Friends of the Zeiss Public Statement For

P.O. Box 1041 Board of Directors,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230-1041 U.S.A. Regional Asset District

Telephone: 412-561-7876 By Glenn A. Walsh:

Electronic Mail: < friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc > Future Status of Historic

Internet Web Site: < http://www.planetarium.cc > Buhl Artifacts in Question

2007 October 29

Good evening, I am Glenn A. Walsh of 633 Royce Avenue, Mount Lebanon,

Project Director of Friends of the Zeiss.

Last month, Port Authority Transit (PAT) agreed to purchase and demolish

The Carnegie Science Center warehouse, for construction of a new rapid

transit station. Presently, in this building are stored a number of historic

artifacts from the original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, including the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector, which, prior to dismantling

in 2002, was the oldest operable major planetarium projector in the world !!!

Originally, these artifacts were to be displayed or used in an expansion of The Carnegie Science Center. In fact, Science Center officials promised that the

Zeiss Projector would be displayed by the end of 2005. Following cancellation

of the original expansion project, they said the Zeiss Projector would be

displayed by the end of 2006. Neither deadline has been met, with very little comment from Science Center officials.

In an October 8 response to my letter of concern regarding the impending

warehouse demolition, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh President David Hillenbrand said that “delay and changes in our expansion project”

resulted in no action to display the artifacts. However, he also stated

that the artifacts would be moved to another storage facility, “until

such time as we determine their ultimate disposition.”

Those last few words are very troubling. The “ultimate disposition”

of the artifacts was spelled-out in the Memoranda of Understanding

with the City as display in the Science Center. We are quite concerned

that the Science Center may wish another “disposition” of the artifacts.

The City has given the Science Center the privilege to display these

artifacts. If the Science Center does not wish to display them, then

they should be returned to the original Buhl Planetarium building,

the only place where they could actually be used to teach science,

and teach science to children visiting the Children’s Museum.

If they are neither displayed in the Science Center, nor used in

the Children’s Museum, we strongly fear that this important

Pittsburgh history could be lost forever.

We ask that you use your influence to insure that these important

Pittsburgh artifacts are returned to the original Buhl Planetarium

building, or at least displayed in the new building expansion planned

by the Science Center. Use or display of these artifacts at the

Children’s Museum or the Science Center are the only reasonable

alternatives; indefinite warehouse storage is completely unacceptable!

Thank you.

gaw