PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II - Page 691

WillyC · #**13801** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 10:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chucka

A historic church on the border of Bloomfield/Frienship/Shadyside might be replaced by a very small one story building with a drive-through and lots of surface parking.

Google Street View

Pittsburgh Zoning Board considers church demolition in Shadyside

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Absolutely disgusting. Living in the area I can't imagine this will be allowed, but they've surprised me with other items like the Levin mattress building, a design could have easily had two or three floors residential on top.

photoLith · #**13802** Posted **Aug 21, 2015, 10:25 PM**

Plus all the old people are moving to horrid suburban Florida. And I can't believe they are tearing that beautiful church down. I love that church. It seems that area is losing loads of historic buildings lately.

BrianTH · #**13803** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 12:43 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gg1

When will you know this outcome. I find it pretty interesting and it could really be a help to Wilkinsburg.

Maybe as soon as the next few months. They want a deal in place to start next school year.

BrianTH · #**13804** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 12:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gg1

Do you really have a problem with Wendy's and GetGo?

I don't mind the uses. I'd prefer a more urban format.

BrianTH · #**13805** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 12:59 AM**

I really, really hope that church-to-crap conversion is not allowed.

Jonboy1983 · #**13806** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 6:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I really, really hope that church-to-crap conversion is not allowed.

Same here. Talk about a punch to the stomach AND a kick to the groin for the surrounding neighborhood!

gg1 · #**13807** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 9:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I don't mind the uses. I'd prefer a more urban format.

Agreed. As Lawrenceville grows, those buildings will look out of place. It is a matter of time the way things are going. I never dreamt how fast that area would grow. Impressive. Hope it helps little places like Etna and Sharpsburg. Those two places are sure affordable and really have great access and nice little downtowns. Maybe someday.

gg1 · #**13808** Posted **Aug 22, 2015, 9:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I really, really hope that church-to-crap conversion is not allowed.

Sadly, when they start saying, "disrepair" or "beyond repair", they seem to get people to be okay with it. That building wouldn't scare me in the least, but I don't know how much they wanted and then to find a use for the building. I have seen some pretty amazing church to apartment conversions. I am sure I couldn't outbid the big shot tear down folks. It would have to be more grass root stuff, like what they did on The Union Project in Highland Park. So glad they saved that beautiful place.

BrianTH · #**13809** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 6:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gg1

Hope it helps little places like Etna and Sharpsburg. Those two places are sure affordable and really have great access and nice little downtowns. Maybe someday.

I'm very bullish on the long-term future of those places. I completely agree their proximity not just to Downtown but Lawrenceville and the Strip and the East End in general, plus lower income taxes, plus decent to great (in the case of Sharpsburg) school districts, should lend to redevelopment at some point.

Exactly when that happens--that I don't know.

GeneW · #**13810** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 1:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gg1

Sadly, when they start saying, "disrepair" or "beyond repair", they seem to get people to be okay with it. That building wouldn't scare me in the least, but I don't know how much they wanted and then to find a use for the building. I have seen some pretty amazing church to apartment conversions. I am sure I couldn't outbid the big shot tear down folks. It would have to be more grass root stuff, like what they did on The Union Project in Highland Park. So glad they saved that beautiful place.

There's always a sequence that gets played out and when I'm feeling especially cynical I believe that it's intentional. It goes like this:

Ignore maintenance on a historic property
Wait until it's half falling down
Say, "we'd love to save it but it's unsound now and we can't fix it"
Tear it down and put up some ugly modern building

For instance, the Garden Theater block could almost certainly been saved intact if the city and developers had started work back in '07 when they bought the property from the porn operator but they let them sit for eight years in Pittsburgh weather and now they "have no choice".

themaguffin · #**13811** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 2:06 PM**

It's not like every organization has money for repairing their buildings. This is real life. This happens. It's sad, but it's reality.

It's not some big plot.

photoLith · #**13812** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 2:48 PM**

No I think many times it is a plot. I've known many building owners who disregard their historic properties and then are like oh well it's too far gone now, guess well have to tear it down...

