PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[SkyPittsburgh]

I did some looking around to find some more information on the hotel that is being constructed near the UPMC parking lot that once had the Syria Mosque on it. I found a Historic Review Commission presentation that only provides one bit of information, the hotel will be 11 Stories tall, which will really poke out a bit.

I was also on a bike ride the other day and came across the Hot Metal Flats building, still under construction. The building is stereotypical 4 - story Pittsburgh cookie-cutter. I really wish that they had fought for the original 6 stories. It looks pretty bad.

[Evergrey]

http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/06/how-...rgh-americas-next-great-tech-hub/394691/

How Uber's Driverless Cars Could Make Pittsburgh America's Next Great Tech Hub

The ride-hailing giant has built a development facility there, luring away some talented Carnegie Mellon researchers.

RICHARD FLORIDA @Richard_Florida Jun 3, 2015 1 Comment





...

Uber’s move to Pittsburgh and its hiring of CMU talent is good for the city. Universities are the talent magnets and anchors of the innovation-driven knowledge economy. But for decades, CMU has been generating talent and technology and subsequently losing them to more mature tech hubs like Silicon Valley. Uber’s location in Pittsburgh—and indeed, its hiring of top CMU researchers—signals that Pittsburgh has finally become a player in commercial technology. This will likely strengthen Pittsburgh’s talent magnet effect, attracting more top researchers and graduate students to the city and spurring the creation of more technology, more startups, and perhaps even a leading-edge industry cluster with Uber and CMU as its twin anchors.

...

Back when I wrote Rise of the Creative Class, I called Pittsburgh my “base case,” arguing that of all the older rustbelt regions buffeted by deindustrialization, it was best positioned to make the transition to the knowledge economy. I noted that in addition to its remarkable university capabilities, it was blessed with three gorgeous rivers, fantastic urban neighborhoods, a superb network of parks, a stock of older industrial buildings and warehouses, and some of the best cycling terrain I had ever been on—a combination of technology and quality of place that could provide it with a powerful competitive edge.

With the election of Bill Peduto, the city finally has the leadership it needed to put it all together. And Peduto gets it: “Uber understands that Pittsburgh has the potential of becoming the global center of the autonomous vehicle world,” he says in an email. “We have the expertise to develop the software, the mapping, the robotics, and the manufacturing.” He’s right: The timing of Uber’s arrival could not be better for the region’s transformation.

Of course, there will be tensions along the way. And it will likely take the region and CMU some time to sort them out. But in the larger scope of things, Uber’s location in Pittsburgh means that the hard work the region and the university have put in for several decades is indeed paying off.

...

[Minivan Werner]

Originally Posted by SkyPittsburgh

I did some looking around to find some more information on the hotel that is being constructed near the UPMC parking lot that once had the Syria Mosque on it. I found a Historic Review Commission presentation that only provides one bit of information, the hotel will be 11 Stories tall, which will really poke out a bit.

The one directly behind the Pittsburgh Athletic Association? Here's a rendering from a while back.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...ital-breaks-ground-on-second-bakery.html

Walnut Capital breaks ground on second Bakery Living apartment building

Jun 4, 2015, 9:50am EDT
Tim Schooley
Pittsburgh Business Times

Walnut Capital Partners announced the firm has broken ground on a second 176-unit apartment building at Bakery Living, the residential component of Bakery Square 2.0.

The company expects the new building, called Bakery Blue, will open in Spring 2016.

With the first building already open and largely leased, Walnut Capital expects the combined project will total nearly 500 residents at the site, located on the Shadyside border of Penn Avenue, with the initial Bakery Square across the street in Larimer.

When completed, both buildings will operate with shared amenities that include office and cooking rooms, an outdoor movie park, a yoga studio, pool and barbecue area.

Walnut Capital reports that about 80 percent of the project's residents so far are in their 20's and 30's, with most new to Pittsburgh.

Walnut Capital expects to have an additional 1,500 new units available to rent by 2017.

[AaronPGH]

It was a rumor I'd heard from someone inside that this was just a ruse that would last 1-2 years, then they'd move everyone out west. Combine that for my intense distrust of Uber as a company, I'm very skeptical of them. I hope it's just a terrible rumor but they are such a garbage company.

[Urbana]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

It was a rumor I'd heard from someone inside that this was just a ruse that would last 1-2 years, then they'd move everyone out west. Combine that for my intense distrust of Uber as a company, I'm very skeptical of them. I hope it's just a terrible rumor but they are such a garbage company.

Why bother establishing the center here then? They bought property and are doing pretty significant renovations. There is supposedly going to be some big reveal event with the mayor at some point.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

It was a rumor I'd heard from someone inside that this was just a ruse that would last 1-2 years, then they'd move everyone out west. Combine that for my intense distrust of Uber as a company, I'm very skeptical of them. I hope it's just a terrible rumor but they are such a garbage company.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/...ership_how_everyone_wins_in_the_end.html

Don’t Cry for Carnegie Mellon

By Will Oremus


Thanks to Uber and Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh is becoming a hub for self-driving cars.
Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

...

