PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[JVC]

Originally Posted by Urbana

I must say they did a better job than I ever thought they would. The design of the building is actually quite nice and the facade placement is only slightly less than ideal for my tastes at least.

agreed - nice design that fits downtown

you realize it's possible to reduce image sizes so they fit on the page, right?

[Muckk]

Actually I rather like the courtyard. I really like the catwalk above the arches. The street wall is being messed with a bit but it maintains the wall to a degree and the passages through it make for an interesting look.

[themaguffin]

I'm pleasantly surprised with this project.

[Evergrey]

I have to admit the Point Park renderings look awesome.

Love the catwalk.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by East Edge

I know this is not a bricks and mortar development discussion but this sucks ass! Leave it alone! after 6pm FREE period. I got a parking ticket in the south side last week and it was $120!! (if you get it in right away) after that its higher. Common sense would say that when people are going out to dinner and meeting friends and had to park 3 blocks away in the winter that the last thing that they have on their minds to do excuse themselves, get bundled up again, head out and race to the nearest pay station and throw more money on the system. If you're having fun as you should when you're out you could easily loose track of time and end up getting a ticket.

The proper solution to this sort of issue is allowing remote time-left tracking and payment by smartphone app, which in fact they are working on:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/ci...s/201409180276

Pricing at $0 in popular evening areas would lead to insufficient availability and people circling around looking for parking spots, which you want to avoid (even holding aside the lost revenue).

This is a very short sighted way of trying to squeeze more money out of people but its only going to backfire once people start getting pissed off and going elsewhere to shop and dine where parking is free or more convenient.

Public parking in popular urban areas at popular times can't be free without also becoming very inconvenient and causing unnecessary congestion, unless you waste a ludicrous amount of land and money on providing parking spots. Low-density areas can do that on the cheap just by burning up lots of land on surface lots (strip malls, regular malls, every detached business with a large parking lot of its own, and so on). So urban areas cannot feasibly compete on providing free and convenient parking without screwing themselves over on land policy--a lesson many cities, including Pittsburgh, had to learn the hard way.

So trying to provide free public parking during popular times in popular urban places is almost always a mistake (of course to the extent businesses want to subsidize the parking of their patrons, such as with ticket validation, that is fine, and the new meter technology should make that a possibility for street parking too). A better target is utilization rates that are high (which means you have not priced public parking so high prices are a deterrent to use), but not so high that they making parking inconveniently unavailable. Hence something like a 80% utilization target.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by JVC

does anyone have an explanation for why this building does not have a front door for residents? i realize it was designed so that the residents enter the building through a back door in the alley. what i do not understand is why it does not have a front door

Isn't that a corner entrance for the first floor retail? The residential space is all on upper floors. A separate residential-only entrance makes sense in such cases.

Specifically where they located that second residential entrance may just be a function of how they wanted to lay out the floors--for example, being back in what would become a courtyard (currently a public alley) off Highland may preserve maximum flexibility and marketability of the retail spaces.

However, it is probably worth noting that the same developer (Walnut) also owns the Highland Building on the other side of the current public alley. So, perhaps they also see value to closing the public alley and converting it to private space between their buildings, and perhaps they like this design at least in part because it provides a justification for doing that.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...aking-for.html

Oxford Development schedules groundbreaking for Three Crossings

Dec 4, 2014, 1:12pm EST

Oxford Development Co. is ready to get going on one of its major new development projects in the city.

The company has scheduled a groundbreaking on Tuesday, Dec. 9 for its mixed-use Three Crossings development, slated for 11 acres along Railroad and Smallman streets in the Strip District between 25th and 29th streets. The company indicates on its website that the development is projected to cost $130 million.

The company plans to build a 220,000-square-foot apartment building with 300 units called "The Yards at Three Crossings" on four acres of the property as well as an office building in the first phase of the project. The first phase is expected to be completed in late 2015.

...

[BrianTH]

I think the Playhouse renderings look nice, and are a horrible idea.

That's a huge waste of space for a prime location in the heart of Downtown. People in this forum are always complaining about "suburban" style developments in prime urban locations. Well, that is more or less what I would expect to see in a suburban campus of a university, and it will be a real shame if Point Park is allowed to do that.

As for their gesture at historic preservation, I've expressed my feelings on that subject ad nauseum, but this is typical of the approach which thinks of historic structures as isolated pieces of art that can be moved around like paintings on canvas, as opposed to contributing elements to historic districts.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by Urbana

Renderings:



I must say they did a better job than I ever thought they would. The design of the building is actually quite nice and the facade placement is only slightly less than ideal for my tastes at least.

source: http://www.pointpark.edu/news.aspx?id=1371

It might not be apparent, but in the rendering above, the reconstructed Forbes Avenue façade at the southern end of the terrace is "mounted" on the rear of the old Stock Exchange Building, which will be full restored and have a public café installed just inside the entrance from the terrace.

