PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by eschaton

3. Finally, and most surprisingly, a new 166-unit apartment building in North Oakland. The location is here, immediately next to the similarly-scaled Julian, now under construction by the same developer (Hudson Companies). The building will include 17 affordable units. More information (and better renderings) are available through a presentation given to OPDC here. The building seems to be a near-clone of The Julian, though it's a bit smaller due to the irregular nature of the block (though the unit count is higher - that building had only 148). It's going to be interesting to see if they can get this through the ZBA, because my understanding is there was a lot of NIMBY opposition to the last building, though the UI zoning over the area provides a lot of flexibility for the time being that is lacking in other parts of Oakland.

How in freaking hell can there be NIMBY opposition for this location. It's practically an alley with nothing but old industrial buildings. I think there needs to be a law that says if NIMBY's win one time they lose the next. At least that's be 50/50. They seem to call all the shots on everything.

[wpipkins2]

The Julian rising. The second tower will form a nice cluster in this area. There are prewar apartments blocks mixed in with mid-century and now modern apartment blocks.


[IMG]http://[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pBNtLS][/url]Construction updates Pittsburgh and Philadelphia by William Pipkins, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]http://[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pBFRHP][/url]Construction updates Pittsburgh and Philadelphia by William Pipkins, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]http://[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pBNtPn][/url]Construction updates Pittsburgh and Philadelphia by William Pipkins, on Flickr[/IMG]

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Johnland

How in freaking hell can there be NIMBY opposition for this location. It's practically an alley with nothing but old industrial buildings. I think there needs to be a law that says if NIMBY's win one time they lose the next. At least that's be 50/50. They seem to call all the shots on everything.

IIRC the opposition to The Julian mostly had to do with the perennial concern of NIMBYs - increased traffic congestion. In particular, a concern that the garage would load/unload on Gold Way. This building will effectively double traffic on Gold Way, so I could see them attempting this tactic once again.

I believe there may be a handful of homeowner-occupied homes still on the block of Melwood directly across Baum. At least some of these homes don't seem to be chopped up.

[dfiler]

An update on the Irish Center...
https://www.wtae.com/article/phipps-...entre/60849783

Phipps Conservatory said it had reached an agreement to take over ownership of the former Irish Centre

In a Reddit thread, an employee had this to say:

This Irish Center purchase was done to make room for more nursery space, our Homegrown program (which builds gardens in underserved communities, and possibly a research lab.

Development of this land will possibly need to be delayed until the adjacent bridge that runs into the Squirrel Hill tunnel is rebuilt. PennDOT is using Irish Center land for construction staging.

This project isn't the only major renovation planned for Phipps. We are also planning to completely renovate the Phipps Garden Center in Mellon Park. This is where we host most of our educational programming.

We have not completely secured the funds for these projects yet, but we are working to do so through donations and grants mostly.

I'm cautiously optimistic. This is a much better use of park-zoned land than an apartment tower. I trust that Phipps will try to enhance the natural experience of this valley more than other potential buyers.

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by eschaton

IIRC the opposition to The Julian mostly had to do with the perennial concern of NIMBYs - increased traffic congestion. In particular, a concern that the garage would load/unload on Gold Way. This building will effectively double traffic on Gold Way, so I could see them attempting this tactic once again.

I believe there may be a handful of homeowner-occupied homes still on the block of Melwood directly across Baum. At least some of these homes don't seem to be chopped up.

I thought traffic would be one of the main concerns. Someone needs to break it down for those people however. If there's 200 people living in the building and they all made three trips a day, that's 600 per day. Over a 12 hour span of say 8 am to 8 pm, that's less than one car per minute average. Double that if the proposed building gets built. Still pretty minimal to me. I realize there will be visitors and service people coming and going. But it's a city for crying out loud.

[dfiler]

EPA earmarks $2M to convert Pittsburgh slag heaps to solar farm
https://triblive.com/local/epa-earma...to-solar-farm/

There are still hurdles for this development though. I've not seen anything about the required single customer being secured within the required radius within city limits.

Also, can anyone cite a source for the regulatory and/or funding requirements? The above description is my recollection from attending the public meetings.

[eschaton]

The Planning Commission is meeting on the 28th next week. Although there's no real documents to review this week, there will be a discussion of Pittsburgh's comprehensive plan. I plan on checking up on this on Youtube, either live or after the fact, because the whole process has been weirdly opaque and under the radar up till now, with City Planning mostly traveling from community organization to community organization and unveiling parts of it. Hopefully we get something more concrete.

Also, the HRC is up for June 5.

There's not much of note on the agenda that's new. The most interesting thing is a proposal to demolish a house in Manchester, with an infill house replacing it. The home was never one of the most distinguished in the neighborhood, and is way too far gone to bring back. The proposed replacement does attempt to blend in with its cornice work and upper windows, though the proposed first stories are a bit of a mess (particularly the option with a front-facing garage, as this plot doesn't go to the alley behind.

Aside from that, not much. I guess a Bank of America going into South Side is something of note?

