August Wilson Center for African American Culture

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August Wilson Cultural Center
AugustWilsonCenter-Pittsburgh-2019.jpg
August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Address980 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
United States
Coordinates 40°26′36″N79°59′45″W / 40.4433°N 79.9957°W / 40.4433; -79.9957 Coordinates: 40°26′36″N79°59′45″W / 40.4433°N 79.9957°W / 40.4433; -79.9957
OwnerAugust Wilson Cultural Center
TypeTheater
Capacity 472
Current usePerforming arts center
Construction
OpenedSeptember 17, 2009
ArchitectAllison G. Williams, Perkins and Will
Website
aacc-awc.org
The 2009 grand opening August Wilson Center diversity grand opening (3863909232).jpg
The 2009 grand opening
The stage August Wilson Center Pittsburgh stage.jpg
The stage

August Wilson Cultural Center is a U.S. nonprofit arts organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that presents performing and visual arts programs that celebrate the contributions of African Americans not only in Western Pennsylvania, but nationally and internationally.

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The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe, which is 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.

Pittsburgh City in western Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. A population of about 301,048 residents live within the city limits, making it the 66th-largest city in the U.S. The metropolitan population of 2,324,743 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 27th-largest in the U.S.

Pennsylvania U.S. state in the United States

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the Northeastern, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.

Contents

The August Wilson Cultural Center building is on Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District. It includes galleries, classrooms, a 500-seat theater, a gift shop, a cafe, and many multi-purpose spaces for visual and performing art. The museum opened in 2009.

Liberty Avenue (Pittsburgh) street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Liberty Avenue is a major thoroughfare starting in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, just outside Point State Park. Liberty Ave. runs through Downtown Pittsburgh, the Strip District, Bloomfield, and ends in the neighborhood of Shadyside at its intersection with Centre Avenue and Aiken Avenue.

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Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose joining forms the Ohio River. The "triangle" is bounded by the two rivers. The area features offices for major corporations such as PNC Bank, U.S. Steel, PPG, Bank of New York Mellon, Heinz, Federated Investors and Alcoa. It is where the fortunes of such industrial barons as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Henry J. Heinz, Andrew Mellon and George Westinghouse were made. It contains the site where the French fort, Fort Duquesne, once stood.

The Cultural District is a fourteen-square block area in Downtown Pittsburgh, USA bordered by the Allegheny River on the north, Tenth Street on the east, Stanwix Street on the west, and Liberty Avenue on the south.

History

The August Wilson Center was part of a plan drawn up by Pittsburgh NAACP President Tim Stevens in 1996 in order to try and bring the National NAACP Convention to Pittsburgh. In the plan, there was a statement that urged the Mayor of Pittsburgh to provide financial backing for an African American Museum. Later in 1996, then-Mayor Tom Murphy charged two City Council Members, Sala Udin and Valerie McDonald with bringing stakeholders together to discuss the museum's future. Funding from various sources, including the URA, State of Pennsylvania, and The Heinz Endowments came together to begin construction of the center. The land on which the center sits was taken by eminent domain and sold to the museum for $1. The center celebrated its "topping off" ceremony on August 12th, 2008 at 12:30 PM. Construction was completed shortly thereafter and the museum was open to the full public on September 17th and 19th of 2009. [1]

The August Wilson Center was designed under the direction of Allison G. Williams, FAIA and members of her team from her San Francisco office of Perkins and Will. During the design of this project, AI merged with MBT Architecture and then was subsequently bought by Perkins+Will. The project design was completed in the San Francisco office of Perkins+Will. Team members included Greg Lehman, Sally Curtis, Stacie Velten. [2]

Perkins and Will is an American architecture and design firm established in 1935.

Debt troubles

The center struggled to pay off its construction debt from 2012, on January 20, 2014 a federal bankruptcy official reported that the center's debt situation might be irreversible. [3] Subsequently, a federal court ruled on January 27, 2014 that the center's liquidation could begin to pay off debts. [4]

In February 2014 concerned stakeholders started a website to raise funds for the center. [5] After numerous court cases, the center was sold at a sheriff's sale on November 3, 2014 to the mortgage holder, Dollar Bank for $1,912.50. [6]

On November 5, 2014 Dollar Bank sold the center to a nonprofit consortium for $7.9 million. The consortium included contributions from private foundations: $2.45 million from the Heinz Endowments, $2.35 million from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, $500,000 from the Pittsburgh Foundation and $500,000 from the Thomas Tull Family Foundation. Public sources contributed another $3.15 million: $1.65 million from the Urban Redevelopment Authority and $1.5 million from the Allegheny Regional Asset District. [7]

The court-appointed conservator had originally agreed to sell the building to a private developer, 980 Liberty Partners for $9.5 million, who had planned to build a hotel on top of the center. Pittsburgh Major Bill Peduto, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and the URA fought the bid. 980 Liberty Partners withdrew in a September 2014 settlement that favored the consortium of local foundations. 980 Liberty partners was reimbursed $360,000 from URA's share of the purchase price. [7]

By 2019, the center was on a solid financial foundation, having ended 2018 with a budget surplus and was building a capital reserve. [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-10-15. Retrieved 2014-09-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ "The August Wilson Center being built". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Pittsburgh. 2014-08-30. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
  3. ↑ "Conservator asks to liquidate August Wilson Center assets". Post-gazette.com. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  4. ↑ "Wilson Center sale gets go-ahead from judge". Post-gazette.com. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  5. ↑ "Website to raise funds for Wilson Center". Post-gazette.com. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  6. ↑ "Dollar Bank buys August Wilson Center for $1,912.50". Post-gazette.com. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  7. 1 2 Belko, Mark (2014-11-05). "Dollar Bank sells August Wilson Center to three Pittsburgh foundations". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Pittsburgh. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  8. ↑ "August Wilson Center Stabilizes, Plans For The Future". 90.5 WESA. Pittsburgh. 2019-02-11. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
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