Eyes turn to Fineview gateway

Three neighborhoods are working on projects by enlisting the help of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, with various other partners on two of them.

In the next few days, you can read about each of them here at Walkabout headquarters or on our satellite site on a page 2 Tuesday.

Fineview, Morningside and Lawrenceville, focusing on Upper Lawrenceville, were chosen for funding in 2011 and have recently initiated requests for proposals, consultant interviews and all the other door-step activities to get things going.

The Fineview Citizen’s Council is undertaking the Henderson Street Gateway Project.

That’s where Henderson intersects Federal Street, and it is notable as a neighborhood gateway and as the site of the former Nunnery Hill Incline.

The incline’s retaining wall and a former station — now a residence — at the corner are reminders that once a train climbed, and made an unusual finicular curve, up to Fineview. (The photo at the top, supplied by the CDCP, was taken from Henderson, with the old station shown as a sliver on the right and new housing being constructed on Federal, in the adjacent Central Northside neighborhood. The retaining wall is not in the photo. The photo above was taken during a planning session earlier this year.)

Work would include preservation of the retaining wall, a streetscape improvement and portal indicator.

The total cost is estimated to be $15,000 — $3,000 from the Design Fund, $7,500 in grants from the Rivers Casino and $4,500 in Community Development Block Grants.