PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by GeneW

It's about developing human spaces in between the buildings. And you have zero data to prove that it would fail.

I'd just note that I think some people have overlearned the lessons about failed pedestrian malls and such. Pedestrian-friendly plazas and districts and such can still work very well, but there are critical design issues that can determine success or failure.

And we should know that in Pittsburgh--the old Market Square was in many ways a failure as a public space, but the new Market Square has been a roaring success. Some of that is just timing, but a lot of it is much smarter design.

Ironically, it is pretty much a less-is-more issue--old-school American designers would lard up public spaces with all sorts of planters and platforms and other decorative stuff, but while that might look interesting in a rendering, it works poorly in a public plaza. Market Square succeeds today because it is basically just a big flat square (to the point they even eliminated the curbs). That is less exciting to look at in a rendering, but it makes it the perfect blank canvas for all sorts of activities and events. And in fact if you look at Stephansplatz, it is the same thing--the plaza itself has minimal design.

Anyway, I do think this is a useful discussion--as development continues in the city, and particular areas like East Liberty, the Strip, and so on rapidly densify, we should be thinking ahead to what sort of public spaces we will provide.

[Minivan Werner]

I like all these ideas for open plazas/pedestrian areas in East Liberty but I don't think the area has the foot traffic to warrant that sort of development just yet. I think both ideas would be great together (the trapezoid-shaped block along Beatty and the parking lot in front of Target) but it'd also have to be in conjunction with some pretty significant residential developments in the blocks surrounding what used to be Penn Circle.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

A woonerf/shared space isn't the same thing as a pedestrian mall. Cars are allowed on, it's just designed in such a way as to limit car speeds to under 15 mph, to ensure cars aren't going fast enough to seriously injure/kill pedestrians if they do hit them. Also, pedestrian malls were specifically constructed for high foot traffic commercial areas, while woonerfs are meant to be used on any street. The idea is to alter streets from places primarily for the flow of cars into places cars can travel, but are mainly meant for other modes of transportation.

I might also note that one of the insights behind such designs is that very often top travel speed is not really an important factor in terms of determining overall vehicle flow in dense urban areas. You'd want an expert to confirm this, but in a case like East Liberty, it is very likely the limiting factor regarding traffic flow on streets like Penn, Highland, and Baum is not the top allowed speed, but rather the intersections, such that converting a block along the way down to a 15 mph "slow down" section would not actually do anything to notably decrease overall vehicle flow. And of course if you were just driving through, the difference in terms of trip time would be negligible.

With the non-through streets in the "woonerf" district (Eva, Auto Way, Mignonette, and Tamello Way) top speed would be even less of a concern. I did try to mark out Beatty as a through street, however--I believe it is already used for some bus routes and it could become a more important street in general as that western half of downtown East Liberty gets built out. But again, a short slow-down section likely isn't going to make a notable difference in terms of overall vehicle flow or trip times.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I have to say I liked the original better. It was arguably a bit too modern for the site, but the new design is just bland when it comes to detailing.

I agree--once I really understood it, I liked the old design better.

That said, I still love the overall project. And I thought the one color design with the corner building in blue was clever and cool.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

I like all these ideas for open plazas/pedestrian areas in East Liberty but I don't think the area has the foot traffic to warrant that sort of development just yet. I think both ideas would be great together (the trapezoid-shaped block along Beatty and the parking lot in front of Target) but it'd also have to be in conjunction with some pretty significant residential developments in the blocks surrounding what used to be Penn Circle.

Absolutely. I'd also like to see more office development too--that is great for driving up the daytime/lunch crowd.

The way I see it, you'd want to do something like this in conjunction with at least several of the marked parcels being developed around the same time. Interestingly, according to the County website, the public owns the parking lots east of Beatty and north of Eva (through a combination of the City, URA, and parking authority) and then AAA owns the open lots south of Eva and west of Beatty.

So if you could get AAA to buy in, you could perhaps put together a fairly comprehensive development plan. Again, I assume that would include at least one multi-level parking garage, and that would likely require public funding of some sort--hopefully federal and state funding could be included.

[Nitwit]

Latest planning commission presentation is up. A few interesting items to be found in this one.

http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/boards/p...ssion-schedule

[Urbana]

http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#axzz3oIofcuen

State woos Kennametal with $1M in incentives to stay in Pa.

The threat of Kennametal moving its headquarters out of Pennsylvania has generated more than $1 million in incentives offered by the state for the company to leave Westmoreland County and set up shop in Pittsburgh.
The publicly traded company that was founded in Latrobe in 1938 announced last month that it is moving its headquarters and 100 to 150 employees to the U.S. Steel Building in November. But company officials stressed that was an interim move and said Kennametal is seeking incentives from the state, city and Allegheny County to seal a deal to keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh.
“We made an interim move to the U.S. Steel Tower for a number of our executives,” Kennametal Chairman Bill Newlin said. “It is our preference to have our new headquarters building end up in Pittsburgh. To achieve that, we must have incentives.
“Obviously, a company of our stature involved in international manufacturing would be attractive to a number of states. It is my preference that we end up in Pittsburgh, but a number of things have to come together to achieve that.”
A June 1 letter obtained by the Tribune-Review shows that Dennis Davin, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, offered Kennametal a $600,000 grant and $478,000 in tax credits should the company “proceed with its headquarters expansion and shared services development in the Pittsburgh region.”
Neither Newlin nor Davin would comment about talks between the state and the company.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Kennametal officials approached the city and county officials months ago seeking tax incentives and sites for the construction of headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Kevin Acklin, Mayor Bill Peduto's chief of staff and the city's chief development officer, said Pittsburgh is working to keep Kennametal in Western Pennsylvania but declined further comment.

