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A chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary’s new Ambler campus in Montgomery County has earned an international architecture award for blending centuries of Catholic tradition with contemporary design.

Immaculate Conception Chapel, designed by Voith & Mactavish Architects LLP, incorporates historic elements salvaged from the seminary’s former Lower Merion campus, including carved pews, statues and stained-glass windows. The adapted features preserve the legacy of the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in Pennsylvania and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The chapel was one of 12 winners selected from 75 submissions worldwide in the 2026 Faith & Form International Awards for Religious Architecture & Art, presented by Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places.

“It’s one of these projects that totally balances the contemporary needs of the client with this commitment to … liturgical tradition, institutional memory and preservation,” said

Kevin Block, the nonprofit’s director of special initiatives.

“So that combination … balancing the old and the new, was, in the jury’s opinion, really award worthy.”

Chapel design holds ‘universal appeal’

John Cluver, senior partner and director of historic preservation at Voith & Mactavish, said he worked closely with the seminary to understand the physical and spiritual needs of the people who would be in the building every day.

Incorporating historic elements at the old seminary was key for the institution, Cluver said.

“They were very interested in having this new chapel relate back to these other chapels and to continue this sense of tradition and this historic continuity with their previous campus,” he said. “So the basic form, configuration, individual elements all were based on elements from these two chapels that we could integrate into a single one.”

Cluver said the award from Partners for Sacred Places is recognition of achieving a “universal appeal” beyond the religious context.

“There’s something that resonated with people who had no connection whatsoever with this community, but they still felt that it really spoke to them as well, so it was very rewarding in that regard,” he said.

Almost 50 years ago, a Pennsylvania Lottery scandal rocked the commonwealth and captured the attention of the world. Now it’s going up for auction.

Television viewers on Thursday, April 24, 1980, thought they were watching another random lottery drawing when the numbers 666 were drawn. But weeks later, Nick Perry, a local Pittsburgh news reporter and host of the drawing, was charged and convicted of rigging the game. Investigators learned he made some balls heavier than others by adding extra paint to them, tipping the outcome.

That drawing, and the 666 lottery tickets, would go down in infamy. And now, a 46-year-old artifact at the center of the scandal is up for sale. 

John Zenewicz likes to go to estate sales and has a side hustle selling finds on eBay. He said he was at an estate sale in Saxonburg when he saw a 666 ticket sitting on a dresser. 

“I remember the style of ticket because my dad would buy them when I was a boy,” said John Zenewicz. “And I was like, ‘why would someone encase an old lottery ticket?’ and the only thing that could pop to my mind was that story that I remember. I was 10 years old.”

Zenewicz suspects the homeowners had no idea what they were selling. 

“What I presume, it’s one of the tickets that was probably confiscated as evidence in Nick Perry, what the locals call the Triple Six Fix,” he said.  

After a little more research, Zenewicz said he realized one of the previous owners of the home worked in law enforcement at the time of the scandal. He suspects he may have been part of the team prosecuting Nick Perry. Perry served two years in jail, was fined $3,000 and was ordered to pay $35,000. 

Perry died in 2003, but at least one of the tickets at the center of it all remains. And now, Zenewicz says he is selling his 666 ticket on eBay, giving someone else a chance to own a piece of history.

With a toxicity level that is higher than typical air pollution, the thick blanket of smoke from Ontario wildfires currently blanketing a good portion of the East Coast can pose a big risk for those whose jobs don’t allow them to remain inside.

According to the EPA, wildfire smoke contains a mix of gases and tiny particles that can irritate the lungs and airways. In sunlight, some of those gases can also react to form ozone, another harmful air pollutant.

As the Air Quality Index in Pittsburgh reached 240 at 1 p.m. Friday, a UCLA pulmonologist recently told NPR that AQI levels of 100-200 roughly equate to smoking a quarter to half a pack [of cigarettes] a day.

Construction workers, like those on the Commercial Street Bridge project, landscapers or others who work outside for a living and must still venture out, should limit their exposure, wear a mask and limit physical exertion.

“The N95 mask is absolutely the best way to protect yourself and your lungs,” said Dr. Sally Wenzel, director of the University of Pittsburgh Asthma and Environmental Lung Health Institute at UPMC. “If you can’t do that, a surgical mask would probably be next, but not nearly as good.”

A good fit is important.

“You want to be able to — the way we did during covid — put it on your face, breathe in and get a little bit of a suction feeling,” she said. “The mask should collapse a little bit when you breathe in. You want to have as few empty, open spaces for the air to go through so it has to go through the mask to get to your nose and mouth.”

There is no hard and fast rule on break frequency.

“The longer you’re ‘exercising,’ the heavier your breathing is going to be and the more you’re going to inhale the stuff that’s out there,” she said. “[Breaks] might allow you to regain a little bit of your energy, not to have to breathe quite as hard as you were at the end of that hour.”

For those who can stay inside, the focus shifts to keeping the smoky air out of the home.

Steve Boehmer, owner of Boehmer Heating and Cooling in Beechview, offers some insight.

“Have a good filter in place, a clean filter,” he said. “Another thing you can do is run your fan all the time. Most people’s thermostats have a fan switch: auto or on. Auto means that the fan runs when the air conditioner runs. If you turn it on, the fan runs all the time. That fan running all the time can make your filter work more of the time, keep the air clean and the particles down.”

Filter choice, he said, is important, too.

“There are different levels of filters based on their MERV rating,” said Boehmer. “The higher the number, the tighter the weave is and the more particles it can capture. But the higher the rating, the more restrictive the airflow is and it can start to hurt your system. A piece of cardboard is a great filter; it’s not going to let anything through. But it’s not going to let any air through either. So you want to be careful you don’t go too high on that rating.”

The EPA recommends setting the air to recirculate when driving as well.