PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[George Woods]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Having a hard time picturing canals on the North Shore and behind Grant St. I'm also curious as to why they dropped a lot of the street names along the Allegheny side of town.. Wayne, Hand, Irwin, Hay, etc.

The names of the streets perpendicular to Penn and Liberty Downtown and in the Strip were changed to numbers when Pittsburgh annexed Lawrenceville, partly due to L-ville's having street-names that duplicated some already in PGH. It was decided to number them from the point all the way out. An interesting tidbit pertaining to this is the name "62nd Street Bridge." There are no numbered streets beyond 57th, but the bridge is approximately where a 62nd Street would be, were there more streets laid out one day that were spaced like the ones in the 50's. A couple other interesting things: 1.) There are still vestiges of Boundary Street (now 33rd), which served as Pittsburgh's eastern border, both in Lawrenceville, (sometimes called Neville) as well as in Oakland. 2.) McCandless got to keep its name, thus 52nd and 53rd are two blocks apart.

[George Woods]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Not sure which specific names of those where changes when but I do know that a lot of names on the North Side were changed when the cities merged because of name conflicts. For instance Galveston on the North Side used to be called Grant which obviously had to be changed once Allegheny City became part of Pittsburgh.

The changing of Allegheny's street-names is interesting. There's so much reading-material regarding the annexation and its fallout, yet I've never found any detailed account of the process by which the new names were chosen. All I ever see is mention of the fact that Pittsburgh demanded that duplicate names in Allegheny be changed. I always wondered who decided. Did the residents of each street? Did a committee of Alleghenians? Did Pittsburgh? It's clear that some streets' names didn't change without resistance. Jackson (duplicated in East Liberty) just added "-onia." Taylor (Bloomfield) added "North," as did Lincoln (East Liberty). But others changed to completely different names. Something that now, in retrospect, is SO obvious, but I somehow missed, is that every changed name still began with the same letter. I'm sure I subconsciously noticed it was true of many, but until an old-timer told me that he remembered hearing it was a requirement, I never noticed it was a theme. He specifically told me that he remembered learning the order of the Deutschtown streets north of Ohio (Foreland, Suismon, Tripoli) by associating them with their Allegheny City names (First, Second, Third). Something I find so fascinating about learning that from him is that it was an acient memory of hearing it from a grandparent. I never read it anywhere. How many nuggets of information that never get taken from the horse's mouth and written down have been lost? Oral histories from older people can be treasure-troves.

[Found5dollar]

I just walked by the bus way stop in East Lib. and over half of the tennis center it torn down. I never seem to have my camera when i see this stuff.

[GeneW]

Fascinating detail, George Woods, about retaining the first letter after the name change. I'll have to hit up some of my local historian friends to see if they know more about that. I have at least two books on the history of the North Side that I really should get around to reading too.

[BrianTH]

Article (with pictures) about the renovated facades on Wood Street:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/busi...ation-rehabs-wood-street-facades-706403/

[Zachary R. English]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79732411@N07/10130350205/

Snapped this Friday night. North Shore development at the block surrounded by Chuck Nole Way, W. General Robinson St, N. Shore Dr., and Tony Dorsett Dr. (Across from Stage AE to the West and Bettis Grill to the South). Aside from it obviously being too low-density (a few more floors would be nice), I don't think it looks too bad. I suppose this is where the Toby Keith restaurant (blegh) and the Burgatory (yay!) will be.

[BrianTH]

Interesting bike share article:

http:// http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/loca...s-left-out-in-bike-share-project-706520/

I understand why people in certain neighborhoods don't like being left out in the initial phases, but this is really the sort of thing where you should start with the strongest possible core network (subject to financial constraints) then build out from there.

[BrianTH]

This debate over affordable housing in the Lower Hill site is one of the more important public policy issues surrounding development in the City in the near future:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/4819865-74/hill-housing-penguins#axzz2h2UHYLt2

Just to give my two cents: housing affordable to low-income households in convenient locations (with good access to major job centers and other regional amenities) is a worthy goal. That said, so is housing affordable to middle-income households in convenient locations. Generally, the big picture is that if you don't build enough units for middle- and higher-income households, they will end up finding a way to drive out lower-income households in all but the most undesirable of urban locations.

