Pittsburgh’s Storied History of Philanthropy is Powering PIT’s Future

As Jasmin DeForrest walked through Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) early this summer to catch a flight to a business conference, she lingered at a colorful glass mural recently installed in Concourse A as part of the airport’s Terminal Modernization Program.

“It felt so new and innovative … and it allows us to showcase Pittsburgh in a wonderful light outside of a typical [art] gallery space,” DeForrest said of the work created by artist Sharmistha Ray.

DeForrest, managing director of Arts & Culture at The Heinz Endowments, is acutely aware of how art ends up displayed at an airport.

In 2022, The Heinz Endowments committed $500,000 to the Art in the Airport initiative to fund new artworks, a permanent post security performance stage, and direct support of regional artists.

Besides adding fresh art to the airport campus as it prepares for the opening of the new $1.7 billion terminal this fall, the Endowments’ investment aligns with its “decades-long commitment to using the arts as economic development tools” for Pittsburgh, said DeForrest.

“It’s a natural evolution from Jack Heinz’s original vision,” she said, referring to H.J. “Jack” Heinz II, a grandson of the founder of the global food empire who ran the company from 1941 to 1966 and chaired the family foundation.

He was among the local philanthropists leading efforts after World War II to transform Pittsburgh from a smoke-filled, Rust Belt town to a city with clean air and water, gleaming Downtown office buildings and urban parks.

Heinz wanted a new home for the Pittsburgh Symphony and imagined it could anchor an entire arts district in the city. In 1971, his dream was realized with the opening of Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, a former Downtown movie house that the Endowments restored for $10 million.

The Endowments later teamed with the Benedum Foundation and others to fund the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which oversaw redevelopment of a 14-block area now known as Downtown’s Cultural District and filled with galleries, theaters, offices and residences.

Just as Pittsburgh’s philanthropies decades ago put their resources toward a future beyond steelmaking, they now consider the airport a “critical partner for economic development” for the region, said David Roger, president of the Hillman Family Foundations.

Hillman recently approved a $3.3 million grant to fund outdoor terraces and greenspace at the new terminal. The gift is the largest foundation grant ever committed for a project at the airport.

Since 2018, Hillman has allocated a total of $875,000 to fund an on-site childcare center for airport employees; Presley’s Place, a sensory-friendly space for travelers with special needs; and a monetary prize to commercialize technology showcased at the airport’s 2024 Aviation and Robotics Summit.

“Our view is that it’s critical we have a world-class airport,” said Roger. “It’s really the front door for the city of Pittsburgh and the region and we want to make sure the airport is on the cutting edge of innovation.”

Hillman also played a significant role in helping to shape the region’s economy as it evolved from steelmaking and other heavy manufacturing industries to a center for education, medicine, banking and technology.

Founded by John Hartwell Hillman Jr. in 1951, whose business was industrial chemicals, the foundation for years was steered by his son, Henry L. Hillman, who diversified the company and became an early investor in Silicon Valley tech firms.

The Hillmans and others, including the Heinz family and heirs of the Mellon Bank founders, helped to build “a larger presence of institutional philanthropy” in Pittsburgh compared with cities of similar size, said Roger.

“Their fortunes were made here and the families of those fortunes wanted that money to stay in Pittsburgh,” he said.

Foundations also helped to fill the gap created when corporate behemoths dramatically downsized or left town in the 1970s and 1980s, including Gulf Oil, Rockwell International, U.S. Steel, Westinghouse Electric, Dravo, and Jones & Laughlin Steel.

Hillman dollars funded the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and research for advanced life sciences and technologies at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University.

“Biotech and technology were always on [Henry Hillman’s] mind,” said Roger.

Hillman was also among the foundations involved in what’s known as the first Pittsburgh Renaissance after World War II. Richard King Mellon partnered with Mayor David L. Lawrence in the 1940s to spearhead that effort to revitalize the city.

One landmark that emerged from their efforts was Downtown’s Mellon Square, a park featuring fountains and terrazzo paving that sits atop a parking garage near what was formerly Mellon Bank’s headquarters in the central business district. The garage is managed by the city’s parking authority.

