PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Jonboy1983

Agreed. Granted it is a much better use than a parking lot, but it could definitely use more height. Someone mentioned 10-15 stories here.

I do wish the City Planning Commission/Zoning Hearing Board would consider changing the zoning ordinance to allow for a minimum height requirement. I'd put the minimum height at 100 feet, or roughly 6 to 7 stories...

It's the modern urban infill shit from Continental Real Estate (Columbus, OH) in one of its ugliest forms IMO. It just strikes me as so fucking generic it literally makes me roll my eyes.

[BrianTH]

United is dehubbing Cleveland:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/united-airlines-drops-cleveland-hub-airport-22330299

Not really a shock--as explained in the article, it was originally a Continental hub, which United then acquired, and United already had a hub in Chicago.

Anyway, maybe this will make it slightly easier to attract flights to Pittsburgh.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

United is dehubbing Cleveland:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/united-airlines-drops-cleveland-hub-airport-22330299

Not really a shock--as explained in the article, it was originally a Continental hub, with United then acquired, and United already has a hub in Chicago.

Anyway, maybe this will make it slightly easier to attract flights to Pittsburgh.

Not too surprising. Because it has become abundantly clear even to the casual observer such as myself that the major airlines have adopted a strategy of, "Consolidate hubs to major cities and phunk the mid sized cities". I would imagine it must be much cheaper to do that.

Cities that lost hubs:

Pittsburgh
Columbus
Cincinnati
Dayton
Indianopolis
St Louis
Memphis
Others??

"The industry overhaul follows decades of overcapacity that produced tens of billions of dollars in red ink. In 2005, a surge in fuel costs grounded that money-losing business model and forced widespread cuts in service to dozens of U.S. airports."

"This in an industry that managed to lose $62 billion over a decade, so they simply needed to remove the marginal flying that was contributing to those losses"

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/cuts-air-service-stifling-midsized-cities-2D11777988

[BrianTH]

Part of it is just the natural result of mergers. But even then it is true that after a merger, if the choice is between keeping the bigger city hub or the smaller city hub, odds are the bigger city hub is going to win.

Anyway, it all lends support to this notion:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/fli...gn-airlines-fly-domestic-routes/4329825/

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

It's the modern urban infill shit from Continental Real Estate (Columbus, OH) in one of its ugliest forms IMO. It just strikes me as so fucking generic it literally makes me roll my eyes.

These buildings look like they're from 1999. Continental has no vision... and no confidence in Pittsburgh as evidenced by these lowest-common-denominator buildings and tenants. These are the types of "entertainment district" developers the City has to move away from in the Peduto era.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Not too surprising. Because it has become abundantly clear even to the casual observer such as myself that the major airlines have adopted a strategy of, "Consolidate hubs to major cities and phunk the mid sized cities". I would imagine it must be much cheaper to do that.

Cities that lost hubs:

Pittsburgh
Columbus
Cincinnati
Dayton
Indianopolis
St Louis
Memphis
Others??

"The industry overhaul follows decades of overcapacity that produced tens of billions of dollars in red ink. In 2005, a surge in fuel costs grounded that money-losing business model and forced widespread cuts in service to dozens of U.S. airports."

"This in an industry that managed to lose $62 billion over a decade, so they simply needed to remove the marginal flying that was contributing to those losses"

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/cuts-air-service-stifling-midsized-cities-2D11777988

and yet Charlotte still has a US Air hub...

[Jonboy1983]

Charlotte is an anomaly. It's MSA is roughly the same size as Pittsburgh, but its economy is even healthier, and its local traffic is probably twice that of Pittsburgh's. Pittsburgh still probably has only about 7 million annual origin-destination passengers compared to at least 12 million or so for Charlotte...

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

These buildings look like their from 1999. Continental has no vision... and no confidence in Pittsburgh as evidenced by these lowest-common-denominator buildings and tenants. These are the types of "entertainment district" developers the City has to move away from in the Peduto era.

That's exactly what I think of too; That Continental has zero confidence in Pittsburgh as a modern city. That is primo land and they are throwing up the lowest common denominator. Columbus gets a lot of quality developments though from various developers.

[Austinlee]

Columbus infill:

(Columbus North Bank Condominium - aka North Shore anybody??)

[Austinlee]

That's not Continental's by the way, just bitching that shit should be tall on the North Shore! Imagine the views.

[themaguffin]

and yet Charlotte still has a US Air hub...

to be fair, all of those cities are relatively close to each other (and Dayton and Columbus were hubs???)

Charlotte sits centrally in the Carolinas which has a sizable population and you have to go to Atlanta for the nearest hub or up north somewhere...

I'm sure strategically, it's geography made sense.

[MattofSloppyVariety]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Looks an awful lot like Southside Works.

Actually, it looks an awful lot like the Arena District in Columbus, OH.

[BrianTH]

I have long suspected the Steelers are just as much a problem as Continental.

Anyway, it remains to be seen whether the new American/USAir really needs all four of JFK, Philly, Charlotte, and Miami. They had to commit to three years of keeping all the hubs to get the merger approved, so the fact they are saying positive things right now doesn't really mean much.

[Austinlee]

Other cities that have been dehubbed:

Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Raleigh, San Jose, Nashville, Syracuse.

[Austinlee]

The winners? Basically the biggest of the big - New York, Philly, Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, Denver, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles

[Austinlee]

And of course Charlotte

[acenturi]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

And of course Charlotte

The DOJ 3 year agreement can be broken at any time if the following conditions occur (at a Hub): There is a material adverse change - in demand, the competitive environment, or American's cost to comply. Obviously one could easily project that if aviation fuel prices (market rate) exceed a certain level, it could cause any or all of the 3 condiitons to occur. Personally, I cannot imagine AMR being denied relief (from the DOJ) if a condition triggers and it can be proven the airline's financial future is in jeopardy. If you look at CLT, as an example, are connecting flights included in "maintaining service levels", or is it just local traffic (O&D)? One interpretation could be that since of CLT's 40M in/out flights/year, approx 75% are connecting passengers not going to CLT, that the maintenance requirement is to maintain O&D only. I suspect that is why the current CLT-Rio/Sao Paulo flights are being discontinued at/near year end.

[DBR96A]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I took these a couple weeks ago:

YASS!!! MOAR CUPOLAS PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[ks2006]

Originally Posted by DBR96A

YASS!!! MOAR CUPOLAS PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Are those cupolas? They are so pathetic and so generic that I wonder why anybody even bothers with them anymore. Weren't they basically a requirement for new buildings a decade ago? Really, the architects should be fired based on those things alone.

[photoLith]

I hate those stupid things on new buildings.