PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[JVC]

on the topic of public development:

Diana Nelson Jones' Walkabout: In East Liberty, a desire to go green

"East Liberty is growing amenities very quickly, but mostly for people of means. What it needs most desperately are affordable housing and green space."

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/dian...-desire-to-go-green/stories/201512280001

[Private Dick]

Tired of constantly hearing about "affordable housing" in East Liberty as it relates to new development there. When I hear this bandied about, it seems to be coming from a place that assuredly states that there is no affordable housing to go along with the other projects in E Liberty.

This could not be further from the truth. Pittsburgh is actually doing a pretty admirable job here compared to what most other cities do in newly-desirable areas.

No affordable housing, huh?

Do the very recent East Liberty Place North AND South apartment developments not ring a bell?

How about the sprawling recent and currently U/C Fairfield development by McCormick/Baron?

How about all the new affordable townhouses recently completed and U/C in Larimer?

How about all of the new construction (Fairfield expansion) of affordable housing along East Liberty Blvd. from Larimer into East Liberty?

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I completely agree that the makeover of Market Square was fantastic and helped draw lots more activity to that area, which likely helped speed along investment in the area.

I'm a little more skeptical when it comes to Mellon Square. I haven't seen anything official, but personally I have not really noticed any major uptick in activity in Mellon Square--and of course it is closed for a good chunk of the year. And in that case, it seems plausible to me that pretty much all the surrounding investment would have happened anyway. Those are mostly fundamentally great buildings getting new investments, and they might well be feeding off each other much more than off Mellon Square.

I don't disagree with you on that one. I do feel pretty strongly that investment in parks (e.g. Point State Park $25m, Market Square $5m, Mellon Square $10m, and the riverfront parks - Allegheny Riverfront Trail, Northshore Trail) are THE best bang for the buck the city can fund. These investments invariably bring in disproportionate amounts of real estate investment. T.O.D., aka lightrail, subway stations, BRT, & Busways do the same thing but are much harder to bring to fruition it seems.

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Tired of constantly hearing about "affordable housing" in East Liberty as it relates to new development there. When I hear this bandied about, it seems to be coming from a place that assuredly states that there is no affordable housing to go along with the other projects in E Liberty.

This could not be further from the truth. Pittsburgh is actually doing a pretty admirable job here compared to what most other cities do in newly-desirable areas.

No affordable housing, huh?

Do the very recent East Liberty Place North AND South apartment developments not ring a bell?

How about the sprawling recent and currently U/C Fairfield development by McCormick/Baron?

How about all the new affordable townhouses recently completed and U/C in Larimer?

How about all of the new construction (Fairfield expansion) of affordable housing along East Liberty Blvd. from Larimer into East Liberty?

I think they've done a pretty good job so far, but Penn Plaza isn't sounding as promising. So far, there aren't any super concrete plans to house these people in the neighborhood upon eviction, and a "relocation assistance office" on site doesn't cut the mustard. The units need to be replaced. And the plans for replacement are a little too far down the line. It all sounds like smoke and mirrors.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by markson33

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/9584280-74/tiny-garfield-picker#axzz2JILwSk6Y

Sounds like the tiny houses won't work.

I have to admit I am not a fan of the concept in general, but I would have been interested to see if Eve could pull it off. $180,000 for a 400 + SF house isn't going to work. Even if she can cut that cost significantly it probably won't be feasible.

Actually the article says $190,000 for just UNDER 350 sq ft. That's $542 per sq ft. These numbers are wayyy too high to work.

I know removing old foundations and hooking up to public utilities ran the cost up but look at this community of $20k houses in Alabama. This is the price point needed in order for a city tiny house movement to take off, IMO.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/..._brand_new_20_000_houses_in_alabama.html

[Captain Crash]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

(PS: This particular company has master plans listed for practically every emerging city in the world from India, China, Europe, US and even Wheeling & Wilkes-Barre. Yinz should check out some of their rendering/ideas. Interesting stuff)
23 pages worth of master plans w/ renderings: http://www.sasaki.com/projects/

Speaking of Wheeling, the Health Plan recently announced plans to construct a new headquarters in downtown Wheeling. The renderings look to be about four stories with no setback-- should fit in well there. It's the first major new building there in 30 years. They're moving 300 jobs into it and hope to add 100 new ones once they're settled in. That's a significant number of new people to be milling around downtown, even if just during the workday. Add this to the recent apartment conversion and the significant renovations at Wesbanco Arena.



