PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Minivan Werner]

I do like the idea of the gondolas sort of going against the grain of the natural east-west connections like Boulevard of the Allies, Bigelow, the east busway, and being in a north-south configuration. The topography makes it difficult to go north-south in the eastern part of the cityand it'd bring Millvale, Lawrenceville, Oakland, and the South Side all much much closer together. And it also wouldn't preclude an eventual spine line for the LRT as well.

[designer3d712]

Originally Posted by pghaedesign

I think a hotel will be good for the casino. And especially good for the city by blocking the views of the garage from the river..

I've seen this a few times, and it makes me laugh. Nothing is ever going to block that parking garage.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by designer3d712

I've seen this a few times, and it makes me laugh. Nothing is ever going to block that parking garage.

Obviously you can't "block" it entirely from every direction. But a taller, fancier structure in that particular location would be in the foreground as seen from Downtown, and hopefully in general it would overshadow the garage and allow it to recede into the background.

Some crude before and after renderings (I tried to estimate where a building more or less filling the lot would be, but this is all by eyeball and probably a bit off--still, hopefully it gets the potential across):

[BrianTH]

The County's rolling review of properties claiming tax-exempt status is already paying off:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/re...s/201502150098

[designer3d712]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

But a taller, fancier structure in that particular location would be in the foreground as seen from Downtown, and hopefully in general it would overshadow the garage and allow it to recede into the background.

Some crude before and after renderings (I tried to estimate where a building more or less filling the lot would be, but this is all by eyeball and probably a bit off--still, hopefully it gets the potential across):

Your massing is probably off, and your reference with this photo is on the river. From downtown, the garage is pretty much hidden by the Science Center already.

It will still be mostly visible from Mt. Washington, and entirely from the North Side.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by designer3d712

and your reference with this photo is on the river.

It is actually from Point Park:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4420...cVG-w!2e0!3e11

You get a similar view from the upper floors of a lot of Downtown buildings.

It will still be mostly visible from Mt. Washington, and entirely from the North Side.

Right, but I do think from the river side at least, a tallish hotel in this location will draw a lot of attention away from the garage.

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

What about this?

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/7...urg-pittsburgh

Originally Posted by GeneW

Um, What? $1.5B to cut an hour off the ride? In what universe is an average speed of 54 MPH, "High Speed"?

Originally Posted by daviderik

Amen, I thought I was the only one seeing this

Actually, the article said that taking an hour off the ride (to 4 1/2 hours) would cost $38.3 billion. The half hour time savings (to 5 hours) would only run you the $1.5 billion, a relative steal.

...Or you could just drive and be there in 3 hours.

[BrianTH]

Sounds like they did a pretty good job renovating the former morgue to be the new HQ of the County Health Department:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/7...#axzz3RuSAhb30

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by TBone7281

Actually, the article said that taking an hour off the ride (to 4 1/2 hours) would cost $38.3 billion. The half hour time savings (to 5 hours) would only run you the $1.5 billion, a relative steal.

...Or you could just drive and be there in 3 hours.

The type of passenger that opts for a train is probably looking to use their travel time more effectively (working, relaxing, or sleeping) than being stuck behind a steering wheel. I would much rather take a longer train ride than drive, personally.

I think the bigger questions here are:

1) How does this affect the travel time and schedules to NYC and Philly? Does this spur tie in to the existing higher speed legs that come after Harrisburg? Will we have more than 1 schedule option to those cities each day? I keep trying to take the train instead of driving or flying, but the timing never works.

2) How far off is technology that would make all of this obsolete? Autonomous cars are coming fast, it isn't much of a stretch to see that technology jumping to longer-range travel.

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

The type of passenger that opts for a train is probably looking to use their travel time more effectively (working, relaxing, or sleeping) than being stuck behind a steering wheel. I would much rather take a longer train ride than drive, personally.

I think the bigger questions here are:

1) How does this affect the travel time and schedules to NYC and Philly? Does this spur tie in to the existing higher speed legs that come after Harrisburg? Will we have more than 1 schedule option to those cities each day? I keep trying to take the train instead of driving or flying, but the timing never works.

2) How far off is technology that would make all of this obsolete? Autonomous cars are coming fast, it isn't much of a stretch to see that technology jumping to longer-range travel.

I took the train to NYC once. It stopped what felt like every 3 miles and then broke down at one point. All told, a trip that would have taken me 6 hours in my car took north of 13 hours to go from Greensburg to NY.

My mom used to take the train to Lancaster to visit a friend (and vice versa). It made sense for them. My mom was very sick (cancer) and her friend was quite elderly. I'm certainly all for keeping more people off of the roads, and I understand the idea of "relaxing/working" during the trip instead of driving. But for myself, and most people I know, it just isn't worth the hassle. The business travelers I know never consider the train, even the ones flying (or driving sometimes) from Philly to Pitt. Maybe that would change if the trip was faster... but if they are only knocking a half hour off a trip, I don't think that is going to suddenly change a lot of minds.

