations. Pittsburgh’s famous Point was first a significant place to Native Americans and later to the French, English, and Virginians as well as to the thousands of immigrants who moved to the region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Point also was significant to the region’s industrial powers.
Posted by in Exhibit, Projects
 Client:
Pittsburgh Pirates
Project:
Archaeology in the Outfield Exhibit
Location:
Pittsburgh
Awards:
American Cultural Resource Association 2002
 Our Role:
Phase I & II Surveys; Data Recovery, Historic Structure Survey; Exhibit
CDC completed all cultural resource studies for the PNC Park: Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The General Robinson Site was found buried beneath 17 feet of modern fill. Hundreds of ceramic, glass and wood objects from the 1832 flood were brought to the surface after being buried for 166 years. The collection is one of the earliest and most significant in the City of Pittsburgh. As mitigation for impacts to this site, CDC installed a permanent exhibit at PNC Park to display the artifacts found there.
Additional Interest: The Pirates donated all artifacts, field notes and photographs to Carnegie Museum. Among the important artifacts were a complete wooden door, porcelain from China, a water pitcher from England, and plate with a scene from Don Quixote. General Robinson owned the property that became the Mexican War Streets on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Beneath the artifacts owned by General Robinson was an intact level with Native American arrow points, pottery and corn preserved under 17 feet of concrete and flood deposits.
Posted by in Exhibit, Projects
 Client:
Carnegie Science Center
Project:
General Robinson Site Exhibit
Location:
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County
Our Role:
Exhibit design and installation
The Carnegie Science Center exhibited the first artifacts from the General Robinson Site found beneath PNC Park. In 1832, a catastrophic flood inundated General Robinson’s house on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The family’s possessions ended up in the back yard covered with mud left behind from the floodwaters. Before construction of PNC Park, CDC found the General’s backyard buried beneath 17 feet of modern fill. Hundreds of ceramic, glass and wood objects from the 1832 flood were brought to the surface after being buried for 166 years. The collection is one of the earliest and most significant in the City of Pittsburgh.
Significant 2,000-year old Woodland site found
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