PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[SkyPittsburgh]

New planning commission presentation is up:
-Demolition of Panther Hollow Inn Building and replacing it with an equal height building.
-An mediocre sign placement on the North Shore that can be seen from all of downtown!
-Detailed plans to improve a parking lot at the bottom of CMU's campus on S. Neville.
-More parking lots for CMU, this time paving over an abandoned lot.
-Minor changes to the Union Trust building.

Read more here

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SkyPittsburgh

-More parking lots for CMU, this time paving over an abandoned lot.

That area wasn't abandoned lots that long ago. Five or six houses stood on the land until at least 2011, when CMU bought out the block. The Planning Commission document makes it clear.

Strangely, they also own the last house standing on that block. Why they didn't tear it down as well I'm not exactly sure. It was certainly the house in the best shape, which may have saved it for now. It might also have to do with that block being highly sloped, and the grade change for a block-spanning lot just being too much there.

Overall the few blocks of residential left between S Craig and S Neville are probably one of the most endangered "micro-neighborhoods" in the city. CMU is slowly gobbling this land up, and plans to eventually make all of these blocks part of their core campus.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

I've worked with these guys and I wouldn't be surprised if they have longer-term plans to demolish the mall portion of Allegheny Center for a more profitable use as the Northside continues to "clean up".

That would be great. I'm not engineer and I don't really know how it was constructed, but I would hope if you were tearing off those heavy-looking Brutalist former-mall levels, it wouldn't be that difficult to replace them with something like a bunch of 4-5 story mini-towers (or U-shaped or O-shaped buildings--whatever best tied into the lower-level support structure). I would think you could end up with a lot more usable space for residential units or higher-end offices without necessarily a ton more weight.

I also know there are parking entrances on S Commons on both sides of Federal, and then more on both W Commons and E Commons respectively. So I would hope you could in fact cut through Federal again creating two different garages on either side. I recognize that may be more in the public's interest than the property owner's interests (although who knows--street-level retail space along a reborn Federal could end up valuable), but I for one would be happy to supply a lot of public financing in terms of something like a TIF if that could be pulled off.

[BrianTH]

The proposed Peoples sign is OK with me.

If we can't stop Point Park from eating up Downtown, the prospects of stopping CMU from eating up Oakland are not good.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Overall the few blocks of residential left between S Craig and S Neville are probably one of the most endangered "micro-neighborhoods" in the city. CMU is slowly gobbling this land up, and plans to eventually make all of these blocks part of their core campus.

It's a real shame... when I really started exploring deep into Pittsburgh 10-15 years ago... I always loved that micro-neighborhood... felt it had a great vibe and a lot of potential. Now it's disappearing.

Central Catholic recently knocked down a handsome block of houses on S. Neville as part of an expansion project.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

It's a real shame... when I really started exploring deep into Pittsburgh 10-15 years ago... I always loved that micro-neighborhood... felt it had a great vibe and a lot of potential. Now it's disappearing.

Here's a quick diagram I did of the area in Inkscape.



Key:

Blue - Storefront commercial (some with upper story apartments)
Gold - High-Density Residential (one condo, one apartment building)
Green - Medium/Low Density Residential
Gray - Offices
Black - Parking or vacant lots.

Cyan - Pitt-owned buildings
Red - CMU-owned buildings
Dark Red - CMU-owned parking or vacant lots

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

It's a real shame... when I really started exploring deep into Pittsburgh 10-15 years ago... I always loved that micro-neighborhood... felt it had a great vibe and a lot of potential. Now it's disappearing.

Central Catholic recently knocked down a handsome block of houses on S. Neville as part of an expansion project.

Yes, that South Craig neighborhood is one of Pittsburgh's little urban gems. Small streets, old homes, dense pattern and completely surrounded by institutional Oakland.

[Wave]

Wow. It seems like virtually nothing in that diagram is on the tax rolls. All institutional/Non-profit/religious etc. Even the two large grey areas that are labeled "offices" I believe are actually St. Nicholas Church and the Board of Education. Mainly just the diminishing few houses in green, the blue retail on Craig mostly and the two high-density residential buildings. Great, descriptive diagram.

Originally Posted by eschaton

Here's a quick diagram I did of the area in Inkscape.



Key:

Blue - Storefront commercial (some with upper story apartments)
Gold - High-Density Residential (one condo, one apartment building)
Green - Medium/Low Density Residential
Gray - Offices
Black - Parking or vacant lots.

Cyan - Pitt-owned buildings
Red - CMU-owned buildings
Dark Red - CMU-owned parking or vacant lots

[WillyC]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Here's a quick diagram I did of the area in Inkscape.



