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PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2020 • WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
Collection of sculptures elevates the timeless fern

col­ored pen­cils to ren­der the veins, and the fab­ric, orig­i­nally white, was painted in as many as seven lay­ers of acrylic paint to give the fo­liage of each sculp­ture its own sub­tle depth and shade of green.

The tech­niques evolved as she be­came more ob­ses­sive about bo­tan­i­cal ac­cu­racy. For ex­am­ple, she made a sec­ond Christ­mas fern where the leaf­lets were cut sep­a­rately in­stead of to­gether, along with other changes that were more pre­cise. Much of this de­tail came from trips to the Smith­so­nian’s sci­en­tific col­lec­tion of dried plants, an her­bar­ium, at the Na­tional Mu­seum of Nat­u­ral His­tory. Here she could dis­cern the pres­ence and ar­range­ment of hairs along the stems and root pieces, and other mor­pho­log­i­cal de­tails, later fash­ioned from threads of cot­ton or can­vas.

The dis­crete spore leaves of the in­ter­rupted fern looked like a bed of Brillo pads, she said, un­til she could find their more sub­tle con­tours by look­ing much closer.

“If the her­bar­ium was not here, I

couldn’t have done this, not at the qual­ity I was able to do,” she said. “I think I just fell into some­thing in a won­der­ful way.”

Thir­teen of the sculp­tures were to have formed a show at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Md., in April, but

the cor­o­navi­rus put an end to that. Ms. McCrock­lin is search­ing for a new venue, but given the size of the col­lec­tion, her ar­tis­tic per­sonal in­vest­ment and the de­sire to show it in more nor­mal times, she is in no hurry.

She hopes when view­ers see them, they will be more en­gaged in con­ser­va­tion. “To find ideas to help save our planet, we need to tap into as much won­der and cu­ri­os­ity as we can,” she said.

In the gar­den, hardy ferns add a coun­ter­poise to ev­ery­thing else and should be used far more and in greater num­bers. They lodge in the imag­i­na­tion be­cause they are so un­like their neigh­bors. Most gar­den plants are highly evolved, ei­ther through nat­u­ral se­lec­tion or the ar­ti­fice of the plant breeder. When di­no­saurs were trudg­ing around, fern spe­cies found their range of niches and stuck with them with­out feel­ing the need to evolve.

These sur­vi­vors have much to teach us.

“If they could talk to us, they could tell us a few things,” Ms. McCrock­lin said. “They are def­i­nitely do­ing some­thing right, and we are def­i­nitely not.”

FERN, FROM E-5
Debra Halprin
Fashioned from painted sail cloth and wire, each gigantic fern sculpture by artist Sophia McCrocklin took months to complete.
Spectacular views from Mount Washington

trans­ac­tion that would help her move and not have to worry about po­ten­tial re­pairs and un­ex­pected costs that may come with a tra­di­tional sale.”

Mr. Pirain bought the prop­erty for $140,000 in April 2019 and spent seven months gut­ting and ren­o­vat­ing the four-story space.

“We were able to max­i­mize the amaz­ing views and city sky­line from al­most ev­ery level of the home as well as bring­ing in to­day’s mod­ern ame­ni­ties,” he said.

New floor­ing, a new kitchen and new bath­rooms make this a rare “new” sin­gle home on the cov­eted slopes of Mount Wash­ing­ton. Mr. Pirain said it was a big job but well worth the ex­pense and ef­fort.

“I used to live on Bai­ley Avenue just a street away,

and most of my fam­ily has lived in Mount Wash­ing­ton at some point in their life,” he said. “Our fam­ily-owned real es­tate com­pany started in Mount Wash­ing­ton 30-plus years ago with

our first apart­ment build­ing pur­chase, and we have been rep­re­sent­ing buy­ers and sell­ers in the area ever since.”

The prop­erty’s as­sess­ment is $147,100. It is one

of a hand­ful of houses on this side of Wil­liam Street, which is the bor­der be­tween Mount Wash­ing­ton and Al­len­town. Over the past seven years, only two houses have sold, both on the Al­len­town side of Wil­liam Street, for $82,000 in No­vem­ber 2015 and $452,000 in May 2013 (http://​www2.al­le­ghe­ny­county.us/​RealEstate/​Gen­er­alInfo.aspx?).

