PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[BrianTH]

Bike commuting continues to surge in Pittsburgh:

http://bikepgh.org/2014/09/23/new-census...ns-largest-bike-commuter-jump-since-y2k/

http://bikeleague.org/WhereWeRide

[Wave]

The Centre & Craig development alluded to in the Dan Gilman article seems to be the site of the long-cancelled Chelsea Apartments location. The $100MM price tag for this = a huge project. The location is primo for a large development and is an amazing spot. Too bad the equally large, flat, well sited location across the street was developed into a measly one story CVS with an attached large surface parking lot and drive through.

Anyway, very exciting if it transpires.

Originally Posted by Brentsters

A little round up...

- Villas at Winter Park - 25 three-story attached dwellings below St Paul of the Cross Monastery. Same developer as the Bailey Park development.

http://www.southsideslopes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Community-Outreach-Meeting-Flier-2.0.pdf

- Down the slopes on the vacant lot across from Rugger's, SOTA is applying for a new three-story building with 23 units.

- The former McCleary Elementary in Upper Larryville is being converted into a 25-unit residential, with a one-story addition.

- And from an article on Dan Gilman,


http://thejewishchronicle.net/view/full_...g-on-full-throttle?instance=this_just_in

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Bike commuting continues to surge in Pittsburgh:

http://bikepgh.org/2014/09/23/new-census...ns-largest-bike-commuter-jump-since-y2k/

http://bikeleague.org/WhereWeRide

I was skeptical about the addition of all the bike lanes, but I must say that the frequency I want to run over a doucher cyclist has dropped quite a bit. I assume the bikers are sticking with the "safe" bike lanes instead of riding down the middle of the street (blocking traffic) while simultaneously ignoring all stop signs. I'm all for that.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Bike commuting continues to surge in Pittsburgh:

http://bikepgh.org/2014/09/23/new-census...ns-largest-bike-commuter-jump-since-y2k/

http://bikeleague.org/WhereWeRide

On my walk to work today I saw a car turn left into the Penn Ave. bike lane from Seventh. At the last second the motorist noticed something was amiss... but still so very slowly continued its awkward trajectory. I can't believe this is still happening a month after installation of the lane.

I am really embracing that lane after initial misgivings (due to concerns about limiting traffic accessibility). I have noticed an absolute boom in biking throughout the city over the past few months... and I am firmly on board with making this city a biketropolis. Whenever I'm out and about... I'm constantly looking at streets and boulevards and thinking to myself... "this could make a good bike lane".

...

Thanks for the updates, Brensters. I believe The Chelsea proposed for that site before the recession had a price tag of $17M for comparison (and was a hideous rendering). Centre/Craig should be a focus of high-density urbanism... I was outraged when one corner was squandered on a CVS. A site like that should be an apartment block with a ground-floor CVS.

Also, great news on SOTA's building next to Ruggers. There is so much untapped potential along the South Side waterfront... I was just walking through that area over the weekend. Most of the riverfront property is squandered on parking lots, vacant lots, warehouses, industrial properties, sprawling one-story mid-century office buildings (Teachers Federation, a school district building, etc.), the barren western half of the apparently stalled Southside Works (in retrospect, I would assume Soffer wishes he would've multiplied the residential component instead of prioritizing retail space).

...

article on VIA taking place this weekend at the ornate Union Trust Building

http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/v...eloping-local-talent/Content?oid=1781246

Photo courtesy of Nicole Jarock
Paul Fleetwood (foreground) and Aaron Clark are two of many Pittsburgh-affiliated musicians playing this year's VIA Festival

...

"My music-scene experience in Pittsburgh has primarily been in the electronic partition, and I really [didn't notice] until after VIA occurred how sharp that partition was," Fleetwood explains via email. "VIA has made a direct impact in bridging multiple musical cliques and scenes in Pittsburgh.

"Right now there is an unprecedented level of balance and unity in Pittsburgh's art and music scenes, since I have been involved. This is significant progress. It would be unfair not to mention VIA as being a direct contribution to this."

The Hot Mass after-party that Fleetwood and Clark initially founded will be playing an important role in this year's VIA fest. Both DJs are slotted to play the VIA edition of Hot Mass, on Friday during the week of the fest. Clark will also be playing the Honcho event at VIA on Saturday — a gay-centric party that he runs along with DJs Clark Price and Edgar Um, who is also part of the VIA collective along with Aaron Clark. Clearly, it's a family affair.

Hot Mass has had a similar ethos to VIA as different promoters each curate a Saturday night throughout the year. While it's famous for being a site for late-night antics as chronicled earlier this year in a Vice article titled "The Secret Techno Sex Parties of Pittsburgh," the party has also offered some of the most forward-thinking club music that Pittsburgh has seen to date. There's no doubt that VIA's sense of community factored into the ideals of Hot Mass.