Key:

Blue - Storefront commercial (some with upper story apartments)
Gold - High-Density Residential (one condo, one apartment building)
Green - Medium/Low Density Residential
Gray - Offices
Black - Parking or vacant lots.

Cyan - Pitt-owned buildings
Red - CMU-owned buildings
Dark Red - CMU-owned parking or vacant lots

Would not have figured the PNC on 5th was owned by Pitt. Interesting!

[daviderik]

Here's 23 min video I found on YouTube about the construction of Mellon Institute. I always found this Oakland landmark fascinating.
http://youtu.be/T1iLsPAerYk

[Brentsters]

Another new apartment building along Baum-Centre. This one by Oxford.

Construct new 167,070 sq. ft. six story multi-family building (148
units) with 113 integral parking spaces.

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/schedule64/agenda-64-659.pdf

Looks like it will cover from Commerce Lane to the surface lot.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Brentsters

Another new apartment building along Baum-Centre. This one by Oxford.



http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/schedule64/agenda-64-659.pdf

Looks like it will cover from Commerce Lane to the surface lot.

Takes out two ugly mid-century retail buildings and a surface lot too. Seems like a great step forward. Baum-Centre is really going to look unrecognizable in another 10 years or so.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by daviderik

Here's 23 min video I found on YouTube about the construction of Mellon Institute. I always found this Oakland landmark fascinating.
http://youtu.be/T1iLsPAerYk

The columns are by far the most fascinating part. And to think, they planned to have batman fight on the steps 80+ years later.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The proposed Peoples sign is OK with me.

If we can't stop Point Park from eating up Downtown, the prospects of stopping CMU from eating up Oakland are not good.

Speaking of signs, there was a crew of guys on a cherry picker in the freezing rain the other day taking down the lettering of the "Del Monte" building. So I guess a new name is going up?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Brentsters

Another new apartment building along Baum-Centre. This one by Oxford.

Wow, that's great! That should count as TOD with the Negley Busway Station nearby, and it will continue the densification trend in Greater East Liberty.

[daviderik]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Speaking of signs, there was a crew of guys on a cherry picker in the freezing rain the other day taking down the lettering of the "Del Monte" building. So I guess a new name is going up?

Yes, the Peoples sign. There is a rendering in the planning commission's pdf
http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/schedule65/presentation-65-693.pdf It's on page 13.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by daviderik

Yes, the Peoples sign.

I think the Peoples sign is going on the building nearest PNC Park. The former Del Monte building (on the other side of the bridge) was getting a Big Heart Pet Brands sign, although I was hoping it would be changed to Smuckers now that they have been acquired.

[BrianTH]

So there are a lot of questions about how the URA handled the bidding for the PTC parcel, Parcel 3, that Walnut wants to use for residential. The issue as I understand it is that the URA had been marketing it as two parcels plus a garage for industrial/commercial use, and Walnut is instead going to do one residential project with integrated parking, and the question is whether other possible developers knew that was possible and were given an opportunity to bid before the URA entered into exclusive negotiations with Walnut, and at the original price when the parcel was more restricted in use. Personally, I don't really care what price the URA sells stuff at, but I do care they make these opportunities open to any qualified developer, and fairly consider competing bids.

But anyway, in looking into that a bit, I saw that there was an amended RFP for the PTC as of 2-18:

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/ura-files/UPDATED_Draft_Final_2-18-15.pdf

And it includes a note that the status of Parcel 8a is "Proposal Received/Under Review". Parcel 8a is farther east along Second, across from Bates:



I don't think there has been announcement about that (although my memory may be failing me), but it would represent another big step forward for the site if it gets developed.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Takes out two ugly mid-century retail buildings and a surface lot too. Seems like a great step forward. Baum-Centre is really going to look unrecognizable in another 10 years or so.

Just this weekend I was driving down that road and thinking to myself how awful that stretch of Centre between Market District and Whole Foods is.

Great news.

[eschaton]

I do wonder if we're headed to the point where Baum-Centre needs its own "branding" as a neighborhood.

I mean, officially speaking, the area is broken up between East Liberty, Shadyside, Friendship, Bloomfield, and arguably North Oakland, depending upon how far southwest you make the cutoff. The area has long been very different in terms of urban fabric than the nearby neighborhoods, with a mixture of low-slung commercial and residential highrises. With at least five major apartment complexes in the works now (and undoubtedly more on their way) the level of localized density is going to get much higher. Ultimately I think it would make sense to upzone out even further, for example in the little portions of Bloomfield and Shadyside which are respectively on the "wrong side of the tracks."

I don't think the City would officially recognize it as a neighborhood, because the City only wants neighborhoods which align to census tracts/block groups. But I could see it being recognized unofficially in the same way Penn/Main (which is shared between Bloomfield and Lawrenceville) currently is.