A historic building in Pittsburgh’s Strip District is being demolished. There’s no question that demolition was the only economically viable alternative for the former Federal Cold Storage Company building. I had known about the building for decades: its giant illuminated fish had been a familiar sight that I fondly recalled from living in the city during the 1990s. In 2020, a developer found the right combination of plans and financing to convert the property from an abandoned industrial warehouse into a new mixed-use development. But first, the historic building had to be demolished.
If they raze the Wholey’s building, someone has to find a new place for the fish. #Pittsburgh icon. pic.twitter.com/7vZmFt16EB
— emily (@em_chris10sen) November 19, 2020
Like me, lots of Pittsburgh residents had loved the fish sign. My attachments to the building went deeper, though. I found its industrial design and history interesting and that history dovetailed with my research interests. I have written on the history of Pittsburgh’s food-related industries and the industrial architectural and landscapes associated with it. Additionally, I had written a history of an Alexandria, Virginia, ice plant — a related historic property type. In 2020, I learned more about the building’s history and its roles in Pittsburgh labor and organized crime history.
In the end, the strikers won raises, but didn't win total union control of produce distribution. Further strikes were threatened at Federal Cold Storage (later the Wholey's building in the Strip), but labor peace prevailed. pic.twitter.com/sFlELWJohG
— Find me at rbpitt.bsky.social (@redpghblog) September 13, 2021
As demolition activities ramped up, I looked up historic preservation documentation for the building. I found a 13-page “history” parked in a difficult-to-use Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission database (go ahead, click the link and try to find the report for yourself) and I began asking questions about consultations with stakeholders ahead of demolition. Those explorations led to me to examine the complicated issues of “mitigation” and the confusing and siloed regulatory frameworks for urban planning and historic preservation.
Former Federal Cold Storage Company annex and ice plant, December 24, 2021. The 7-story main building is the next to be demolished.
Stay tuned as I follow the conversion of the former Federal Cold Storage Company building site from an iconic historic landmark into something new. The first article in this project appeared last week in The Metropole, the Urban History Association’s blog.
© 2021 D.S. Rotenstein
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