"Gritty Brits: New London Architecture" presents the work of six young firms and opens Friday at Carnegie Museum of Art's Heinz Architectural Center with a talk by African-born London architect David Adjaye. Heinz curator Raymund Ryan organized the exhibit, which comes with a 120-page catalog and runs through June 3.

The six firms -- Adjaye/Associates, Caruso St. John Architects, FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste), Niall McLaughlin Architects, muf, and Sergison Bates architects -- work in London's East End, in neighborhoods that are post-industrial, multicultural and closely associated with young British artists (YBAs, in the vernacular). Their work also is informed by that of British architects and artists of the 1950s and early 1960s and by pop culture.

Adjaye, who has collaborated frequently with artist Chris Ofili, is known for his innovative use of color, materials and light. His free lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. in Carnegie Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., rear, Oakland, and will be followed by a reception on the museum's Hall of Sculpture balcony. Adjaye's talk also opens Carnegie Mellon University's Jill Watson Distinguished Lecture Series, which also features architect, artist and theorist Elizabeth Diller of the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Diller's talk (also free) begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Carnegie Lecture Hall.

MOVING ON

Angelique Bamberg, Pittsburgh's historic preservation planner, has left that position to take a job with the Heinz Endowments. She'll be a program assistant coordinating a new initiative called Downtown Now.

"The idea of it is to take advantage of opportunities that are happening Downtown now as a result of public and private investments and make sure that the Heinz Endowments investments support those opportunities and maintain the momentum that seems to be gathering Downtown," Bamberg said.

It's a part-time position that will allow her more time for two other involvements. She's in her fifth year of teaching in the University of Pittsburgh's historic preservation certificate program, which Pitt is considering expanding to a degree program. The school will hold a day-long symposium on preservation education on Feb. 24 partly to inform its decision.

Bamberg also plans to write a book about Chatham Village, the subject of her master's thesis, which first brought her to Pittsburgh in 1998. Not long after, she joined the city planning department, where she was ever prepared, caring and efficient -- qualities that should serve her and Pittsburgh well in her new roles.

A FULL-TIME FIRST

Thanks to an anonymous donation, the grass-roots, nonprofit Preservation Pittsburgh has hired its first full-time paid staff person: Steven Paul, former Main Street Manager for the Homestead-area Economic Revitalization Corp.

Through the efforts of passionate, dedicated volunteers, Preservation Pittsburgh has had some great successes in its 15 years, including the historic designation of the Oakland Civic Center and St. Nicholas Church on East Ohio Street. But having a paid director should allow it to more consistently focus on and expand its agenda. That includes helping the city develop a community-oriented preservation strategy for the Hill District as development pressures build around a new Penguins arena.

The recent demolition of Eddie's Restaurant at the corner of Wylie Avenue and Kirkpatrick Street, a former hangout of August Wilson, is a case in point, Paul said.

"If a building is slated for demolition," he said, "there needs to be a process that allows time for the community to see if there's historical or cultural significance."

Mellon Arena, the New Granada Theater and the Crawford Grill all present preservation challenges and opportunities in the near future, as do the hundreds of surviving 19th-century houses that make up the fabric of the Hill.

'OAKLAND': SEE IT NOW

"Oakland," the Martin B. Leisser painting that appeared on the cover of the Dec. 25 Post-Gazette, is on view for about two more weeks at Carnegie Museum of Art, by the restrooms near the foot of the Scaife Galleries staircase. Several readers wrote to inquire whether the museum will reproduce the painting as a print. It has no plans to do so.

James Bachman of Squirrel Hill, who is 85, called to say that he remembers visiting Leisser's large studio on Ridge Avenue not too long before the artist's death in 1940. He accompanied his father, who was taking back to Leisser two portraits that he had painted in the 1880s, probably to get them signed. One was painted from life and depicts Simon Bachman, James Bachman's great-great-grandfather, who was visiting from Germany; the other depicts Simon's wife, who didn't make the trip. Leisser painted her image from a daguerreotype.

Bachman said Leisser signed the paintings "MBL, 1884" and brightened Simon's portrait.

"He said, 'We'll give him a clean shirt. He sort of touched up the blue shirt with some white, and I think he put a little more gray in the beard.' "

Bachman has the portraits now, and when he looks at Simon, it pleases him to see a familial resemblance that has passed straight through to his son.