SalvagedPGH.
In a town where desanctified churches morph into breweries and dusty factories are reborn as swanky apartments, repurposing stuff has been elevated to an art form. Pittsburgh has salvage skill.
Source: Treasure hunting: 5 salvage stores you need to explore
Well it was a truly amazing Saturday at Construction Junction in Pittsburgh. To contribute my ideas and vision and energies in the arena of creative repurposing or applied deconstruction was an honor.
Source: An Absolutely Brilliant Chandelier Made From Sparkling Clean Toilet Bowls
A closeup view of the maple top of a bar that Dave Matline and Dave Baldonieri made from an old bowling alley. It was a special award winner in the Reuse Inspiration Contest.
Knowing that Mr. Baldonieri had once used bowling alley wood to make a work bench, Mr. Matlin was delighted to find pieces of maple lanes for sale at Construction Junction, a nonprofit retailer of salvaged and surplus building materials in Point Breeze. But none were quite right for the project. Then he discovered more damaged sections on the loading dock — for free! “We started hacking and whacking,” Mr. Matlin said. “It worked out better than I thought it would.”
Source: This bar may not be art, but it is an inspiring reuse | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Ronald Robertson and Richard Prescott of East Liberty were winners in the 2015 Reuse Inspiration Contest for this 8-by-10-foot wall hanging made from old tin ceiling tiles.
Sept. 1 is the entry deadline for the sixth annual contest co-sponsored by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Construction Junction. There are two categories: • Home renovation — creative re-use of one or more items in renovation of one room or an entire building. • Art — creative re-use of one or more items in a two- or three-dimensional work of art.
Source: Sept. 1 is deadline for Reuse Inspiration Contest | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steve Shelton from the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh stands in front of paneling of reused woods built by his students.
Project RE, is a social enterprise in which trainees and apprentices in the building trades work alongside budding architects making prototypes and products with reclaimed materials in the back of Construction Junction at 214 N. Lexington St. in North Point Breeze. (The RE stands for reuse materials, rebuild communities, restore lives.)
Mr. Shelton, founder of the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh, calls it “a think tank with tools.”
Project RE accumulated $2.3 million in grants from four foundations and Ford Motor Co. support to build a mobile fabrication lab, which is used in the wood shop and as an educational tool in neighborhoods.
via Project RE uses reclaimed materials to restore lives | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Point Breeze-based warehouse for used building materials has teamed up with MARC USA for a year-long “The Environment Is No Joke” campaign, which puts goofy knock-knock jokes on doors that were donated to Construction Junction, then decorated by local artists. Five such featured doors — including a work in progress with a video screen and digital experience — will be displayed throughout Downtown’s Cultural District during Highmark First Night Pittsburgh on New Year’s Eve.
via Construction Junction’s painted doors use jokes to promote recycling | TribLIVE.
From left to right: Steve Shelton, executive director of the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh: John Folan, professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University; and Mike Gable, executive director of Construction Junction.
With $2.3 million in funding support from organizations that include the Heinz Endowments and the Colcom and RK Mellon foundations, Project RE launches as a 10,000 square foot production facility within Construction Junction in which architecture students within the UDBS work with the apprentice laborers from the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh, which operates a few blocks away, to design and build new affordable housing and other prototype products out of reused materials collected by neighboring retail operation.
Ronald Robertson and Richard Prescott of East Liberty made a wall hanging from antique tin ceiling tiles after stripping several layers of paint. They change the colored strip with the seasons.
After stripping off several layers of paint to reveal a gray patina with black, silver and rust tones, they attached them to a poplar frame to create a striking 10- by 6-foot piece of wall art for their dining room. To keep it fresh, they added a strip of wood whose color changes with the seasons.
via Contest winners prove anything can be reused | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Iris Ramos created a lamp from an unknown piece of machinery. She calls it Dr. “Frankenstein’s Laboratory Light.”
In the art category, the winners were Iris Ramos of Homestead for “Dr. Frankenstein’s Laboratory Light”; Cory Bonnet of Ohio Township, who paints Pittsburgh scenes on old oak doors; Jane Freund of Forest Hills for pottery incorporating shards of glass and ceramic; and Scott Allman of O’Hara for knives made from lawn mower blades.
Scott Allman forged a knife and fork set hand from an old lawn mower blade.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
How creative are you?
Long before last year’s Inspiring Salvage Contest, people were finding creative new uses for the recycled and surplus building materials sold at Construction Junction. So the Post-Gazette and the nonprofit retailer in Point Breeze are having the contest again and getting artists involved.
Melissa and Stephen Neely of Point Breeze reused old freezer doors as hanging barn doors.
The Reuse Inspiration Contest is seeking examples of creative reuse in home renovation or art projects. Three winners will be chosen in each of the two categories by judges from the PG and CJ and will receive tickets to the Big Pour beer festival scheduled Sept. 8 at Construction Junction. Photos of the winners’ handiwork will appear in that day’s Post-Gazette and online at post-gazette.com and constructionjunction.org. Some will also be displayed at the sold-out event, a fundraiser for Construction Junction.
Enter online only at http://biz.post-gazette.com/RenovationContest/default.aspx. Entry deadline is Sept. 3. Sorry, last year’s winners are not eligible.
Information: post-gazette.com, kkirkland@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1978.
via How creative are you? Reuse Inspiration Contest finds out – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
