John Heller, Post-Gazette photos John Ross in his Meter Room, a gallery and event space in Sheraden. It will be the site of this year's Cool Space Awards program.

By Diana Nelson Jones
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Early last year, when John Ross was booted from his fourth warehouse in the city, it seemed the Meter Room was destined to be a vagabond art scene, always sacrificed for the sake of development.

Last May, he found the right developer -- a landlord and benefactor who is helping establish him in a 15,000-square-foot warehouse on Chartiers Avenue.

As a result, an unlikely art scene has sprung up in Sheraden and earned Mr. Ross' Meter Room the Cool Space Locators' stamp of approval: Locators chose it as the site of this year's Cool Space Awards program on June 1.

"It is an excellent example of adaptive reuse," said Robyn Barber, director of outreach for Cool Space Locators, a nonprofit commercial real estate organization.

The June event will be the official coming-out party for the gallery/film production studio/showplace, which was part of a former Ferro Corp. pigment production plant.

Sandy Stevenson has been developing properties in the West End and bought the warehouse in 2005, intending to use it for storage. But he liked Mr. Ross' spiel.

"He reminded me of me when I was younger: full of bounce, fire and forward direction," said Mr. Stevenson. "I thought, this guy can bring a lot of good people with him and help the neighborhood. The first place things start is in the arts community."

He is giving Mr. Ross a five-year option to buy the building and is helping line up possible lenders.

Mr. Stevenson also bought a 53,000-square-foot brick building across Greenway Drive from the warehouse and said he intends to "condo-ize it" for artists to live in.

A section on the first floor of John Ross' gallery, the Meter Room, in Sheraden. Click photo for larger image.

"I'm an engineer, but I feel the arts are as much a part of our society and well-being as any other field," he said. "Little by little, art is being eliminated from schools, and there's a lot of right-brain kids out there who are going to lose. One more thing taken away from them for whatever reason. I have a problem with that."

Mr. Ross, 39, and photographer Tom Jefferson, 50, both of whom studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, have carved out modest living spaces and studio areas in the warehouse; they and a half-dozen other artists exhibit and sell their work there. The warehouse also has attracted film and video producers, multi-media shows, art parties and, last summer, a fashion show that drew about 500 people.

Mr. Ross eventually wants to wrap parts of two walls in a 20-foot-high "green screen" backdrop for video and film production.

"I want this place to be equipped for any kind of artist to use," said Mr. Ross. "Pittsburgh is in a renaissance of art. Most of our friends have stuck with it, and some are people you're starting to hear about."

Mr. Jefferson, who served in the Navy as a photographer, does commercial shoots as needed to support his art, which includes jewelry and plain wood boxes turned into bejeweled, inlaid and otherwise decorated works of art.

"These have paid a lot of bills for me," he said.

Mr. Ross rigs lighting and builds stages for productions to support his studio time sculpting large metal pieces, making fish tanks out of vintage TV and radio consoles, and lounge chairs out of shopping carts.

He sells some of his products to the hip Manhattan store, ABC Carpet and Home Furnishings.

The original Meter Room was an actual water-meter room in the basement of a warehouse in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).

Mr. Ross, Mr. Jefferson and some current artist collaborators established the gallery, which doubled as living space -- all 400 square feet of it. They shuttled back and forth from Pittsburgh for a few weeks at a time over three years.

It was an industrial area of warehouses from which numerous artists were subsequently booted by developers.

"It was an opportunity to be in the biggest market," said Mr. Ross. "I was getting experience. But New York is just a bigger stage. What we're doing here is just as important."

Several students from Point Park University's film program have based their productions in the Meter Room. Chris Maurer, who made music videos, was the first.

Mr. Maurer said he had put other Point Park students in touch with Mr. Ross.

"If he puts in a green screen, there really wouldn't be anything like that in Pittsburgh," Mr. Maurer said. "It would be two stories high and open up a whole lot of opportunity" for film students and professionals.

Renee Dupree, who also exhibited at the Brooklyn Meter Room, exhibits now at the Sheraden namesake. She paints on large canvases, incorporating collage and small toys. She also owns and operates Groovy, a toy emporium on the South Side.

The Brooklyn experiment "came apart after 9/11," she said. "It was hard enough coming and going all the time, let alone after that. But John decided to pick up where he left off, and he is putting all of his effort into doing something he knows won't make him much money but because he loves it."

"He has brought a lot of people here," said Mr. Stevenson, citing events that draw a younger crowd.

"Kind of neat. Not my kind of music, because I'm a little older. But what a following that guy has."

Cool Space Locators is accepting nominations for the awards program until Friday at its Web site (www.coolspacelocator.com) or by phone (412-683-5790).