PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III - Page 104

photoLith · #**2061** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 12:38 AM**

John Woods house is well under way.

Untitled by photolitherland, on Flickr

And my god, this building is absolutely freaking horrendous. I live right by this in Oakland and this has to be the worst and ugliest cladding for a large development I've seen yet. The windows are so small and the cladding already looks dented and cheap as all get out and such a shame for such a prominent location. I knew this building was going to by an ugly monstrosity, although it adds really good density to Oakland, it turned out worse than I could have ever imagined with that storage unit cladding. At this point, Id be glad if a massive gas leak happened underneath it at night before it gets done when nobodies there and just explodes. The construction company is even so embarrassed by it that they covered up their company banner at the bottom it looks like lol.

Untitled by photolitherland, on Flickr

eschaton · #**2062** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 3:27 AM**

I can't decide if it's a good thing or not that they decided to mess with the normal color tones for boring modern apartment buildings and use that yellow siding as an accent. It's certainly bold, but it's still ugly as hell.

What the building looks like matters very little honestly, considering about half of the units have been directly rented to Pitt to use as dorm space. No one gives a crap what dorms look like.

Steel City Scotty · #**2063** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 5:24 AM**

That's the one being built along Forbes where the Arby's used to be? Not far from SkyVue and the new Residence Inn?

photoLith · #**2064** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 6:22 AM**

^
Yes

BrianTH · #**2065** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 9:23 AM**

Do you like the general vibe of buildings made out of shipping containers, but also think they look too luxurious . . . .

themaguffin · #**2066** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 2:11 PM**

Who knows how much of this will come to fruition, but this has been a significant development news week - Station Square, downtown office tower(s), and the arena site.

Steel City Scotty · #**2067** Posted **Mar 9, 2019, 6:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by themaguffin

Who knows how much of this will come to fruition, but this has been a significant development news week - Station Square, downtown office tower(s), and the arena site.

And don't forget about the return of discussions to run a zipline from the West End Overlook across the Ohio River to the Chateau/North Shore area.

https://www.wtae.com/article/pittsbu...posed/26761786

Don't Be That Guy · #**2068** Posted **Mar 11, 2019, 2:45 AM**

Quote:

And my god, this building is absolutely freaking horrendous. I live right by this in Oakland and this has to be the worst and ugliest cladding for a large development I've seen yet. The windows are so small and the cladding already looks dented and cheap as all get out and such a shame for such a prominent location. I knew this building was going to by an ugly monstrosity, although it adds really good density to Oakland, it turned out worse than I could have ever imagined with that storage unit cladding. At this point, Id be glad if a massive gas leak happened underneath it at night before it gets done when nobodies there and just explodes. The construction company is even so embarrassed by it that they covered up their company banner at the bottom it looks like lol.

Untitled by photolitherland, on Flickr

I'm not one to typically care about building design so long as the structure adds needed density and housing, but this and the sherbert colored metal clad Residence Inn next door are easily the two ugliest new buildings in Pittsburgh. They are horrendous and I wonder how these designs got through either the neighborhood's and the city's design review processes. It's so bad that the architect's don't even have it displayed under the Projects section of their website.

bmust71 · #**2069** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 12:44 AM**

https://buildingpittsburgh.com

New Building Pittsburgh blog post notes speculative tenants like FNB and Peoples Gas for the Civic Arena site phase 1 office space

I think FNB was linked to Oxford's proposed office tower at the 9th and Penn site

bossride · #**2070** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 11:23 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Article on street improvements related to the Produce Terminal redevelopment.

Five-block Smallman Street makeover will include public plaza, bike lanes

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/tr...s/201902180130

Here is the city's presentation on which the article was based.

BrianTH · #**2071** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 12:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmust71

https://buildingpittsburgh.com

New Building Pittsburgh blog post notes speculative tenants like FNB and Peoples Gas for the Civic Arena site phase 1 office space

From the article:

Quote:

Projects like these, and the boom in the Strip District, show the potential for the central business district to burst its traditional boundaries.

This is an interesting point. If all of the near Strip, Lower Hill, Station Square, and North Shore (particularly behind PNC Park) get built out with some taller office buildings, "Downtown" may not look so much like a triangle anymore.

daviderik · #**2072** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 12:35 PM**

The Golden Trapezoid

eschaton · #**2073** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 1:53 PM**

Behind paywall, but Pitt presented their new 10-year master plan (Which will go to the Planning Commission in May) to the community.

Oakland NIMBYs strike again!

Quote:

The university's One Bigelow proposal for the site of the former Syria Mosque was also discussed as a two-building plan expected to be the future home of the school of community science, a project that was scaled down from a height of 180 feet to 130 feet after community feedback opposed to the larger scale.

A number of residents expressed a variety of concerns about the university’s new master plan, including on the community meeting process, as well as on issues related to student housing and preserving Oakland as a place to live for long-time residents. More community meetings are scheduled in the coming weeks and months.

How the hell do NIMBYs have so much pull in a neighborhood where less than one out of every four people is over age 35?

jmcleanva · #**2074** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 3:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urbana

Its amazing that site has remain vacant for so long.

Reminder of the interesting "Two Oxford Centre" that was once proposed for the site.

Very interesting - thanks. Do you know the year this was proposed?

BrianTH · #**2075** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 5:36 PM**

The Penguins' new developers for the Lower Hill site are at least saying the right things about it being different from the North Shore:

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/201903110030

eschaton · #**2076** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 5:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The Penguins' new developers for the Lower Hill site are at least saying the right things about it being different from the North Shore:

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/201903110030

Looking back, it seems the old master plan was 1,200 units of housing, which is now up to 1,420. The retail/office space overall seems about the same as the BIG plan though, so it's only a modest increase in density overall.

BrianTH · #**2077** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 6:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschaton

Looking back, it seems the old master plan was 1,200 units of housing, which is now up to 1,420. The retail/office space overall seems about the same as the BIG plan though, so it's only a modest increase in density overall.

The density is definitely what I would call at most minimally acceptable.

BrianTH · #**2078** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 6:39 PM**

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is doing a Hyperloop study for a possible line between Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia:

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019...er-to-reality/

MagLev references will undoubtedly follow (and references to The Simpsons "Marge vs. the Monorail" episode). But if they could actually get this to work at a reasonable cost, it would be a very big deal.

photoLith · #**2079** Posted **Mar 12, 2019, 8:07 PM**

^
Hell freaking yeah, id love to be able to get to philly in like 35 min.

eschaton · #**2080** Posted **Mar 13, 2019, 1:37 PM**

The new 150-unit apartment building on Centre Avenue managed to clear the Planning Commission yesterday. However it was almost defeated. A preservationist sent in an email at the last minute claiming (without any proof) that the warehouse on the site which is slated to be demolished was designed by Henry Hornbostel (who designed 70 buildings in Pittsburgh, including Soldiers & Sailors, the CMU College of Fine Arts, the City-County building, etc), and thus merited historic preservation. There was no time to research the matter, but only four Planning Commission members bothered to attend, with the vote being two in favor, one against, and one abstention.