Once the home was ready for mar­ket, Mr. Pirain in­vited the for­mer owner back to see the trans­for­ma­tion.

“When she walked in af­ter see­ing it com­pleted, she started to cry,” he said. “She was just so happy to see that an­other fam­ily will soon start their own mem­o­ries there.”

Pa­tri­cia She­ri­dan: pshe­ri­dan@post-ga­zette.com.

VIEWS, FROM E-5
Zachary Alden-Brown
The kitchen has an island and a raised view of the living room.
Real estate transfers

Al­le­gheny County

PITTSBURGH

2nd Ward

Riv­er­place Devel­oper LLC to Robert Lauer and Cris­tina Galla, Un­known Ad­dress, $630,597. James Logan to Livia Vis­sat, 320 Fort Duquesne Blvd. Unit 9M, $160,000. Riv­er­place Devel­oper LLC to Paul Trainer and Christa Fandel, Un­known Ad­dress, $827,261. Riv­er­place Devel­oper LLC to 1830 Wa­ter­front LLC, Un­known Ad­dress, $1,048,865.

4th Ward

Rod­ney Gasch to Rus­sell and Sharon Stolle, 166 Dith­ridge St. N G3, $160,000. Marc Lipsitz et al. to Hait and Yen Nguyen, 128 N Craig St. Unit 517, $217,500. Chris­to­pher Abra­ham to Vasi­kan Vi­jayashan­thar and Sara Bella Prizzi, 3266 Ward St. 8, $170,000.

7th Ward

John Val­en­tich to Helen Analo, 100 Den­nis­ton St., $510,000. Nikolos Gur­ney to Nile Iver­son, 5523 Ells­worth Ave. Unit 8 A, $186,500. Mark Asher Schuster­man II to Zi­jian Huang, 363 S High­land Ave. Unit 802, $270,000.

8th Ward

RD Real Estate Debt Fund 2 L.P. to 3 M Hold­ings LLC, 248 S Ma­thilda St., $450,000. Ryan Mul­vaney to Rich­ard and Nancy Co­hen, 211 S Pa­cific Ave., $645,000. Ronak Dixit to Jer­emy Gor­niak and Ash­ley Mathieson, 4790 Yew St., $270,000.

9th Ward

Estate of Lou­ise Shero to Kevin McGuire and Sarah Coblentz, 4018 Arse­nal Pl, $240,000. An­drew Hen­dryx to Carl Fran­zen and Kath­er­ine Drum­mond, 271 Fisk St., $465,000. Da­nielle McCul­lough to John White­foot, 4008 How­ley St., $221,000. Bloom­field Heights Devel­op­ment LLC to HC Prop­erty So­lu­tions LLC, 4055 How­ley St., $215,000. Mar­lene Steiger­wald to PGH1 Realty LLC, 4306 Main St., $110,000. Phi­lip Cu­pe­lli to 4632 Penn Ave LLC, 4632 Penn Ave., $258,750.

10th Ward

In­grid Lamanna to Lois Schertz, 1434 Duffield St., $270,000. Estate of Norene Ocon­nor to Kurt Ditt­mer, 5303 Mc­can­d­less Ave., $94,500. Jer­a­lyn Beach to Harly and Mar­sha Stuyve­sant, 5171 Stan­ton Ave., $240,000.

11th Ward

Frances Spie­gel to Rose Schoy, 610-612 Chis­lett St., $109,000. Jen­ni­fer Scan­lon to Ryan Bron­son Cole, 1111 Far­ragut St., $365,000. Sarah Hugar to Cait­lin McLough­lin, 1355 Heber­ton St., $375,000. Ali­son Sch­meck to Lynelle Jones, 725 N Beatty St., $527,000. Yvonne Gibbs to Lys Real Estate LLC, 237 N Graham St., $73,000. Ste­phen Pierce to Old Re­pub­lic Diver­si­fied Ser­vices Inc., 605 N St. Clair St., $490,000. Old Re­pub­lic Diver­si­fied Ser­vices Inc. to Michelle Hodge, 605 N St. Clair St., $490,000.