[TBone7281]

Local report on the Tiny House project in Garfield.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/...hood-near-you/

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by TBone7281

Local report on the Tiny House project in Garfield.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/...hood-near-you/

Why do they keep mentioning "under $100,000" like it's a good thing? Those things should be about 20-25k IMO. I really want these to succeed but they need to get those prices correct first.

I bet like 70% of all houses for sale in the city of Pittsburgh are already under 100k.

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Why do they keep mentioning "under $100,000" like it's a good thing? Those things should be about 20-25k IMO. I really want these to succeed but they need to get those prices correct first.

I bet like 70% of all houses for sale in the city of Pittsburgh are already under 100k.

I did a double take reading the article. I had no idea that the price goal on these things was so high. Maybe that would work somewhere the overall market average is much higher, but this doesn't make sense to me. I'm having a hard time understanding who would be willing to pay so much for so little. Yes it's a "new" construction and you'd be close to downtown, but there has to be more options out there.

[BrianTH]

At around $100k, your mortgage, insurance, and taxes should be in the $500-600/month range. That should make these 336 sqft houses competitive with things like the 510 sqft "micro" studios renting for $1150-$1295/month in Bakery Living (this is assuming the potential buyers for these houses would trade off some interior space and building amenities for outdoor space, lower monthly payments, and equity-building).

At $20-25K, I think you'd be talking around $150-200/month, which I don't think is necessary to be competitive with renting a new studio priced over $1100/month.

It is inherently difficult to find even roughly comparable homes for sale--both for size reasons and also because there are not that many new market-rate homes being sold in the City in general. However, it might be worth considering the recently-announced Cobble House Condos project:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...usecondos.html

The units are being offered at a pre-construction price range of $219,000 to $350,000 for floor plans that range in size from 680 square feet to 1,100 square feet

So the price per sqft at around $100,000 would be very similar, and again you would be talking about less interior space but more outdoor space.

[photoLith]

I would only consider buying of those houses if they were under 35k. 100,000 is insane. The reason people live in small places usually is because they are cheap, 600 bucks a month for one person isnt cheap. After utilities it would be about 800 a month for 300 some odd square feet. Thats crazy.

[The Best Forumer]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Obviously you can't "block" it entirely from every direction. But a taller, fancier structure in that particular location would be in the foreground as seen from Downtown, and hopefully in general it would overshadow the garage and allow it to recede into the background.

Some crude before and after renderings (I tried to estimate where a building more or less filling the lot would be, but this is all by eyeball and probably a bit off--still, hopefully it gets the potential across):

With the proper treatment this should look very nice.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by photoLith

I would only consider buying of those houses if they were under 35k. 100,000 is insane. The reason people live in small places usually is because they are cheap, 600 bucks a month for one person isnt cheap. After utilities it would be about 800 a month for 300 some odd square feet. Thats crazy.

At $35K, your monthly payments would probably be around $250. While that would indeed be very attractive, I don't see why it is necessary to get the monthly payments that low in order to have a market.

Again, people are apparently paying $1150-$1295/month for 510 sqft studios in a nearby location. Many other people probably also think that is insane, crazy, and so on, but that's a market reality.

So if you actually like the smaller inside space but more outside space configuration (and again, some people won't like that, but others will), then with the extra $600-700+/month you could save, you could cover utilities, a maid, a gardener, a handyman, a club membership, your groceries, maybe a car payment . . . again, I really don't see what is so hard to grasp about the appeal here.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by The Best Forumer

With the proper treatment this should look very nice.

Yep. Of course the next big advance would then be to put some even higher buildings near the T Station. With those poking up, I think the garage would be even less noticed.

[Minivan Werner]

I've taken Amtrak to DC and it was great. You can sleep, eat or take in the sights (like the Potomac and Harper's Ferry) and we were there in under 7 hours.

The only negative was the drab, depressing Pittsburgh station. It's too bad you can't enter through the old Union Station lobby/concourse.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

I've taken Amtrak to DC and it was great. You can sleep, eat or take in the sights (like the Potomac and Harper's Ferry) and we were there in under 7 hours.

The only negative was the drab, depressing Pittsburgh station. It's too bad you can't enter through the old Union Station lobby/concourse.

Don't even get me started with that ass crack of a train station! Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe it.

Regarding this push to reduce the travel time between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, one hour isn't going to do much IMO to attract more riders. It's a good reduction, but it's not a whole lot. If they can get it to 3.5 to 4 hours, that will likely be comparable to a drive out there.

When I went to school at Millersville (outside Lancaster), the train ride took over 6 hours on the Pennsylvanian or the (now defunct) Three Rivers. The drive there took 4.5 hours. So I think for me, the drive to Harrisburg from my parents' house (just outside of the city) to the State Capital would have been about a 3 hour 45 minute drive.