PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[DKNewYork]

From Politico this morning, "The Political Make-Over of a Rustbelt City":

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2...-rust-belt-city-103040.html#.UvEcUqMo6po

At the bottom of the article, I found a link to another interesting one: "The Robots that Saved Pittsburgh...How the Steel City Avoided Detroit's Fate"

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2...062.html?ml=m_t1_2h#.UvELPfldV8E?ml=m_mm

[pghusa]

Originally Posted by PghSH22

While reading an article discussing the future potential of "cold weather" cities hosting another super bowl, I came across this:

"The requirement for 30,000 hotel rooms takes Green Bay off the list, as well as Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. But this is obviously about more than adequate lodging. It's a week-long, high-profile event leading up to one of the biggest television events of the year."

Can someone tell me approximately how many hotel rooms Pittsburgh does have/will have post the construcion of some of the new ones in downtwon? Im not advocating for or want/think a super bowl should happen in Pittsburgh, just simply curious about our hotel capacity and how far off we currently are.

According to this Trib article from 13 months ago:

There are 24,114 total hotel rooms here, according to Smith Travel. But comparable cities have more — Philadelphia has 44,213; Baltimore, 33,026; and Cincinnati, 27,830.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by 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...

Charlotte ended 2013 with an unemployment rate higher than Pittsburgh's, 6.9% vs. 6.2%. So while being home to two of the country's largest banks does ensure a lot of daily flights to NYC economic health doesn't completely explain their much higher OD numbers. What Charlotte has, and the reason they were made a hub in the first place, is the geographic advantage of being a three hour drive or less from seven MSAs each with roughly 500,000+ people, not to mention all of the small towns that litter the Carolina Piedmont. A lot of people in both North and South Carolina use Charlotte, or even Atlanta, as their origin airport as the ticket prices are often 1/3 the cost of the regional airports and it's likely they would have to connect through either depending upon the airline.

[pghusa]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

So while being home to two of the country's largest banks does ensure a lot of daily flights to NYC economic health doesn't completely explain their much higher OD numbers.

Welcome to the forum!

Charlotte is home to 1 large bank and a regional HQ for another (Wells Fargo bought Wachovia out a few years back). But yes convincing most Carolinians that their claim to fame got cut in half is another matter.

[themaguffin]

Yes geography matters, Charlotte sits ideally in the middle of the Carolinas and combine the two states have almost 15 million people. All of these residents are spread out in smaller to mid sized metros that would never be hubs and route through somewhere....

[BrianTH]

City Planning agreed to the Whole Foods expansion, but not the design of the new parking deck. Whole Foods is going to try to come back with a redesign:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region...sion-of-Whole-Foods/stories/201402040150

Not really ideal, but at least they care a bit about how it would look.

[photoLith]

New Salvation Army on Carson st. It could have been good looking if it weren't for that doofy awning thing on the edge, why oh why do they feel the need to put that cheap looking crap on otherwise decent looking buildings?

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by photoLith

New Salvation Army on Carson st. It could have been good looking if it weren't for that doofy awning thing on the edge, why oh why do they feel the need to put that cheap looking crap on otherwise decent looking buildings?

What "awning thing" are you talking about? I think this building looks much better than what's going in on the North Shore right now. No stupid cupolas, thank god.

[GeneW]

Nice little article about the couple who are renovating the old Hipwell Flashlight factory on the 800 block of W. North Ave over here in Allegheny West. A few tidbits about the plans for the rest of the block too.

[psuhoops123]

Finally someone sees it!! This whole red brick "modern look" with the gray/silver awning/siding is terrible. I can't stand it on all the Northshore buildings and other places too. Why can't it be black (like in Southside Works) or all brick with some detail. I have no idea who think's it's a great idea to add this but it looks tacky as hell. Thank You!

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

What "awning thing" are you talking about? I think this building looks much better than what's going in on the North Shore right now. No stupid cupolas, thank god.

I don't see an awning on this building. You guys are referring to some architectural feature, but I don't know which one. Awnings overhang/protect windows and doors.

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by doo dah

I don't see an awning on this building. You guys are referring to some architectural feature, but I don't know which one. Awnings overhang/protect windows and doors.

I think the word they are looking for is cladding, or even siding.

[BrianTH]

I think the idea is that corrugated metal is supposed to lend an industrial look. There are situations in which I don't mind it--Stage AE, for example, looks OK to me:





However, they really committed to the industrial look for Stage AE--the whole thing looks like a repurposed warehouse or factory, including the interior:



For the same reason, I don't mind its use in the Otto Milk Factory conversion, because that is a generally industrial building (pic borrowed from forum):



On the other hand, I agree this sort of design element looks much more forced in a case like the new Salvation Army building, and so it doesn't work for me in that sort of context.

[photoLith]

Yeah I guess awning wasn't the right word but siding isn't right either. Im referring to the new wave of buildings in the past 7 or so years which are great overall but then on the corners they always put some doofy looking protrusion that extends above the building. Why can't they just build symmetrical buildings anymore, they always have to put that weird extra one story thing on the side of small commercials or residential buildings now. The Salvation Army building would have looked great if they would have just kept with the Art Deco style that's present on the rest of the building. Then they had to break it up with that terrible tin siding and that odd protrusion. Makes no sense why architects do that.

[dfiler]

Good or bad, false height facades on the front of buildings has been an architectural norm for centuries. Nearly all one or two story commercial buildings are built that way.

The new salvation army building is ugly in my opinion, but it is hard to describe exactly why. I think the reason is not the choice of materials or overall shape. Instead it is just horribly designed, with basically random rectangles and material application. Yet the same combinations of materials and general shape could have been beautiful.

The additions to the Otto Milk factory are better in an equally unjustifiable way. It suffers from a bad original first floor but the additions with new material work relatively well for the overall building.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by dfiler

The new salvation army building is ugly in my opinion, but it is hard to describe exactly why. I think the reason is not the choice of materials or overall shape. Instead it is just horribly designed, with basically random rectangles and material application. Yet the same combinations of materials and general shape could have been beautiful.

I agree. For example, I think if the limestone (or whatever) columns around the corner went all the way up (to match the nearby brick columns with limestone caps in height), and they converted more of the black trim to gray, it could look a lot better. Basically, I don't mind as much how it looks down the sides, so it mostly that corner tower-thingy that looks overdesigned to me.

[Wiz Khalifa]

I definitely think that if they removed all of those cheap light grey metal panels and replaced them with glass, this building would look so much better. I don't think it would be too costly to add a little more more glass to a large building like this, even for a non-profit like the Salvation Army.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

I definitely think that if they removed all of those cheap light grey metal panels and replaced them with glass, this building would look so much better. I don't think it would be too costly to add a little more more glass to a large building like this, even for a non-profit like the Salvation Army.

Cheap... that's why they use it.

It would be costly to add windows. Adds to construction costs significantly.

[BrianTH]

Pop City also did an article on the new Mt. Washington project:

http://www.popcitymedia.com/devnews/bradleyredoubt020514.aspx

This interactive website has a lot of related information, including a map, about Pittsburgh's Civil War fortifications in "Chapter 2"--if you click on a flag on the map you can get a snippet of information about specific fortifications

http://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/gettysburg/

Finally, here is an historic military sketch of the fortification plan:



And from the above interactive site, here is what Pittsburgh looked like in that era:

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Basically, I don't mind as much how it looks down the sides, so it mostly that corner tower-thingy that looks overdesigned to me.

Yeah, overdesigned is the exact term I would use.

I feel that way about the AE Stage too. Incredibly overdesigned for what is such a simple building.