Before we chalk this up as yet another case of Uber being evil and tech startups using their piles of venture capital to trample on the little guy, it’s worth taking a closer look at who’s actually been harmed here. It isn’t the poached researchers, who find themselves flush with cash and resources. It certainly isn’t the city of Pittsburgh, whose burgeoning tech sector suddenly is stealing headlines (and jobs) from Silicon Valley as Uber sets up shop there. And, in the long run, this should even be good for NREC itself.

Yes, Carnegie Mellon’s robotics lab will have to regroup and rebuild, and its remaining researchers are no doubt feeling betrayed. They’re also probably fuming with jealousy at their former colleagues’ big paydays. Picking up the pieces will be a challenge in the short term.

But as key players have pointed out, the great Uber raid of 2015 may leave NREC’s long-term prospects brighter than ever. “We are really proud that Uber has decided to come here rather than those guys in Boston,” the dean of Carnegie Mellon’s computer science department told the WSJ, referring to rival MIT. He’s right: NREC just burnished its reputation as a pipeline to high-paying industry jobs.

Becoming known as a pipeline to industry jobs might not sound like the highest and best goal for an academic research institution. That said, it has arguably worked out pretty well for large swaths of Stanford, whose engineering departments double as Silicon Valley’s top farm team.

...

[AaronPGH]

You guys are probably right. I'm usually the extreme optimist in these situations. It just sounded very bleak from the spouse I'd heard this from originally. I'll give you that it was said to me at the peak panic moment.

Urbana, are you sure they bought the building? Everything I've read so far has said "lease".

[Urbana]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

You guys are probably right. I'm usually the extreme optimist in these situations. It just sounded very bleak from the spouse I'd heard this from originally. I'll give you that it was said to me at the peak panic moment.

Urbana, are you sure they bought the building? Everything I've read so far has said "lease".

As I look into it, it seems that indeed it is just a lease. However, leased or not, building a research center is an expensive proposition and moving it in a couple years would be an even more expensive one - especially with how much money they are throwing at these scientists and engineers. With billions of dollars in the bank, they could have easily lured most of these people to Silicon Valley. Or, if they weren't willing, partnered with Stanford or someone closer to home. But they didn't do this. They put it here, presumably, to be close to CMU. Either that or they are just easing the engineers into the company by keeping them in Pittsburgh for a few years so that in the future they will be more likely to come out to California. But yet still, that seems like way too expensive a proposition. Then again, I have no inside info on this and ultimately I have no idea what is going on at Uber. Perhaps this is all wishful thinking - because by my estimation, those 40 scientist and engineers are some of the most vital people to the future of the city; and losing them would be a huge blow.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

It was a rumor I'd heard from someone inside that this was just a ruse that would last 1-2 years, then they'd move everyone out west. Combine that for my intense distrust of Uber as a company, I'm very skeptical of them. I hope it's just a terrible rumor but they are such a garbage company.

You can't move people. You can offer them jobs elsewhere but you can't force people to move. And we're talking skilled robotics engineers, two years is just another notch in their resume and then they're off the the next gig. It's not like most tech jobs last much longer than two years.

[WillyC]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

It was a rumor I'd heard from someone inside that this was just a ruse that would last 1-2 years, then they'd move everyone out west. Combine that for my intense distrust of Uber as a company, I'm very skeptical of them. I hope it's just a terrible rumor but they are such a garbage company.

Ive heard similar rumblings from the inside.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by GeneW

You can't move people. You can offer them jobs elsewhere but you can't force people to move. And we're talking skilled robotics engineers, two years is just another notch in their resume and then they're off the the next gig. It's not like most tech jobs last much longer than two years.

True, but Silicon Valley is the promised land for most tech engineers. I work with a number of CMU engineers/researchers/professors who focus on energy, automation, and robotics in the buildings sector, and most of them will jump at the chance to move to California for a position in their field. They talk about it all the time. It's just a much more interesting place for them. Pittsburgh, at this time, simply cannot offer the opportunities for highly-skilled tech employees that the Bay Area can. And you have to remember, most of these CMU people are not from this area -- that's very important to keep in mind.

[Evergrey]

I'd jump at the chance to move to San Francisco too if someone paid me enough to live comfortably there.