...

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Brentsters

A little round up...

- Villas at Winter Park - 25 three-story attached dwellings below St Paul of the Cross Monastery. Same developer as the Bailey Park development.

http://www.southsideslopes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Community-Outreach-Meeting-Flier-2.0.pdf

- Down the slopes on the vacant lot across from Rugger's, SOTA is applying for a new three-story building with 23 units.

I don't mind infill townhouses anywhere - they do make things more dense after all. But I do wonder why while the North Side gets semi-historic infill (even when it's not trying to look historic, it still tries to look contextual) where all South Side and Lawrenceville get are uber-modern developments. It can't be about the historic districts in the North Side, because the vast majority of the infill doesn't take place in historic districts. Just has me scratching my head.

[BrianTH]

Interesting post on how the new Amazon and FedEx distribution centers in the works may be just the start of a building wave necessitated by the emerging overnight/same-day fulfillment models:

http://buildingpittsburgh.com/2014/10/01/the-amazon-effect/

Of course those fulfillment models may also kill off even more brick & mortar retail stores. So I remain convinced we need to be careful about not including too much retail space in new urban projects.

[BrianTH]

Some kudos for Point State Park:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region...op-10-public-places/stories/201410010177

The slide show (under the logo) of other designees is pretty inspiring:

https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

article on VIA taking place this weekend at the ornate Union Trust Building

http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/v...eloping-local-talent/Content?oid=1781246

Great article from city paper. The Humanaut crew and VIA have made Pittsburgh's cutting edge music scene something special.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Wave

The Centre & Craig development alluded to in the Dan Gilman article seems to be the site of the long-cancelled Chelsea Apartments location. The $100MM price tag for this = a huge project. The location is primo for a large development and is an amazing spot. Too bad the equally large, flat, well sited location across the street was developed into a measly one story CVS with an attached large surface parking lot and drive through.

Anyway, very exciting if it transpires.

Dan Gilman sounds like a fascinating guy. Smart, hard working, obsessive. It's comforting to hear that such a talent is working in our city government. And he turned DOWN a job to work for the Clinton Initiative to stay in Pittsburgh. What a guy!

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Bike commuting continues to surge in Pittsburgh:

http://bikepgh.org/2014/09/23/new-census...ns-largest-bike-commuter-jump-since-y2k/

http://bikeleague.org/WhereWeRide

It's amazing how many bikes you see on the road these days. Lots of my co-workers bike to Bakery Square but I'm still too chicken to ride on the main streets during rush hour.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Lots of my co-workers bike to Bakery Square but I'm still too chicken to ride on the main streets during rush hour.

Me too. If there was easy access to the Mon River trails from Regent Square, I'd at least try out bike commuting Downtown. But the idea of fighting rush hour traffic makes me too nervous.

[Topher51]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Can't wait to see St. Nick's carved into that concrete wall as I cross the Allegheny, just like we used to see that cool, old Croatian church against the hillside when doing so... oh wait...

While I am still bummed they tore down the church, the walkway and the artwork look really nice. This will be a nice enhancement.

[BrianTH]

Airport area development is going well:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/201...eeding-expectations/stories/201410020254

I know this is not the favorite sort of development around here, but there are going to be SOME suburban-style office park developments, and it makes sense to put them near the airport. Certainly that makes more sense than spending hundreds of millions on new highways to the airport just to open more areas up to such development. And I'd rather Continental be doing its thing out there (see the article) than in and around Downtown.

[ShooFlyPie]

Originally Posted by TBone7281

I was skeptical about the addition of all the bike lanes, but I must say that the frequency I want to run over a doucher cyclist has dropped quite a bit. I assume the bikers are sticking with the "safe" bike lanes instead of riding down the middle of the street (blocking traffic) while simultaneously ignoring all stop signs. I'm all for that.

Bikes are allowed in the middle of the road. In fact they are safer there. The new lanes downtown make me feel less safe as now you have to constantly worry about J-hooking. They should just sharrow downtown and put the funding for protected bike lanes on other streets where they would be more needed. Prior to the lanes on Penn I rode right in the middle the SAME SPEED as the cages in front of me without impeding a single person. I stop at all lights and stop signs. As I am all for building bike infrastructure some of these lanes are not thought out that well in any way. Coming out of downtown on Penn just drops cyclists off going the wrong way on a one-way street.

Would be nice to have a few protected lanes on my commute from Greenfield to Monroeville dealing with suburbanites on Rodi road who want to run over a "doucher cyclist" trying to live his life, get to work, or back to his family. Their lives aren't important anyways.