14th Ward

Estate of Kath­er­ine Lavonne Kepes to Clif­ford Pokol, 3308 Beech­wood Blvd., $160,000. David Ben­ja­min Jones to Kevin and Ther­ese Con­roy, 543 Hast­ings St., $410,000. Jer­emy Kol­ter to Chris­to­pher and Kath­er­ine Har­ris, 5933 Ho­bart

St., $550,000. Pitts­burgh Ur­ban Re­de­vel­op­ment Au­thor­ity to Icon Lex­ing­ton Pert­ners LLC, of­fice build­ing, 400 N Lex­ing­ton St., $3,275,000. Betsy Peitz to Amber Sun­seri, 6539 Wilkins Ave., $300,000.

15th Ward

George Dar­gay to CMS As­sets LLC, of­fice build­ing, 1156 Green­field Ave., $285,000. Four One Two Prop­er­ties Inc. to Abra­ham Fam­ily In­vest LLC, 174 Mars­den St., $5,000. Joseph Mul­len Jr. to Cyrus and Lily Gir­son, 4336 Mur­ray Ave., $148,650. Don­ald Ec­sedy to Jon­a­than Hughes, 4023 Win­ter­burn Ave., $202,000.

16th Ward

Peoples Prop­erty LLC to Tetyana Per­ero­dova, 2926 Arling­ton Ave., $55,000. Wil­liam Funk to Chester Ciak, 317 Rinne St., $20,000.

17th Ward

Robert Yankus to GT Prop­erty Hold­ings LLC, 166 S 16th St., $120,000. An­dreas Dom­etakis to Mi­chael Toole Jr. and Cody Bai­ley, 40 S 17th St., $280,000.

19th Ward

Sean Con­roy to Char­les Wil­liam Tre­loar, 830 Bay­ridge Ave., $220,722. Greta Daniels to Amber Ma­son and Cody Ma­son Webb, 1649 Creed­moor Ave., $130,000. Pa­tri­cia DiBasilio to Dy­lan Boc­cella and Joce­lyn Uchic, 230 Eutaw St., $225,000. Natalie Nick­er­son to Alec White and Emily Harker, 202 Hal­lock St., $260,000. Kris­tin Dick­er­man to Tyler Peter­son, 715 Hamp­shire Ave., $166,000. John Bianco to H&T Real Estate LLC, 1737 Kiralfy Ave., $17,000. Mil­i­tary War­riors Sup­port Foun­da­tion to David Jo­shua and Rebecca Bosko Marino, 2836 Knowl­son Ave., $168,548. Wil­liam Deighan to Rich­ard Blake­ley, 5 Lelia St., $21,727. James Fareri to Hyde & Dixon Homes LLC, 2258 Lynn­brook Ave., $85,000. Gary Zurawsky to Remi Realty L.P., 1601 Na­po­leon St., $20,000. Con­ner John LLC to Miranda Mi­cire, 2431 Wedge­mere St., $179,000. Pin­na­cle Hold­ings LLC to Ci­ty­life South 2 LLC, 2433 Wood­ward Ave., $228,000.

20th Ward

James Van New­kirk to Banks­ville RE LLC, car deal­er­ship or park­ing ga­rage or car wash, 1523 Banks­ville Road, $220,000. BOO 06 LLC to Ste­phen Joseph and Doreen Marie Car­di­nale, 1348 Car­na­han Road, $340,000. Nghi Quoc Truong to Ash and Eshak Darji, 2678 Win­chester Drive, $195,000. Rich­ard Smith to John Hinda, prop­erty, 1407 Wood­ruff St., $22,504.

22nd Ward

Peter Bech­told to Emily Cottrell, 1243 Buena Vista St., $630,000.

25th Ward

N2 Prop­er­ties L.P. to Eugene Baker and Bri­ane Adams, prop­erty, 239 Car­ring­ton St., $549,000. Chris­tian Hans Haral Ped­ersen to James and Traci Salsi By­cura, 1362 Fed­eral St., $365,000. Adel­bert Taraso­v­ich to Creative So­lu­tions In­vest­ments LLC, prop­erty, Por­ter­field St., $30,000.

26th Ward

Daniel Gra­jeda to Gio­vanni and Cath­er­ine Rob­erts, 2401 Os­good St., $160,000.

28th Ward

Mark Natale to Lisa Hardy, 3979 Chart­iers Ave., $98,000. Lau­ren Grose­close to Vir­ginia Grimm, 404 Fairy­wood St., $16,704.

30th Ward

Su­san Davis to Robin Ben­ja­min, 319 Or­chard Pl, $5,000.

SEE DEEDS, PAGE E-8