Looking around at other development news, ground has broken on the senior LGBTQ+ apartment in Oakland, and there are apparently plans in the works for another 300+ unit apartment building in Lawrenceville.

[PghYinzer]

Originally Posted by eschaton

There's not much of note on the agenda that's new. The most interesting thing is a proposal to demolish a house in Manchester, with an infill house replacing it. The home was never one of the most distinguished in the neighborhood, and is way too far gone to bring back. The proposed replacement does attempt to blend in with its cornice work and upper windows, though the proposed first stories are a bit of a mess (particularly the option with a front-facing garage, as this plot doesn't go to the alley behind.

I am kinda shocked that someone was capable of coming up with a plan that puts a pretty nice cornice detail and then that garage set up. The disconnect between the top and bottom of that house is stark and quite frankly looks really bad. I am all for the start of Manchester infill, and we should not give up better for the pursuit of perfection but that is not even remotely decent looking. It's a historic district so I can't see that getting approved. Only the 1980's infill has front facing garages and I would hope we have learned from those design mistakes.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

I am kinda shocked that someone was capable of coming up with a plan that puts a pretty nice cornice detail and then that garage set up. The disconnect between the top and bottom of that house is stark and quite frankly looks really bad. I am all for the start of Manchester infill, and we should not give up better for the pursuit of perfection but that is not even remotely decent looking. It's a historic district so I can't see that getting approved. Only the 1980's infill has front facing garages and I would hope we have learned from those design mistakes.

I can understand why they want a front-facing garage, and they seem to realize it's a long-shot, given they present an "alternate" design on the last page. Though this window is ugly as hell as well, without even an attempt to center it on the facade space between the front door and the edge of the building.

The biggest WTF though is why the design doesn't include brick lintels on the first story, above the door and garage. This wouldn't increase the cost much, and would make it feel like part of a continuous design. As would having the garage and front door have the same height on the facade.

I'm also not sure why they chose to have the windows on the side of the building which will face another structure, while the blank wall is on the side which will be open for the foreseeable future. I can only guess this is some off-the-shelf design and they'd fix this later.

[dfiler]

Site prep has begun for the Aldi's being built in Wilkinsburg. They have two trackhoes clearing everything behind the existing building. Debris is being loaded into large dumpsters. Demolition doesn't look to have started yet though. It was neat watching the one equipped a claw instead of a bucket. It was quite effective at clearing railroad ties, piping, and other metal/lumber.

This is exciting and a great place for a grocery store. It is on the northwest corner of the intersection of Penn Ave and the busway. This will be adjacent to the new busway station once that gets built too.

[eschaton]

There was a community meeting last night about the planned new 300-unit apartment building in Lower Lawrenceville. I cannot find a decent document with renderings, but Lawrenceville United posted a link to the live presentation on Facebook, should people want to skim.

[deja vu]

I spotted these recent photos of Pitt's Hillman Library expansion -




Source: Facebook | Matt Plecity

And below are some construction camera stills of some of the bigger CMU projects (kudos to CMU facilities department & their construction partners for having such great live construction cameras set up for us to view) -

Highmark Center for Health, Wellness, & Athletics, slated to open in August -







Source: OxBlue

Richard King Mellon Hall of Sciences -





Source: OxBlue

Robotics Innovation Center at Hazelwood Green -





Source: OxBlue

[pj3000]

^ thanks for the photo updates!

[BrianTH]

Also in Wilkinsburg news, this cool building across from the Municipal Building and renovated train station, reportedly a former post office, is getting its own $6 million renovation:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4433...5409&entry=ttu

This is being done by the organization Gwen's Girls, which is planning to relocate its headquarters and expand its services in the building:

https://www.wtae.com/article/gwens-g...sburg/60828617

https://www.wpxi.com/news/gets-real/...O3J3L3QNLDOCQ/

In-progress interior shots available in the videos associated with the WTAE and WPXI articles.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Also in Wilkinsburg news, this cool building across from the Municipal Building and renovated train station, reportedly a former post office, is getting its own $6 million renovation:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4433...5409&entry=ttu

This is being done by the organization Gwen's Girls, which is planning to relocate its headquarters and expand its services in the building:

https://www.wtae.com/article/gwens-g...sburg/60828617

https://www.wpxi.com/news/gets-real/...O3J3L3QNLDOCQ/

In-progress interior shots available in the videos associated with the WTAE and WPXI articles.

That is a perfect location. Wilkinsburg recently replaced the 80 year old columns on the municipal building. The Wood street corridor continues to improve.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4430...5409&entry=ttu

[eschaton]

June 11th Planning Commission agenda is up. After months of very little activity, things are finally happening again:

1. The new 334-unit apartment building planned for Lower Lawrenceville is up for review. I had posted a link a few days ago to a video which covered much of this, but this is more digestible and in higher resolution. One thing I like about this is due to site grading, the single story of integral parking will be hidden from Foster Street. There is an adjacent 55-space surface lot, but I am hoping that could be redeveloped in the future, should the developer get site control of the next industrial property. The design is...fine. I like the articulation of the facade on Foster Street. Some site clearing has already begun, with the one random converted house on the property having been knocked down. I think this will be a nice addition in terms of density to the area.