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Me too. If there was easy access to the Mon River trails from Regent Square, I'd at least try out bike commuting Downtown. But the idea of fighting rush hour traffic makes me too nervous.

There already is easy access, Frick Park to the Duck Hollow trail to Eliza Furnace. You would just have to ride on a road for a mile through Hazelwood until the that closed section is re-opened again.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

There already is easy access, Frick Park to the Duck Hollow trail to Eliza Furnace. You would just have to ride on a road for a mile through Hazelwood until the that closed section is re-opened again.

Is there access from Duck Hollow to Hazelwood/Eliza Furnace? I thought there was a railyard in the way.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by ShooFlyPie

Bikes are allowed in the middle of the road. In fact they are safer there. The new lanes downtown make me feel less safe as now you have to constantly worry about J-hooking. They should just sharrow downtown and put the funding for protected bike lanes on other streets where they would be more needed. Prior to the lanes on Penn I rode right in the middle the SAME SPEED as the cages in front of me without impeding a single person. I stop at all lights and stop signs. As I am all for building bike infrastructure some of these lanes are not thought out that well in any way. Coming out of downtown on Penn just drops cyclists off going the wrong way on a one-way street.

Would be nice to have a few protected lanes on my commute from Greenfield to Monroeville dealing with suburbanites on Rodi road who want to run over a "doucher cyclist" trying to live his life, get to work, or back to his family. Their lives aren't important anyways.

Interesting points, ShooFlyPie. I was just thinking the other day that the eastern terminus of the Penn Ave bike land is rather awkward.

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I don't mind infill townhouses anywhere - they do make things more dense after all. But I do wonder why while the North Side gets semi-historic infill (even when it's not trying to look historic, it still tries to look contextual) where all South Side and Lawrenceville get are uber-modern developments. It can't be about the historic districts in the North Side, because the vast majority of the infill doesn't take place in historic districts. Just has me scratching my head.

The North Side and Slopes developments both make contextual sense to me. Federal Street is a main drag literally right next to a major historic district, so maintaining a Faux-historic development here is obviously a necessity.

The Slopes have no historic districts, or even a contiguous development pattern. The modern design is needed to take advantage of the fantastic views that will be available at this location, perched on the side of a cliff.

I think that Lawrenceville is getting a pretty nice mix of both faux-historic and modern developments. I don't think that there are any historic districts in the neighborhood to adhere to either.

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Is there access from Duck Hollow to Hazelwood/Eliza Furnace? I thought there was a railyard in the way.

It's right before the railyard, crossing under the Glenwood bridge involves carrying your bike over 5 RR tracks to get to 2nd ave.

According to Bike PGH, the Hazelwood segment that takes you from 2nd ave in Hazelwood to the Hot Metal Bridge is supposed to re-open for spring of 2015.

[ShooFlyPie]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Interesting points, ShooFlyPie. I was just thinking the other day that the eastern terminus of the Penn Ave bike land is rather awkward.

All the new lanes are awkward. The ones in the Schenley Park are another poorly thought out lanes. If you are coming out of Squirrel Hill to Oakland you have to jump over in an odd way to get in the lane on the opposite side of the street. I just cycle in the road as going the speed limit on a decent Road bike is fairly easy in low MPH streets through a city park.

There are primarily two different views of infrastructure with cyclists. Some feel cyclists need separated in their own lanes in a Nanny lane. This is very frustrating to what is considered vehicular cyclists. It squeezes us into a small lane usually against a door zone where it feels much more unsafe and you have to worry about people pulling out, opening car doors (which can be fatal), and your line of sight is far more off. I hold onto another camp of cyclists that wants more traffic calming in city neighborhoods and streets than separating. A very good example is the Gold Way to Melwood connection of Oakland and Polish Hill. Speed humps are added for cars along with Sharrows. I see no reason to build lanes on certain streets while others would greatly benefit better from it. Especially downtown. Cars mostly can't and shouldn't be traveling faster than 25 MPH in many areas such as Downtown. Riding down Penn Ave the same speed as traffic was rather a simple thing before the lanes. Just take the lane and stay out of the door zone. Now I have to constantly look over my shoulder to the right as I been about J-hooked many times in the "safe" protected bike lanes.

New Bike infrastructure is important to urban design and the growth of cities, so it is a good discussion on this forum. It is talked about in much further depth on bike Pittsburgh's forum. It seems like many of the developments in the city are not taking actual consideration from cyclists. It seems like a lot of people think they will only cycle if there is a recreational trail. Cities like Cincinnati have the philosophy to move all bikes off the streets and onto a rail trail system which is very backwards. It is like asking all cars to only remain on the highway and freeway system and not be allowed on city streets where they have to share with cyclists, pedestrians, and rascals although that would be an awesome idea in my opinion.