Sorry if this is a bit offtopic, but I figured its close enough to the metro area to be of some interest.

http://www.statejournal.com/story/306422...rporate-headquarters-to-downtownwheeling

[BrianTH]

I certainly don't mind hearing about major developments in what I would consider to be satellite cities around Pittsburgh, and I do think Wheeling counts. And that looks like a nice addition for them.

Everything I have read indicates they are definitely going to do a sizable affordable housing component in the Mellon's Orchard development. Whether the timing will dovetail with the Penn Plaza project is a different matter. But I also don't know what the status is with the other affordable housing projects in the area, including Larimer--I'm thinking there may be relocation opportunities there before Mellon's Orchard comes online.

Generally, I agree they seem to be managing the transition in East Liberty about as well as any place I know of, and I believe the studies they have commissioned have found that as yet there are no signs of a lot of forced displacement. Of course that has taken a lot of conscious effort, which needs to continue, but supporting those efforts includes recognizing the efforts to date.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by JVC

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/dian...-desire-to-go-green/stories/201512280001

This is the first mention of a new park in Larimer I have seen. Judging by the description, at least part of it is going to be built where the Auburn Street senior apartments (which are scheduled to be demolished) now sit.

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Tired of constantly hearing about "affordable housing" in East Liberty as it relates to new development there. When I hear this bandied about, it seems to be coming from a place that assuredly states that there is no affordable housing to go along with the other projects in E Liberty.

If you read the link, the article is not a whinge. Indeed, it discusses examples of affordable housing being built in and around East Liberty.

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I know removing old foundations and hooking up to public utilities ran the cost up but look at this community of $20k houses in Alabama. This is the price point needed in order for a city tiny house movement to take off, IMO.

I read the Old Urbanist blog from time to time, and there was a recent eye-opening post about how market-rate housing for low-income people used to be built. The bottom line is early 20th century building codes were constructed to make sure that cheap housing options (which were thought to be universally dangerous) were outlawed, meaning the only real way to have affordable housing was through depreciation or government subsidies. With things like the pitfalls of the Tiny House in Garfield it's easy to see how these well-meaning building codes have functionally speaking made it nearly impossible to build a small, affordable market rate house.

[Austinlee]

Thanks for that update Captain Crash. Although Wheeling is just outside of the Pittsburgh CSA, it is for lack of a better term West Virginia's "mini Pittsburgh". The downtown is cut from the same cloth as our city but unfortunately do to its much smaller size does not enjoy the same type of benefits of economies of scale that a metro of millions of people can offer.

[Austinlee]

This came from somebodies Instagram account. I can't find the source. Amazing shot of the two new towers.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I read the Old Urbanist blog from time to time, and there was a recent eye-opening post about how market-rate housing for low-income people used to be built. The bottom line is early 20th century building codes were constructed to make sure that cheap housing options (which were thought to be universally dangerous) were outlawed, meaning the only real way to have affordable housing was through depreciation or government subsidies. With things like the pitfalls of the Tiny House in Garfield it's easy to see how these well-meaning building codes have functionally speaking made it nearly impossible to build a small, affordable market rate house.

That whole article was depressing. It's amazing how extensively racist policies have shaped the built environment in this country.

[JVC]

New office building style will start in Pittsburgh

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...tsburgh-E-V-Bishoff/stories/201512290058

"A Columbus developer wants to turn the old-style office building on its head. And it plans to start in Pittsburgh. By the time the E.V. Bishoff Co. is done with the historic Investment Building on 4th Avenue, Downtown, your father might not recognize it, not with shared office space on one floor and a lobby that looks more like a hotel than a center of commerce."

[Evergrey]

Thanks for the Wheeling update, Captain Crash. Lovely city.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by eschaton

If you read the link, the article is not a whinge. Indeed, it discusses examples of affordable housing being built in and around East Liberty.

My post was not in reference to the specific article.

Whinge? What are we in Wales, or maybe Highbrowland? If I ever use such a word, please report me to the moderators and request a lifetime ban for me.

