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Originally Posted by photoLith
If the Smallman Street square was a legitimate proposal then I'd like to see the links, then Ill change my opinion.
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It was reported in the recent news articles:
http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/10276425-74/acklin-terminal-building
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McCaffery's Produce Terminal proposal also includes improvements along Smallman and 21st streets to make them more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, Acklin said. Such work, expected to cost another $7 million, wasn't included in previous proposals, he said. It could feature a plaza in front of St. Stanislaus Church on Smallman that Acklin compared to Market Square.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...oduce-terminal-plan/stories/201604110156
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The proposal would be part of a broader plan that would include the rehabilitation of Smallman Street from the terminal to 21st Street, said Kevin Acklin, URA board chairman and chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto. It may include a Market Square-like public plaza near 21st. He noted that the goal is to keep the “quirky nature of Smallman” and to foster development on both sides while making it safer and more friendly for pedestrians and bicyclists. . . .
The project and the Smallman and 21st Street improvements will be funded through public and private sources, including loans, historic tax credits, state capital assistance and private equity. The city also is considering tax increment financing, Mr. Acklin said. About $7 million in Smallman renovations are included in the $65 million project cost, he said. The city is planning a public planning process to discuss possible changes to the street.
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If Acklin is talking about it to the press, you can be pretty sure it is a serious possibility. That said, this isn't entirely new. A Smallman Street piazza was discussed in the Allegheny Riverfront Vision plan as well--see page 47:
http://www.pittsburghpa.gov/specialproje...legheny_riverfront_final_report-full.pdf
Anyway, it seems to me this actually the precise sort of moment in which public discussion forums like this could really shine. Expanding the project to include redeveloping Smallman and 21st Street has the potential to do a lot for not just this development but also other developments in progress, like the Buncher project on the other side of the Produce Terminal, and possible future developments, like the possible redevelopment of the Ayoob properties, which may become a mixed-use/hotel site:
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/201...xed-use-development/stories/201408210244
But redeveloping Smallman is going to take some public money and there is going to be a public planning process. So now is the perfect time for the public--that being us--to be discussing these issues!
On some related issues:
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Market Square was the cities historic square and is surrounded by buildings at all angles like European styled plazas.
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That's where that Smallman/21st intersection is headed. We've already got the Produce Terminal on one side, and the industrial buildings on the other. And in fact as reported in the articles linked above, they really want the Smallman-facing side to have the major food/retail locations, which is exactly what you want on such a public space:
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Most of the retail will be on the Smallman Street side of the terminal, with office, commercial and residential uses centered on the Allegheny River side, Mr. Acklin said.
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But the really unique thing about that end of Smallman is that it jogs north at 21st, which is how the church ends up framing the eastern end of that space. That's part of what I was trying to show with those visual comparisons to Piazza delle Erbe--the positioning and look of that church creates a unique opportunity in that specific space to do a project like this.
There would in fact be a missing space, though, in the northeast corner--but that is the Ayoob properties, and so that possible mixed-use development in that space would "complete" the possible piazza.
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Also, Market Square isnt a major thoroughfare. At rush hour, Smallman is packed with cars and is a major artery to and our of downtown.
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This issue has long been discussed--see again the Allegheny Riverfront Vision plan at 47 and 66-68, and also the Strip District Transportation and Land Use Plan:
http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/sdtlup
Fortunately, the new extension of Railroad Street, aka Waterfront Place, is about to add a bunch of new parallel capacity. However, the City has long been talking about the desirability of pushing more of the through traffic to Liberty, and encouraging more pedestrian use of both Penn and Smallman. And of course they also want to create pedestrian access to the riverfront area through the Produce Terminal (via the reported cut-throughs) and on through the Buncher development. And as noted now they want to line the Smallman side of the Produce Terminal with pedestrian-friendly retail.
But all that planned pedestrian flow from the Penn area to and also through the Produce Terminal will require Smallman to be easy and pleasant to cross. That's undoubtedly a large part of why this project has been expanded to include a possible redevelopment of Smallman, because doing that is really critical to making the Produce Terminal redevelopment function as planned.
One final note--I think it should be noted that there really isn't necessarily going to be a significant capacity loss even with a redevelopment of Smallman. Smallman is just a two-travel-lane road as it stands: it widens out there but they do not actually add any travel lanes. And it could still be a two-travel-lane road with all these possible changes precisely because there is so much unnecessary width available.
Of course a piazza and other pedestrian-friendly changes could limit the top speed along Smallman in that area, but that actually has very little impact on either peak capacity or even trip times on urban roads like this--a fact that is often disputed, but that has a lot of empirical support.
I'm sure that nonetheless the planners will hear from all the usual suspects who think any sort of complete streets/pedestrian-oriented plan is an anti-automobile/socialist plot. But that is precisely why people interested in promoting walkable, dense, urban-style development in core areas like the Strip need to be prepared to push back on those folks and explain how in fact all modes of travel can be accommodated with smart planning.
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