“It was an urban oasis … and a blend of civic, corporate and philanthropic interests each playing their roles,” said Kathleen Buechel, executive director of the Benter Foundation and editor of the 2021 book, “A Gift of Belief: Philanthropy and the Forging of Pittsburgh,” published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Buechel said Pittsburgh “has been unique in the convergence of public-private partnerships” between its philanthropies and local government entities.

Recent investments by foundations at the airport, which is operated by the Allegheny County Airport Authority, “are continuing that tradition,” Buechel said.

Mellon’s foundation, created in 1947, is the largest in the region with assets of $3 billion. Since the collapse of the steel industry, the foundation has prioritized economic development initiatives that have helped spur job growth and redevelopment.

A prime example is Hazelwood Green — a 178-acre site that straddles the Monongahela River and was formerly occupied by a steel mill.

In partnership with the Benedum and McCune foundations and the Heinz Endowments, the foundation bought the brownfield in 2002 for $10 million and is filling it with facilities for advanced technology research, startup businesses, residences and recreation. (McCune sold its share in the development to the Richard King Mellon Foundation in 2015.)

Last year, construction started on two complexes at Hazelwood Green that clearly illustrate what businesses are powering Pittsburgh’s new economy.

One, the University of Pittsburgh BioForge, is a research and development center focused on cell and gene therapies and treatments. It includes labs, manufacturing and incubator spaces. The other, Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Innovation Center, will house space for research, education and commercialization opportunities in robotics and artificial intelligence.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation allocated its largest grant ever, $100 million, for the BioForge and provided $45 million for the Robotics Innovation Center.

The foundations are crucial to bringing such projects to fruition, said Roger of the Hillman Family Foundations.

“In the 1980s, with the steel industry in decline and stagnant, it was important … for that transformation to ‘eds and meds’ that new facilities be built and for there to be investment in infrastructure and research,” said Roger.

“Having the [foundations’] assets available at that time was key.”

At the airport, the Richard King Mellon Foundation has made grants of $1 million for Neighborhood 91, an advanced manufacturing campus on airport property; and $2 million for landscaped terraces at the new terminal that will provide travelers access to the outdoors.

Vince Gastgeb, the airport authority’s chief government and corporate affairs officer, said much of the philanthropic investment at the airport goes to “projects that would not typically be funded by the airlines” including the childcare center, art and the outdoor terraces.

“We have been very intentional to foster partnerships with local foundations where we can provide value to them by amplifying the missions they have to support workforce development, mental health, arts & culture and education, just to name a few,” said Gastgeb.

Other philanthropic gifts to the airport include $200,000 from the Benedum Foundation for the childcare center; $75,000 from the Edith L. Trees Charitable Trust, $35,000 from the FISA Foundation and $5,000 from the Pittsburgh Foundation for Presley’s Place; $30,000 from the Arconic Foundation for PIT2Work, an on-site training program for skilled trades workers; $86,000 from Benedum for the West Virginia Retail Concept, a pilot project in the airside terminal to highlight West Virginia-based vendors and organizations; and $150,000 from Staunton Farm Foundation for a mental health awareness campaign featuring videos at nine kiosks throughout the airport. “We wanted to eliminate the stigma around receiving mental health treatment,” said Monique Jackson, executive director of Staunton Farm Foundation.

Roger recalled that as plans were unveiled for the new terminal, Hillman’s staff asked Airport Authority Chief Executive Christina Cassotis, “What are you missing?”

She mentioned the childcare center for employees, which Hillman ultimately funded because, “It’s an important, out-of-the-box concept,” Roger said.

Cassotis later approached Roger directly about supporting a prize for the 2024 Aviation and Robotics Summit.

Hillman’s $75,000 grant was awarded to Formica ProtoFab, a Pittsburgh company that developed a mapping tool that can be retrofitted across airport ground vehicles to collect data and improve efficiency of operations such as snow removal, deicing and painting. The grant will be used to commercialize the system.

“They knew Hillman was interested in innovation,” said Roger. “We thought it was a terrific idea and we did it.”