Given that background, I'd like to see this debate move past the current framing, where the number of units is considered fixed and the issues are what percentage of those units will be affordable at what income levels. Instead, I'd like to see affordable housing advocates focus on increasing the total number of low-income affordable units without subtracting from the middle- and higher-income units, meaning they would be de facto advocating for more units. And if anything, that should make the financial numbers work out better for the developers for a given number of affordable units (since the marginal cost of additional units should be relatively low).

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I was actually gonna talk about this about a week ago... but I lost the photos of the historic buildings I had... it's very difficult to find any photos online even though they were knocked down less than 10 years ago... one of them was called the Zimmerman Building.

It looks like half of the site had been a parking lot...



8th Ave Block

[popstar]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

It looks like half of the site had been a parking lot...



8th Ave Block

The only thing I can remember is waiting for the bus on that block and one of the empty buildings had an old sign on it for what was probably a sports bar. I'm guessing it was at one time called Sports Haven. Except the letters at the time read Sport Shaven, which always made me giggle a little to myself

[PghSH22]

Originally Posted by popstar

The only thing I can remember is waiting for the bus on that block and one of the empty buildings had an old sign on it for what was probably a sports bar. I'm guessing it was at one time called Sports Haven. Except the letters at the time read Sport Shaven, which always made me giggle a little to myself

Here's some random pictures of the old structures and their demolition:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/12753

[DBR96A]

Some building on Braddock Avenue is being bought and converted to light industrial and flexible office space. Apparently it has a huge freight elevator inside.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by DBR96A

Some building on Braddock Avenue is being bought and converted to light industrial and flexible office space. Apparently it has a huge freight elevator inside.

I think that is a 2011 article, but I also think that whole industrial area straddling North Point Breeze and Wilkinsburg seems primed for an East Liberty/Bakery Square-type renaissance. There are two Busway stops in or nearby, a distinctive core group of amenities, and lots of cool old buildings suitable for creative reuse.

[MarkMyWords]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

It looks like half of the site had been a parking lot...



8th Ave Block

If my memory serves me correctly, the westernmost corner of this site used to be the location of the Nixon theatre, which was one of the really grand theatres downtown. And there used to be a very narrow street (not much more than an alley) that ran from Liberty to William Penn Place along the otwest side of this plt. Can't remember the name of that street.

[Minivan Werner]

None of those buildings looked to be salvageable anyway. Still, to build what looks like a glorified Winnebago that can't even break even within 5 years of its opening was a pretty poor decision by those in charge.

[BrianTH]

American Wire Research, a Taiwanese company, has bought the former Westinghouse Air Brake property in Wilmerding:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...e-air-brake-property-sells.html?page=all

http://goo.gl/maps/P9laL

No information on plans yet aside from leasing back a portion to the current tenants and prior owners, but it sounds intriguing.

[BrianTH]

Some more details on the Sienna Mercato project in the Cultural District:

http://pgplate.com/forks-blog/564-emporio-to-open-downtown-in-november

The restaurant/bars on the three levels will be a meatballs place on the ground floor, a pizza/risotto place on the second floor, and a wine/beer garden on the top. The top location will have a retractable roof, and the first two floors will have garage-style opening doors (or really windows, I guess, in terms of the second floor).

Sounds like a lot of fun.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by MarkMyWords

If my memory serves me correctly, the westernmost corner of this site used to be the location of the Nixon theatre, which was one of the really grand theatres downtown. And there used to be a very narrow street (not much more than an alley) that ran from Liberty to William Penn Place along the otwest side of this plt. Can't remember the name of that street.

The New Nixon Theatre was not on this block, as I recall, but rather one block further west on Liberty at 9th Street (where the orange brick parking garage currently sits). The original Nixon, which was considered one of the grandest theatres in the country and surely the best of all those in Pittsburgh, was on Sixth Avenue where the former Alcoa Building is located.

[chucka]

Here are some of the buildings that the August Wilson Center replaced. Two buildings were gone by the time I took these pictures.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by MarkMyWords

If my memory serves me correctly, the westernmost corner of this site used to be the location of the Nixon theatre, which was one of the really grand theatres downtown. And there used to be a very narrow street (not much more than an alley) that ran from Liberty to William Penn Place along the otwest side of this plt. Can't remember the name of that street.

I stand corrected. The New Nixon (formerly the Victoria and then later the Shubert) Theatre stood right where you recall. Address was 956 Liberty. I remember going to the theater as a kid but always recalled it further west on Liberty.