I Picked Pittsburgh: Doug and Liza Cruze
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City stickers: Doug and Liza Cruze at Salt of the Earth, the restaurant they're designing on Penn Avenue.
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An occasional feature in Portfolio, "I Picked Pittsburgh" is about people who came to Pittsburgh purely on purpose.
Fresh out of architecture school in the mid-1990s, with their T-squares in hand, Doug and Liza Cruze had an unusual blueprint for success.
"We decided to look for a cool city to live in and then find a job, rather than pursue jobs first," recalls Liza.
As is so often the case, never did they think Pittsburgh would be that "cool" city. Yet their criteria led them here.
"We compiled a list of what possible candidates had to have -- a strong urban fabric of manageable size, interesting topography and, of course, good architecture," Liza explains. The couple wanted a place where people felt like they belonged. But in order to belong, you have to be able to afford the entrance fee.
"So a place where we could afford to buy a house and renovate it was important," Doug notes. They also wanted to be able to purchase properties and transform them.
Liza had visited here as a child and, later, read Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood," a memoir of growing up in Pittsburgh. For her, Pittsburgh was a contender. It scaled the list after an artist, whom Doug met at an artists' conference in Tennessee, recommended that they check out Pittsburgh.
Doug, who grew up in Washington, D.C., still was not so sure. He knew Pittsburgh from watching Steelers games on television. "That convinced him there was a blizzard here at least every Sunday," Liza says. But the fear of grueling winters melted away one summer evening in Polish Hill.
"We had dinner on the roof deck of the artist's house in Polish Hill. The view overlooking the city made a lasting impression," says Doug. "It was an industrial building he converted into his studio and living space." Their lodging made another good impression: Two complimentary cans of Budweiser greeted them when they checked into the freewheeling Doug's Motel on Route 30. "I think that was the first time we visited the city," he says. "It was another unusual Pittsburgh moment."
First Published March 23, 2010 12:00 am
