Glenn A. Walsh
633 Royce Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15243-1149
Telephone: 412-561-7876
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Internet Web Site: < http://www.planetarium.cc >
Statement Before the Council of the City of Pittsburgh
Regarding Bill Number 1436
2001 March 6 Tuesday
Good morning. My name is Glenn A. Walsh and I reside at 633 Royce Avenue in Mount Lebanon. I was employed with The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science for nearly ten years. And, as many of you know, I have been working for more than seven years to help the City of Pittsburgh find a new tenant for the Buhl Planetarium building in Allegheny Center.
At this time, I want to make public my support for the passage of Bill 1436, introduced on February 27, which provides for the leasing of the Hazlett Theatre in Carnegie Hall to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. Due to an urban renewal project in the early 1970s, the interior of this entire Carnegie Library and Music Hall building was gutted. Regrettably, there is nothing original left in Carnegie Hall to preserve. The Children's Museum can only have a positive influence on the future of the Hazlett Theatre in Carnegie Hall.
Although I do support Bill 1436, I have grave reservations regarding the Children's Museum's current proposal to reuse the Buhl Planetarium building. The Children's Museum's current plans treat the interior of the Buhl Planetarium as an empty shell, with little consideration for several historic aspects of the interior.
One of the proposed changes I strongly oppose is the conversion of the Planetarium Theater into a Travelling Exhibits Gallery. Presently, the Planetarium Theater is home to the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector, now the oldest operable, major planetarium projector in the world! The Zeiss II was the first projector in the world to be placed on an elevator, a fairly unique worm-gear elevator custom-made by Westinghouse. This elevator lowers the projector below the floor, when the projector is not in use.
For the constellation pictures to be astronomically accurate, the Zeiss II must project the stars onto a 65-foot diameter dome, as was built at the original Buhl Planetarium. It could not be used in the 50-foot diameter domed Planetarium Theater in The Carnegie Science Center.
The Science Center now claims that they will construct a new, second planetarium theater specifically for the Zeiss II, as part of their $90 million expansion project. They have not agreed to also preserve the custom-made Westinghouse elevator.
Will this new theater be built, if the Science Center fails to raise the entire $90 million? Does the Science Center really need two planetarium theaters in the same building?
If the Children's Museum requires that the Zeiss II be removed from the Buhl Planetarium building, prior to the completion of the Science Center's $90 million expansion, it will be disassembled and placed in storage. If this happens, I fear the Zeiss II will never be reassembled-or if it is reassembled, it will not be placed in a theater with a 65-foot diameter dome. Hence, it would never again project the stars. Pittsburgh would no longer have the oldest operable, major planetarium projector in the world!
On Thursday, I, and a few other supporters of preserving the historic Buhl artifacts, will have a meeting with Ms. Jane Werner, Executive Director of the Children's Museum. I cannot predict that this meeting will develop a consensus on these issues. However, a dialogue is beginning. Thank you.
gaw