And, as soon as I posted the HRC update,
the last planning commission presentation of the year also went live. Four new items on the angenda for next week:
1. Historic nomination for Roslyn Place - that wooden street in Shadyside. I was a bit confused, because the street was up for nomination earlier in the year, but it appears the property owners are now moving to have the homes themselves protected. I can see why the owners are doing this - it's one of the few streets in Shadyside where all the homes were built around the same time period/to the same scale, and every home has escaped remuddling. Compared to the average historic nomination, the documentation is a bit skimpy however.
2.
604 Liberty Avenue is getting a renovation. As a bit of backstory, PNC originally intended to demolish this building, along with the two to its right, for better access into the loading dock of their tower which now includes the Fairmont. However, the guy who owned the convenience store building refused to sell at any price, which left them with two buildings they didn't need. 604 Liberty has been vacant for 15+ years. Currently it is only zoned for ground-floor retail, with the upper stories as storage, but the plan is to have all three stories as retail - a likely necessity considering the very small floor plates. A total reskin of the facade to a light-colored tile with large windows is also planned, which in no way resembles the facade prior to remuddling, but will be a step up.
3. The first concrete plans for the I-579 cap have been unveiled. The project's total cost is estimated at $26.4 million, and will establish new public green space between Bigelow Boulevard, Centre Avenue, Washington place, and Chatham Street. In addition, a crescent of current open space to the north just across Bigelow Boulevard will be improved. IMHO the design is a bit too hardscaped, with too many pavers and not enough trees, but I am guessing there is a limitation to how much planting can take place on a highway cap.
4. Buncher is formally proposing the planned Waterfront Place Townhomes - 46 units of attached housing to be placed on a thin strip of land between the back side of the Terminal Building and the larger-scale buildings (including Riverfront Landing - the apartment building already under construction) closer to the river. This project is being done by my wife's firm, and I had no clue it was them (I sometimes see renderings of projects not yet publicly discussed, but she's asked me not to blab, so I don't). I think the design is a nice mix of new traditional and contemporary (it tries to call to existing form without trying to be fake historic buildings). I still feel like it's a bit too small scale for the site, however, and the lack of any private green space at all is just bad design for a townhouse (the back garages front on a driveway, and then a tiny sliver of grass and trees is the only thing which blocks it from the Produce Terminal lot. Some sort of skinny apartment building would have been preferable, even if the structured parking would have been problematic.
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