Westinghouse Arts Academy receives grant to renovate Westinghouse Castle

Last November, folks gathered on the front lawn of the Westinghouse Castle, which once served as the general office of the Westinghouse Air Brake Co., to hear some good news.

The grand building, which dates back to 1890 and had long been in disrepair, was being brought back to life as home to Turtle Creek Valley Arts and part of an expansion of the Westinghouse Arts Academy in Wilmerding.

Now, the project is receiving a major boost in the form of a $475,000 grant from the Westinghouse Electric Corp. It will help restore the vacant, stately Romanesque/Renaissance Revival building — where George Westinghouse’s office once was — to its former grandeur, and help the Arts Academy Charter School to expand into science and other new curricula, including a culinary arts program.

“It’s going to be providing us with spaces we need to grow and offer resources that will be too expensive to put into our current building,” said Westinghouse Arts Academy CEO Richard Fosbrink.

“We’ll be able to create a science lab, a new pottery studio, a makerspace, a sculpture studio, a digital soundstage for TV and media production, a recording booth for audio, graphic design digital lab, a new painting studio, a print making studio and more,” Fosbrink said.

The Westinghouse Castle has stood over Wilmerding for 130 years and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We are happy to support the amazing work being done by the Westinghouse Arts Academy, both in arts education and historic preservation, bringing back George Westinghouse’s former office to productive use,” said Kevin Drain of Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

“As we work to reboot the legendary Westinghouse brand for a new generation, we are excited to help revitalize the community where so much of the Westinghouse legacy was born,” he said.

Westinghouse Arts Academy will use $225,000 to outfit its new science labs, which will be named after Westinghouse, while $250,000 is for Turtle Creek Valley Arts to support general construction at the castle.

“We hope there will be more funding from foundations and corporations,” said Fosbrink. “It’s not going to get us all the way there, but it will get us moving.”

Turtle Creek Valley Arts will sublet the bulk of the property to Westinghouse Arts Academy but will retain use of the building during non-school hours and days. Turtle Creek Valley Arts will operate it as a nonprofit business devoted to providing arts-based educational services to the community and operating an event facility for weddings and other gatherings.

“Turtle Creek Valley Arts will be using the amazing space to bring together area arts groups of all kinds to assist them with any needed program space and a collaborative environment to share best practices and receive support,” said Lisa Hoffman, chair of the board of Turtle Creek Valley Arts. “TCVA will also be providing direct community-based arts instruction where gaps exist. For instance, the grand events space will include a teaching kitchen for culinary arts instruction.”

Developer Joe Lawrence, who has spearheaded the project to preserve and repurpose the castle, said the Westinghouse Electric Corp. grant is a significant financial push.

“From the developers’ perspective, it means the world to us,” he said. “It means the world to us as a developer, but also to see our tenants and subtenants benefitting is very exciting.”