The conspiracy theories and apocalyptic soothsaying regarding Uber's alleged hostile entry into Pittsburgh is incredibly yinzer. I feel like I'm reading the Post-Gazette comment section.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

True, but Silicon Valley is the promised land for most tech engineers. I work with a number of CMU engineers/researchers/professors who focus on energy, automation, and robotics in the buildings sector, and most of them will jump at the chance to move to California for a position in their field. They talk about it all the time. It's just a much more interesting place for them. Pittsburgh, at this time, simply cannot offer the opportunities for highly-skilled tech employees that the Bay Area can. And you have to remember, most of these CMU people are not from this area -- that's very important to keep in mind.

Hmm. I am a CMU trained engineer and have worked with a ton of them for my entire career and hardly ever have heard anyone talk about moving to California. Anecdotes differ, I guess.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

The conspiracy theories and apocalyptic soothsaying regarding Uber's alleged hostile entry into Pittsburgh is incredibly yinzer. I feel like I'm reading the Post-Gazette comment section.

True. I don't think we should jump to too many conclusions yet, especially since Uber's strategic entry into Pittsburgh just happened (and should be celebrated!).

The fact is that some of these highly-skilled people will leave Pittsburgh... that's just the way it goes. But they will also be replaced by new highly-skilled people. The stuff that has been happening on just the "tech" front in Pittsburgh over the past 10 years is incredible.

Last I checked, 10 years ago, billion $ global tech giants like Google, Apple, Uber, CSC, Microsoft, Oracle, Yahoo etc. were not building a campus in Shadyside/Larimer, looking to expand operations here, luring top researchers to design autonomous vehicles here, nor opening large and small operations centers here. This is to mention nothing of the small tech companies/startups that have been founded or moved here in that period.

Maybe Uber will skip town once it gets what it needs, but that's not happening tomorrow. And if they do, it's not a big deal... CMU is not going anywhere and has solidified its place as a top-tier global center of innovation. And the next Uber will come calling to "poach" the next crop of CMU dudes.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Hmm. I am a CMU trained engineer and have worked with a ton of them for my entire career and hardly ever have heard anyone talk about moving to California. Anecdotes differ, I guess.

Hmm. I guess they do.

Well, here's a recent anecdote from yesterday over lunch related to this very topic...

CMU Research Prof from Mech Engineering, "... I find the area (SF Bay area) to just be much more interesting than Pittsburgh. We'll probably head there when she (his wife) finishes school."

CMU Asst Research Prof Civil/Environ Engineering, "Oh yeah, we might come back, but I'm going to give it a 5-year shot."

"It" above being working in the tech sector in the Bay Area.

Also, the CMU CREATE Lab of the Robotics Institute has recently lost staff researchers to Silicon Valley.

So, while I am definitely not a CMU-trained engineer and have not worked with tons of them over my career, I have worked with a number of them over the past year... and opportunities in California are something I've heard about quite a bit... which would seem to make sense to me, considering it has been and still continues to be THE place to be in the information technology field.

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

The conspiracy theories and apocalyptic soothsaying regarding Uber's alleged hostile entry into Pittsburgh is incredibly yinzer. I feel like I'm reading the Post-Gazette comment section.

I wouldn't be saying it if I hadn't heard it from people involved in things, or if Uber had a track record a shred better than completely bottom of the barrel satan car overlords.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

I wouldn't be saying it if I hadn't heard it from people involved in things, or if Uber had a track record a shred better than completely bottom of the barrel satan car overlords.

But people say similar things about Apple and Google too... how they ruthlessly attempt to crush any competition and how they steal patents, respectively. But everyone loves them and keeps buying their products. Dat's bitness, homes!

[Wave]

In the consulting industry it is common knowledge that the less sophisticated & trained a workforce is the easier it is to move a business unit across the country or overseas. Moving a call center from Peoria to Bangalore is relatively simple. Conversely, the more skilled and specialized the harder it is. By the time you get to "uber" specialized professions, it becomes virtually impossible without seriously damaging your business unit.

The engineers recruited by Uber are at the tippy top of the food chain not just in engineering but almost as specialized as any unit in any industry. And we are talking about forty professionals (and growing). Thus to move this business unit ANYWHERE would be virtually impossible. It would be much harder, for instance, than even moving the entire Heart transplant unit at UPMC to Houston, which would never happen. People have lives, families, schools and relationships and these folks are virtually irreplaceable, you would need the vast majority to agree to move. And for what? What benefit would Uber get from further risking attrition by now exposing these folks to the opportunities in Silicon Valley where recruiting top talent is as cut throat as it gets. Just not happening.

Originally Posted by GeneW

You can't move people. You can offer them jobs elsewhere but you can't force people to move. And we're talking skilled robotics engineers, two years is just another notch in their resume and then they're off the the next gig. It's not like most tech jobs last much longer than two years.

[mattejb]

They also have plenty of open positions for Pittsburgh as well...
https://www.uber.com/jobs/list?keywords=&location=Pittsburgh,%20PA%20[Advanced%20Technologies%20Center]