PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Wave]

[QUOTE=photoLith;6224486]Huge update.

Starting off with a new building in Lawrencville on Butler and 38th.



<<I think I took a photo of every restoration going on in the Mexican War Streets today, I may have missed a few, but here are the ones I saw.>>

Great job PhotoLith. Have to agree that the Central Northside & Manchester activity is very encouraging. It literally is just in time for slowly eroding outer pockets of Manchester which are still deteriorating on the fringes as is East Deutschtown (salvageable but not as asthetic), Brighton Place (salvagable & beautiful little pocket)and Cal Kirkbride ( which is truly too far gone at this point)

The 8th building from the bottom looks like the beautiful structure on the corner of Cedar & West North in West Deutschtown, which is slated to become a bed & breakfast/Inn restoration (not the above photo BTW).

I hope the "new construction" is historically accurate or at least reasonably appropriate for those neighborhoods. I am not crazy about the Federal Street townhomes, as they look much too suburban for me even in their new urbanist context, but I get that they have improved dramatically the blighted Federal St. corridor.

The War streets and Allegheny West are my two favorite neighborhoods in the city.

[Jonboy1983]

I saw a lot of that new construction/restoration work in Manchester courtesy of Google Earth, and I like it. That whole area is going to look awesome!

[photoLith]

Yeah the row homes on federal are not that great. They don't have enough detailing and look sort of generic and are set too far back from the sidewalk to make it really seen urban.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by DKNewYork

Turns out that the owner of the former IBM Building at Allegheny Center has refused to waive an easement that would allow Ohio Street to be restored through the complex. The owner likes the convenience and safety of not having vehicular traffic between the office building and the parking structure.

Sounds like an eminent domain case (bringing things full circle).

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Sounds like an eminent domain case (bringing things full circle).

Funny, I had the same thought. The situation also brought to mind the New Yorker who owned and did nothing with the Garden Theatre for all those years...and put the city through all those years of litigation.

Apparently this easement is shared by all the property owners along the closed-off section of Ohio Street, and all the others were okay with reopening the street. Regretable that one entity can prevent this from happening.

[BrianTH]

An applied-for TIGER grant could somewhat alter the Lower Hill site development schedule:

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4499760-74/site-grant-arena#axzz2bKVi6fNe

The article is a little confusing but the TIGER application is only for funds to help do the infrastructure portion. So I don't think the actual development part of the schedule would change--they would just do the infrastructure part all at once instead of in phases.

TIGER application:

http://www.lowerhilltiger.com/

Incidentally, the application includes a 5/30/13 preliminary master plan with a lot of details I hadn't seen before, including a pretty cool plan for the possible deck-park over Crosstown:



As usual, I think the overall merits of the plan depend on whether they end up on the low side or the high side of the possible height ranges:

[themaguffin]

Those two examples scare me. The first is obviously a horrible waste of land and the second, while better is still odd.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

The first is obviously a horrible waste of land and the second, while better is still odd.

Agreed on the first. That should be unacceptable.

I believe the logic of the second is to try to create a more human-scale "main street" and green spaces, with the taller buildings running along the peripheral arterial streets. It is an atypical approach but then it is a very atypical site, and I personally think it could end up pretty cool and actually makes sense given the context.

But in any event, all that is subject to further planning. I'm convinced the basic infrastructure plan is consistent with an excellent development. The question is whether that is what actually happens.

[P!tt$bur&h]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Agreed on the first. That should be unacceptable.

I believe the logic of the second is to try to create a more human-scale "main street" and green spaces, with the taller buildings running along the peripheral arterial streets. It is an atypical approach but then it is a very atypical site, and I personally think it could end up pretty cool and actually makes sense given the context.

But in any event, all that is subject to further planning. I'm convinced the basic infrastructure plan is consistent with an excellent development. The question is whether that is what actually happens.

While they need to make good use of a rather large parcel of land now available so close to the CBD they also need to remember another critical feature...having an efficient grid that reconnects the Hill with downtown.

[themaguffin]

While they need to make good use of a rather large parcel of land now available so close to the CBD they also need to remember another critical feature...having an efficient grid that reconnects the Hill with downtown

.

The content can make the area connect fine. It's not like there are not arteries cutting through there. It's the same issue as with Allegheny Center... put quality there, that makes sense to the environment and the "connection" is made.

[BrianTH]

If they get Wylie and the public spaces right, it should do a great job drawing the Hill into the site. The deck park is obviously key to then creating a better transition into Downtown, although doing a nice job with the towers closest to Downtown could actually make it feel like you had already arrived in Downtown even before going over Crosstown.