2. The conversion of the First and Market building into senior apartments is also going before the Commission next week. The biggest external change I can see is the construction of an elevated porch on Market Street, underneath the columns. I think this minor design change makes the building look much less hostile from a street level. Regardless, good to see this rolling forward.

In other news, I did find the new plan for 214 S. Craig on the OPDC website. It's as unimpressive and scaled back as we feared.

Also, there appears to be a new plan by the Allegheny Conference to revitalize downtown. Seems like all the cleared land for the Cultural Trust vaporware project is now earmarked for a big public park and event space? They also want to fully pedestrianize Market Square again, and make various improvements to Point State Park. If someone can find a link to the actual plan, that would be great.

[Jim D]

Originally Posted by eschaton

June 11th Planning Commission agenda is up. After months of very little activity, things are finally happening again:

1. The new 334-unit apartment building planned for Lower Lawrenceville is up for review. I had posted a link a few days ago to a video which covered much of this, but this is more digestible and in higher resolution. One thing I like about this is due to site grading, the single story of integral parking will be hidden from Foster Street. There is an adjacent 55-space surface lot, but I am hoping that could be redeveloped in the future, should the developer get site control of the next industrial property. The design is...fine. I like the articulation of the facade on Foster Street. Some site clearing has already begun, with the one random converted house on the property having been knocked down. I think this will be a nice addition in terms of density to the area.

2. The conversion of the First and Market building into senior apartments is also going before the Commission next week. The biggest external change I can see is the construction of an elevated porch on Market Street, underneath the columns. I think this minor design change makes the building look much less hostile from a street level. Regardless, good to see this rolling forward.

I'm glad they continue to add apartments, but this is another boring building that uses ugly siding (just because they use two different sizes of siding doesn't make it better). So will these buildings look good in a few years - there are examples of these buildings all over Pittsburgh (look in the strip and in Oakland) and the answer is NO. The city needs to start asking for better designs.....

Secondly, when is the City going to wake up and build parking in this part of the city? I know a lot of folks that just won't visit for dinner because they really don't want to drive around looking for street parking. There is one 22 space lot, and after that you are on your own. Why is the city always reactive and not proactive. And if the city doesn't want to build the parking then when these large Apartment developments want to move in, they should be required to provide both tenant and some public parking.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Jim D

Secondly, when is the City going to wake up and build parking in this part of the city? I know a lot of folks that just won't visit for dinner because they really don't want to drive around looking for street parking. There is one 22 space lot, and after that you are on your own. Why is the city always reactive and not proactive. And if the city doesn't want to build the parking then when these large Apartment developments want to move in, they should be required to provide both tenant and some public parking.

We live nearby (in Morningside) and we drive to Lawrenceville pretty often on the weekends. We've never not been able to find a space within 2-3 blocks of our destination - though admittedly we typically only go during the daytime or early evening, since we have kids. I actually think it's much harder to find a spot to park in Shadyside, despite public lots and garages existing around Walnut Street.

Regardless, while I'm not aware of the stats for the Lawrenceville apartment buildings in general, I do know that currently established residential parking minimums under zoning typically result in a good deal of empty stalls in these buildings, meaning they're over-engineered. Just shifting the vacant spaces to public parking though wouldn't work, as you'd need to install payment systems and the like, and probably engineer different garage entrances.

Not to mention it's dubious that the city should be incentivizing people to drive to Lawrenceville. The retail does just fine there mostly driven by local residents, and Butler Street is not engineered for high traffic flows.

As a former resident of Lawrenceville, I'm very glad the neighborhood has avoided calls for setting up permit parking for residents. The example of what happened to South Side woke people up to the dangers of being so concerned about a space in front of your house it destroys local commerce.

[bmust71]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Also, there appears to be a new plan by the Allegheny Conference to revitalize downtown. Seems like all the cleared land for the Cultural Trust vaporware project is now earmarked for a big public park and event space? They also want to fully pedestrianize Market Square again, and make various improvements to Point State Park. If someone can find a link to the actual plan, that would be great.

I've also been looking for a plan document but haven't seen one released yet. I was surprised that the conceptual drawing for the 8th and Penn area called for so much public/open space. I know at one time the Cultural Trust was trying to build something like 600 - 800 housing units in a three block area and I assumed most of those would be in the areas now "reserved" for a park/plaza.

This got me thinking about some of the previous proposals for that 9th and Penn block. Most of us know about the Davis Companies condo proposal that fell through which was predated by an office proposal from Oxford. However, I've never seen this visionary proposal before and I thought it was fun to flip through some of the diagrams. This dates back to 2015...

https://www.honglin-li.com/819-penn-avenue

[themaguffin]

There isn't much land downtown. I don't like the idea of another big park.

Something like the residential plan for the Cultural District in the 2000s should be revisited.