[BrianTH]

PIT ended up solidly above average (among medium airports) in the latest JD Power customer satisfaction survey:

http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2015-north-america-airport-satisfaction-study

I've been flying a bit more recently, and a couple things stand out to me about PIT.

On the negative side, contemporary airports have gone to soaring terminals with lots of light, and PIT by contrast seems cramped and dark. Unfortunately, new floor treatments and such can only help a little (although the central core retail area specifically did benefit a lot from the refresh and new floor). So you'd basically need a whole new airport to truly fix this--and we are still paying for this one.

On the positive side, PIT remains an extremely easy airport to get around. The one-stop shuttle with the four terminals radiating out from a central core remains a very convenient approach, and the alternative security point has really helped.

Bottom line is I think we will have to live with "not the nicest but quite convenient for travelers" for a long time to come, which ultimately is proving sufficient as indicated by this survey.

[BrianTH]

Continued steady job growth has further driven down the unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh MSA, and in fact the unemployment rate in Allegheny County (and Butler) specifically has gotten quite low:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2015/12/30/pittsburgh-unemployment-rate-drops.html

News release available through link here:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1987969&mode=2

The MSA's year over year job growth in November (initial report) was 1.0%, which is down from the well over 2% we were seeing during the summer. But even 1.0% is not at all bad given population trends in the MSA.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

PIT ended up solidly above average (among medium airports) in the latest JD Power customer satisfaction survey:

http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2015-north-america-airport-satisfaction-study

I've been flying a bit more recently, and a couple things stand out to me about PIT.

On the negative side, contemporary airports have gone to soaring terminals with lots of light, and PIT by contrast seems cramped and dark. Unfortunately, new floor treatments and such can only help a little (although the central core retail area specifically did benefit a lot from the refresh and new floor). So you'd basically need a whole new airport to truly fix this--and we are still paying for this one.

On the positive side, PIT remains an extremely easy airport to get around. The one-stop shuttle with the four terminals radiating out from a central core remains a very convenient approach, and the alternative security point has really helped.

Bottom line is I think we will have to live with "not the nicest but quite convenient for travelers" for a long time to come, which ultimately is proving sufficient as indicated by this survey.

I'd give PIT "easy to get around" due to it's layout and the new airmall floors are really nice. But outside of that it is really poorly designed for a modern airport. The corridors are way too narrow; the ceilings are low; the airside airtrain space is tiny and separated from the terminal via multi-leveled escalators; arriving passengers are funneled into a single width escalator to baggage claim; and the extended parking is often 80%+ full. It's beyond me how this would all work if the airport were to operate at its supposed full passenger capacity. Unfortunately, compared to Denver, which is the same age as PIT, and the nine years younger Mcnamara Terminal at DET, PIT has not aged well at all.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

It's beyond me how this would all work if the airport were to operate at its supposed full passenger capacity.

Well, the supposed full passenger capacity assumed something like 70-80% of them would be hub passengers and thus not using the transport to landside at all. This accounts for some thinking behind the poor choices on the areas regarding departing and arriving you cite, although not extended parking (which was believe it or not already expanded at least once). Which isn't to say they weren't still poor choices even so, because things like the single width escalator to baggage claim certainly were dumb regardless.

Some of these choices always appeared to predate the rolling luggage era, just like all the small grouted tile on the floor. I think the use of rolling carry ons exploded not long after the airport was complete. This could explain some of the thinking that people would be able to bypass the escalator jam by walking. But these days many people are effectively boxed into the escalator unless they want to carry a 30lb bag they would otherwise be rolling.

The remaining bits about the corridors being too narrow and ceilings low/too dark, yes, most certainly just crappy choices all around.

[BrianTH]

It seems to me that the escalator-width problem is potentially fixable (wouldn't be cheap, I am sure, but more doable than entirely new terminals).

[JVC]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Continued steady job growth has further driven down the unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh MSA, and in fact the unemployment rate in Allegheny County (and Butler) specifically has gotten quite low:

The MSA's year over year job growth in November (initial report) was 1.0%, which is down from the well over 2% we were seeing during the summer. But even 1.0% is not at all bad given population trends in the MSA.