Perhaps some good news on the Kennametal front. I am not a fan of corporate welfare, but it seems like the city may see some new construction out of this.

Anyone have any idea how much space the company would need in the city?

The company seems like a good fit for ALMONO, perhaps.

[Urbana]

Something that hasn't been brought up from the planning presentation.

Renovation and addition of a couple floors to the Town Place building.





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http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/sch...ion-65-708.pdf

Good to see the building renovated. The design is . . . interesting . . . to say the least.

[photoLith]

That will be sick, that building as of now looks like a terd. Is that billboard going to be an LCD screen? Now I hope they can eventually get rid of the brutalistic mcdonalds that greets everyone that enters downtown from the tunnel.

[BrianTH]

I'm somewhat dubious about all that mesh, but I agree the building is a trainwreck anyway as it stands.

Just a reminder, but here is what it originally looked like:

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'm somewhat dubious about all that mesh, but I agree the building is a trainwreck anyway as it stands.

Just a reminder, but here is what it originally looked like:

Whoa... I wish we could have that "Downtown Economy Market" back in place of that brutalist drug front McDonalds.

[GeneW]

I'm not even slightly a fan of that Town Place design but it's still better than what it looks like now.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'm somewhat dubious about all that mesh

The mesh is called Kaynemaile. And the screen photoLith asked about will be a 40x90 translucent LED screen.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...lace-into.html

Kossman to convert downtown's Town Place into residential

Oct 13, 2015, 6:12pm EDT

Kossman Development Co. is working to be the latest company to convert office space into residential in downtown Pittsburgh.

The company briefed the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on its latest plans for Town Place, a mature building at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Stanwix Street just off Market Square.

Along with major upgrades in the building’s exterior, Kossman plans to convert five floors of space into parking and the top three floors into 63 apartments, eliminating office use from the 187,000-square-foot building entirely.

...

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by photoLith

That will be sick, that building as of now looks like a terd. Is that billboard going to be an LCD screen? Now I hope they can eventually get rid of the brutalistic mcdonalds that greets everyone that enters downtown from the tunnel.

There was a plan I think in the late 90's to tear down that McDonalds and build something like a 13 story "flat-iron" shaped triangular mid rise. That would have been so amazing there.

[Austinlee]

What do you guys make of this report?

Pittsburgh Urban Media

http://www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com/...sburgh-Today-/

https://www.facebook.com/Pittsburgh-...1410/timeline/

A Different Lens on Diversity-Pittsburgh is not the whitest city among its benchmark counterparts reports Pittsburgh Today

In March, Pittsburgh Today reported that the region’s seven-county metropolitan statistical area has the lowest minority workforce participation of the 15 benchmark regions. Today, we’re taking a deeper look – examining the populations in the urban cores versus the broader regions and seeing how they compare in the percentages of Asian, Hispanic, African American and multi-racial residents.

Through this different lens, there are a few interesting differences, including that Pittsburgh is not the whitest city among its benchmark counterparts.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...lace-penn.html

LG Realty proposes early plan to replace Penn Plaza

Oct 13, 2015, 4:57pm EDT Updated Oct 13, 2015, 6:18pm EDT

LG Realty presented the broad outline of its early stage plan to redevelop its Penn Plaza apartment property in East Liberty to the Pittsburgh Planning Commission, proposing a dense mix of commercial and residential uses on more than 10 acres of property at Penn and Negley Avenues.

The company has hired Washington, D.C.-based MV+A Architects to devise a project that would combine retail with apartments in a plan that seeks a zoning change to enable mixed-use, high-density development.

After the presentation, Kamin indicated that LG Realty is considering a plan to build 400 units of apartments on the site along with some junior box-sized retail, a rough estimation for the early stage plan.

Brian Szymanski, an architect for MV+A, presented some projects the firm has pursued in the Washington metro as examples of the kind of project the Penn Plaza site could be used for, including Art Place Market and Tysons West, developments that establish apartments above retail with structured parking positioned behind them.

“We have a real opportunity to enhance Penn Avenue,” said Szymanski.

The rezoning is expected to allow the developer to build up to Penn Avenue while enabling the extension of St. Clair Street through the block to make it more pedestrian-friendly.

...

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

There was a plan I think in the late 90's to tear down that McDonalds and build something like a 13 story "flat-iron" shaped triangular mid rise. That would have been to amazing there.

That would have been awesome, Im sure at some point in the future that crap building will be torn down and replaced, at least I hope so.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

The mesh is called Kaynemaile. And the screen photoLith asked about will be a 40x90 translucent LED screen.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...lace-into.html

I really cannot believe how many buildings have been converted from office to residential in downtown in the last few years. It kind of explains why there is so little new construction high rise activity.

Kossman is far from alone in turning what has mostly been a downtown office building into new residential use. The Pittsburgh urban core has seen in the range of 1.5 million square feet of office-to-residential conversions in the past few years.

[Austinlee]

I think it's fine. That is one of the most awful looking buildings in downtown. Looks like an improvement to me.

[Urbana]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...lace-penn.html

MV+A architects has been the architect of all the urban Walmarts in the DC area. To me, that is proof positive that the Walmart rumors are true. This is pretty exciting, actually, all the urban Walmarts done so far look really great, if you ask me.