Incidentally, another new thing for me was the "private alley" proposal. In a nutshell, this would fill in the missing parts of the street grid with pedestrian-friendly paths. Some of the renderings remind me of places in Europe where there are similar sharp elevation changes, and they can be really cool and a great place for cafes and such if done well.

[BrianTH]

Note, by the way, that Chatham Center is already a chunk of "downtown" on the east side of Crosstown. Extend that into the Lower Hill site and I really think it is possible to make it feel like Crosstown is going through Downtown, not serving as the border of Downtown.

In other words, if you can't bring the mountain to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain. If Crosstown means you can't really bring the Hill to Downtown, then bring Downtown to the Hill.

[doo dah]

Here is a cool thing that you guys might enjoy:
http://streetmix.net/-/5130

I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet, it was on one of my RSS feeds.
I can't seem to find the gondola add-in, though.

[Steel City Scotty]

It's been a quiet weekend for Pittsburgh on these boards...

So, I'll break the silence with a few requests for photos.

First -- after the long discussion about Allegheny Center, I am still interested in learning more about what it looked like when it was an active mall. Unfortunately, searching for images has only provided me with a few vague shots of the exterior of the buildings, not looking much different than they do today.

So, I was wondering if anyone would have or know where I could find some interior shots of what the mall looked like when it resembled our modern day options in Monroeville or Century II?

Also -- I'm interested in finding a picture of the original convention center, before the current huge "green" building was in use. But, alas, I haven't been able to find a photo of that building either.

Any help you can provide is much appreciated. Thanks!

[EventHorizon]

I am still interested in learning more about what it looked like when it was an active mall.

Only really good one I could find:


Photo Courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh

Also -- I'm interested in finding a picture of the original convention center, before the current huge "green" building was in use.

And here's a Flickr link to a photo of the old convention center:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10077757@N00/6827292025/

[Steel City Scotty]

Thanks so much, EventHorizon! Those shots are exactly what I was looking for...and the Flickr page that second one was located on will be a great resource in the future.

So, the "mall" portion of Allegheny Center is all office space now? If so, it obviously doesn't look like what's displayed in those pictures, but all of those empty storefronts and walkways would remain, unless the building underwent some serious renovations.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Steel City Scotty

Thanks so much, EventHorizon! Those shots are exactly what I was looking for...and the Flickr page that second one was located on will be a great resource in the future.

So, the "mall" portion of Allegheny Center is all office space now? If so, it obviously doesn't look like what's displayed in those pictures, but all of those empty storefronts and walkways would remain, unless the building underwent some serious renovations.

I temped at Integra Mortgage for a while back in the mid-90s; my recollection is that they were located in what was the Sears store and maybe a little beyond; it was open space with offices on the perimeter and cubicles for the workers. At that point, Woolworth was still open and maybe a hobby shop of some sort? Otherwise, a lot of boarded-up stores. On the outside, there was a Peppi's and a Wendy's and I think a sit-down restaurant of some sort.

[BrianTH]

Yep, it still looks like a mall in the sense it still has that wide open promenade in the middle, but now almost all the stores are offices (except for the one cafe). If you have seen strip malls with offices in some of the locations, you'll have the general sense of what it feels like inside.

[BrianTH]

No big news but some interesting details in this article about the Fed Reserve Building:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/loca...ce-foreseen-for-old-fed-building-698997/

Someone has been reading this forum:

It's the kind of building made for James Bond -- gun turrets at one entrance, an eighth-floor firing range, and a rooftop deck for late-night rendezvous.

On possible hotel brands:

At least four international hotel operators have inquired about the building. The developer envisions an upscale boutique hotel with about 175 rooms at the location, which is a few blocks from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and near many of the Grant Street office towers and government buildings. While Mr. Sweeney would not divulge that names of the operators, he said that all are "name brand flags" and that some are interested in developing new urban boutique hotel concepts patterned after European hotels. He added the company was trying to get a flag unique to Pittsburgh. "These would be international hotel operators but with new concepts or brands, brands that are not within Pittsburgh yet," he said.

[BrianTH]

Overview of the boom in apartment building in the City:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/4493811-74/apartment-construction-development#axzz2bkoeGjZj

Developers added more than 2,000 units to the city since 2000, according to data provided by Integra Realty Resources Pittsburgh. More than 1,000 are under construction, and 2,330 units have been proposed, Integra reported.

I think we are really just getting started. Higher-income jobs are experiencing strong, pretty steady, growth in the region, various national trends are favoring urban-core repopulation, the apartment boom is helping to drive improvements in local amenities which then further increase potential demand, and in general I think it a good bet we are looking at a long period of "catch up" apartment building (meaning catching up with other northeastern cities that started this process many years before Pittsburgh).