GeneW · #**13813** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 3:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by themaguffin

It's not like every organization has money for repairing their buildings. This is real life. This happens. It's sad, but it's reality.

It's not some big plot.

I don't think that it's a conspiracy or always even a conscious beforehand scheme, just a repeating pattern of behavior.

Minivan Werner · #**13814** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 4:30 PM**

i think that picture kind of makes the church look a little more impressive than it is in real life. It shouldn't be as high on the preservation list as the church in Larimer, for example. But I do think losing it for a 1 story Starbucks with surface parking is a terrible use of the land & location.

photoLith · #**13815** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 5:24 PM**

I'm at the new Hotel Indigo and I can't figure out if they're done with that little brick building in the back.

They have fake windows in half of it and the other half there's no windows and just a big transformer where the entrance to the building used to be. I'm glad they sort of preserved the building but it's kinda ugly right now unless they still are going to put windows in.

And wow what a turd of a building. Yet again another let down...

I really hope this one turns out good since it's in such a prime location but it's pretty cool seeing all the cranes in sliberty right now.

At least this has turned out beautifully.

And I really like how they restored the windows to their original look and didn't just put one pain of glass up.

I'm really glad they went with brick and not tin or something. It looks pretty good.

SkyVue

Carnegie Mellon

BrianTH · #**13816** Posted **Aug 23, 2015, 8:45 PM**

I did not know so much steel had gone up already on some of these projects (The Penn, Skyvue, and Cohon). That is very exciting.

The modern part of the Hotel Indigo has grown on me just a little bit. I wouldn't say I actually like it, but I can see a little better now what they are going for. By the time East Liberty is really built out, I think it will blend in OK (although I very much doubt it the modern part will ever be among my favorites).

Private Dick · #**13817** Posted **Aug 24, 2015, 1:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillyC

Absolutely disgusting. Living in the area I can't imagine this will be allowed, but they've surprised me with other items like the Levin mattress building, a design could have easily had two or three floors residential on top.

But the Levin store was just a former Blockbuster, not built for upper floors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

I'm at the new Hotel Indigo and I can't figure out if they're done with that little brick building in the back.

During construction, I could see that they were preserving that little red brick building and using it as a shell for hotel mechanical equipment... which I was fine with. I just thought that they'd make it a lot more complete looking. It's kinda weird the way it is.

But then again, that whole project is weird, in my opinion. It is now crawling along at less than a snail's pace too.

DBR96A · #**13818** Posted **Aug 24, 2015, 8:58 AM**

Not necessarily development-related, but it's worth mentioning that the Pittsburgh metropolitan area had 32,800 more jobs in July 2015 than it did in July 2014. This could be the largest year-over-year job increase in many (most?) of our lifetimes. Also, the June 2015 employment number was revised upward to 1,200,000 exactly, which is the first time the Pittsburgh metropolitan area has ever reached that milestone.

chucka · #**13819** Posted **Aug 24, 2015, 12:40 PM**

This is very encouraging!

Philly developer working to buy historic Lawrenceville brewery

Quote:

Philly developer working to buy historic Lawrenceville brewery

Philadelphia-based Core Realty is eying another iconic property for redevelopment in the city.
After the company closed on buying the Macy’s building downtown last month, Core is now considering purchasing the historic Pittsburgh Brewing Co. facility in Lawrenceville, a Liberty Avenue complex that totals 20 buildings on nine-plus acres, according to sources familiar with the company.
The facility is currently owned by Bridgeville-based Collier Development, which bought the brewery property for $2.375 million in 2012...

wpipkins2 · #**13820** Posted **Aug 24, 2015, 12:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I did not know so much steel had gone up already on some of these projects (The Penn, Skyvue, and Cohon). That is very exciting.

The modern part of the Hotel Indigo has grown on me just a little bit. I wouldn't say I actually like it, but I can see a little better now what they are going for. By the time East Liberty is really built out, I think it will blend in OK (although I very much doubt it the modern part will ever be among my favorites).

We should also keep in mind that this was an adaptive reuse of a former office building.

I was surprised by the amount of steel in East Liberty as well.