Also, the large expanse of mullioned glass facing the courtyard is actually a functioning guillotine door, which pivots to horizontal, fully opening the black box theatre to the courtyard. Not only does the university expect to open this door during some theatre productions (incorporating the courtyard into the show), it is thought that student concerts will be scheduled during lunch hour, with the door open, inviting the public to sit and enjoy.

Westlake Reed produced a thoughtful, practical and very urban plan for the Playhouse.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I think the Playhouse renderings look nice, and are a horrible idea.

That's a huge waste of space for a prime location in the heart of Downtown.

I agree... and that's why I highlighted in red that this is a 92,000 sq ft building occupying TWO ACRES of precious Golden Triangle land.

But that was before I was bewitched by those lovely renderings...

[themaguffin]

I do agree that it's not a great use of so much space, but from a street level stand point, at least it is reasonably attractive and could add some life to that section. But again, too bad that could do it on a smaller footprint.

[BrianTH]

I'm actually reminded a lot of their new corner park. It was a lovely design that looked quite nice in renderings full of people:



But the reality is that it turned out as a lovely-looking and largely dead zone in a prime location. I actually liked that one in advance based on the renderings, and I have tried to learn my lesson.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by DKNewYork

Westlake Reed produced a thoughtful, practical and very urban plan for the Playhouse.

Sure, if your idea of "very urban" is 3-story buildings with lots of open spaces. Silly PNC, building a 33-story skyscraper across the street, and silly Oxford, building another 20-story skyscraper also across the street. They should have done something more like the US Steel building planned for the Lower Hill, except scaled down even further to match Point Park University's vision of "very urban".

Edit: Oh, and as far as thoughtfulness is concerned--they have the same sort of thoughtfulness when it comes to historic preservation as Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Elgin, applied to the Parthenon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'm actually reminded a lot of their new corner park. It was a lovely design that looked quite nice in renderings full of people:



But the reality is that it turned out as a lovely-looking and largely dead zone in a prime location. I actually liked that one in advance based on the renderings, and I have tried to learn my lesson.

While I never liked the idea of that park--wrong design in the wrong place---I suspect that it was cleaned up on the cheap (around $3M) to make it presentable and utilitarian until the school needs the property for a new building. Sometime after 2020, when both the Playhouse and Convocation Center are finished, I bet the university will construct an academic building on the corner. And, to my mind, if the school needs to warehouse the property for a decade, the park is a nicer way to do it than the chained-off former gas station that it was. While the park is not demonstrably uninviting, it is always empty, even when the sidewalks are full of students. Not sure why.

[Evergrey]

I have seen that courtyard heavily utilized on multiple locations over the past few months.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by DKNewYork

Sometime after 2020, when both the Playhouse and Convocation Center are finished, I bet the university will construct an academic building on the corner.

Will they also then tear down this Playhouse and build something actually appropriate for Downtown?

This is even worse use of land than Continental's new 3-story office/retail buildings on the North Shore (at least their buildings are not full of open spaces). And with those buildings, it is reasonable to hope that in a couple decades, they might well be torn down and replaced with something suitable (similar to what is happening with the new Strip hotel next to Lidia's).

But if Point Park gets their way, we are likely stuck with this gaping hole in Downtown for many, many decades to come.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I have seen that courtyard heavily utilized on multiple locations over the past few months.

Really? I walk by all the time, and I have never once seen more than a handful of people in it.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Really? I walk by all the time, and I have never once seen more than a handful of people in it.

Veterans Day it was packed... looked like some sort of university function.

It was also quite packed in the evenings near the beginning of the semester... I assume it was a favored location for socializing among new and returning students.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Veterans Day it was packed... looked like some sort of university function. It was also quite packed in the evenings near the beginning of the semester... I assume it was a favored location for socializing among new and returning students.

Oh, OK. I've mostly just been walking by workday lunch times, and some evenings and weekends.

I think the point still stands, however. Most of the time, these cloister-looking academic courtyards broadcast a look-but-don't-touch-vibe to the general public. And that means except on the rare occasions there are events or a student gathering, they end up dead spaces.

[Muckk]

I don't see any reason to be overly disappointed with the playhouse. We knew it was to be a playhouse so nobody was expecting a massive structure rising above the street. The facades are being insulted by hanging on the wall (those openings were made to walk through) but at least they are preserved to some degree. While there is already plenty of open space in close proximity to this site, I wouldn't refer to this courtyard as "gaping" but rather as quaint. The building itself certainly works in an urban setting and I expected far worse from Point Park to be honest. Admittedly, I am swayed a bit by the catwalk. I freaking love catwalks. With a new beauty going up across the street, another 20 or so story building nearby and the possibility (albeit fleeting) of another 30 or so story tower going up on the adjacent block, I see no reason to gripe about under-utilized space in this instance. That part of town is rising plenty and unique street-level open space is a welcomed sight in my opinion.