MODEL AND ACTOR MATTHEW NOSZKA IS RETURNING TO HIS PITTSBURGH ROOTS TO REMODEL A HIGHLAND PARK HOME. | PHOTO BY LUKE SIMONE

He may live on the West Coast now, but successful model and actor — and burgeoning entrepreneur — Matthew Noszka still refers to Pittsburgh as home.

“It’ll always be home. I miss it for sure,” he says.

A 2011 graduate of Chartiers Valley High School, Noszka spent his teen years working in construction alongside his father, Dan Noszka, who owned more than a dozen rental properties across Pittsburgh’s East End.

“I grew up going to all of his properties and renovating them,” Noszka says. “I did cement work, brick pointing — landscaping was a big thing for me.”

PHOTO BY LUKE SIMONE

It was actually while doing manual labor in the summer of 2014 that Noszka got his big break. Then a member of Point Park University’s basketball team who was majoring in sports, arts and entertainment management, the college junior posted a shirtless photo of himself on Instagram after a long day of building a poolside deck with a buddy.

“Built my first deck today,” he captioned the photo, not knowing it was about to go viral.

Within days, international agency Wilhelmina Models made Noszka a contract offer. In the months that followed, Noszka, now 31, appeared in a Nike photo shoot and modeled apparel for high-end brands, including Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss, at New York Fashion Week.

His fame accelerated after appearing on NBC’s “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where he humbly explained his overnight success as a model was thanks to social media — and gamely showed off his celebrated abs for the audience.

In the decade since, Noszka — who had never been out of the U.S. before being discovered — has done runway work for Moschino and Balmain, among many other luxury brands, and faced campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren and Alo alongside celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and supermodels GiGi and Bella Hadid.

He also appeared in the 2019 Netflix holiday movie “Let it Snow” and made out with Jennifer Lawrence as the “hot guy” in the 2023 flick “No Hard Feelings.” Over the fall, he began shooting for Ryan Murphy’s new legal drama “All’s Fair,” in a lead role as Kim Kardashian’s love interest.

Four years ago, he became a father to his daughter, Nova, with his partner, Canadian actress Inanna Sarkis. Although the couple, who are in the midst of planning a Nevada-based Airbnb business called Adventure Homes, reside in Los Angeles, he continues to spend time in Pittsburgh — with a new project brewing.

PHOTO BY LUKE SIMONE

In 2019, he returned to the area to be with his father, whom Noszka called the rock of his family; his father died from pancreatic cancer at age 61. He also began helping to advise his mother, Maureen, as she took over her husband’s portfolio of rental properties, most of which Noszka says his parents bought for a song back in the 1990s.

“He was buying homes for like $5,000 in Stanton Heights, Highland Park and Lawrenceville and rented them out over my lifetime,” Noszka says. “And then those areas just boomed.”

The properties are worth significantly more than they were 30 years ago, and none more so than a classic American Foursquare along Wellesley Avenue in Highland Park.

Noszka says they discussed remodeling and selling the home before his father’s death, so Noszka decided to do just that.

“I was like, ‘All right, mom, I’m gonna buy one of these homes off of you and I’m gonna make it my passion project,’” he says.

PHOTO BY LUKE SIMONE

It was easier said than done. Built in 1911, the house had fallen into significant disrepair over the years. It strangely had both an upstairs and a downstairs kitchen, and Noszka says the plumbing lines were clogged and rotted. Holding up the century-old home’s foundation was a carved tree.

“I gutted the whole place down to the studs, and we really saw there was tons of rot, tons of mold, termites,” Noszka recalls.

For oversight and construction on the building, which included a new roof and new HVAC system, Noszka partnered with his childhood friend Alex Farah, founder of the Pittsburgh-based construction and real estate firm Build412.

“We stayed in touch over the years, and it was just one of those things where it just clicked,” Noszka says. “I liked his style.”

A dedicated wellness advocate who launched his own fitness app, Noszka says his plan is to bring his West Coast, health-conscious style to the home.

“I wanted to bring what I had in California, and what I had experienced, back to Pittsburgh,” he says. “I made my home my sanctuary where I can get up in the morning, I can meditate, I can take care of my body and I can have longevity for my family.”

His vision includes installing a steam shower and sauna, along with a cold-plunge pool and a reverse osmosis water system. Although the front of the home’s structure remains basically the same, Noszka ripped off the rotting front porch and replaced it.

PHOTO BY LUKE SIMONE

Near the back of the home, he removed a crumbling fireplace and installed 8-foot-tall sliding glass doors that lead out to the patio.

“I wanted it to feel like this open floor plan where you walk in, have everything opened up, and it flows into the back,” he says.

Keeping a tree his father always liked was another challenge due to the tiny backyard, closely surrounded on all sides by neighboring houses.

“I’m going to put a privacy wall up and I’m going to cover the privacy wall with hedges so that you kind of just look out and it looks like it’s a backyard full of greenery,” he says.

For the luxurious chef’s kitchen, Noszka installed high-end cabinetry from the Spanish brand DOCA, as well as stone Neolith-brand countertops and ZLINE kitchen appliances. LED lighting under the cabinetry adds a warm glow to the space.

PHOTO BY LUKE SIMONE

Upstairs, Noszka, who has found a passion for using the construction skills he learned in his youth (“At the time, I absolutely hated it, but now I can really appreciate the work ethic and everything that instilled in me,” he says), carved out a laundry room from one of the bedrooms and added a flexible loft space to the third floor.

“For this house in particular, I wanted to bring that essence of a spa but keep it rustic enough to where you still have that Pittsburgh feel,” he says. “It’s not industrial, but it still has the hearty roots of Highland Park.”

His hope is to have the home completely renovated and ready to sell by the end of the year, and when he does, he’s going to host a celebration for his local family and friends — who just may see more of him in the future. Noszka says he has dreams of opening a health and wellness facility in the Pittsburgh area.

“The point of this project wasn’t to flip it and make money,” he adds. “It was more honoring my father and showing my mom that I have the capability to come in and take over where he left off and make it into this empire of real estate, because that’s really what I love and what I’ve come to love over these past couple years.”