Market Square's makeover is long overdue

Congratulations to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and the foundations for planning to rescue much-trampled Market Square, the city's oldest historic district ("$5 Million Facelift for Market Square," Feb. 18).

Since the foolish razing of the 1910 Diamond Markethouse in 1961 with its upstairs skating rink, the square has had several "improvements" that were never adequate and at least two concepts that were egregious and pretentious. Still, the square, which goes back to the 1780s, has in recent decades shown itself to be the very heart of the city.