PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by xdv8

I thought that was good news until you dropped the demolition aspect. I guess it's good news for Wilkinsburg but it's going to be an ugly entrance to the municipality. New buildings for this purpose age horribly and will probably look as run down as the rest of Wilkinsburg a few years after completion.

Still hoping for an Aldi in Manchester/Chateau.

[deja vu]

I was poking around the CMU Campus Design and Facility Development website today. The campus just keeps on evolving and expanding. So much has changed in a few years. Parts of my alma mater would be entirely unrecognizable to me now.

Some construction camera updates below. There are many other projects & updates featured on the main website, including numerous classroom renovations, streetscape improvements, and the Hamerschlag House Renovation -

Scaife Hall
85,000 SF, LEED Gold (targeted), offers a much-improved campus entry point. Completion - 2023 -


Source: OxBlue

Highmark Center for Health, Wellness & Athletics
165,000 SF, LEED Gold (targeted). Completion - August 2024 -








Source: OxBlue

Forbes Beeler Apartments
114,000 SF, LEED Gold (targeted). Completion - fall 2023 -
I found these somewhat recent photos of the new Forbes Beeler Apartments, which just opened for the new school year






Source: Code Red Consultants

[shantyside]

progress - from town square to town center

[shantyside]

evidently registered architect rob pfaffman has reviews on yelp - this one regards whole foods in their new liberty east development location

"10. The great thing about the old store is the parking lot became a small square public meeting spot. Bikes, food, plants, outdoor goods."

made the same comment myself many times

https://www.yelp.com/user_details?us...CxFBmB5eqxoYPw



"The whole development turns its back on downtown east Liberty." - also made this comment many times

pittsburgh new development grade - F

[pj3000]

Not surprisingly, it looks like that old building on Reedsdale St. on the Northside across from the T/stadium/casino will not become condos. They might have been betting on buyers purchasing the high-end condos only to AirBnB them because the location is quite terrible as a place to live. Astrobotic purchased it for expansion.


https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202309120049

Astrobotic’s new building is located within the Keystone Space and Defense Innovation District planned for the North Side. The district would house a space and defense industry cluster, including the Astrobotic headquarters as well as Carnegie Science Center.

When the district was announced in June, John Thornton, Astrobotic’s CEO, said the firm was committed to being “at the crosshairs” of efforts to redevelop the Manchester-Chateau neighborhood. The company also owns a building on Western Avenue that is used as a warehouse.

As Astrobotic prepares to renovate the Reedsdale building, it is awaiting the launch of the Peregrine lunar lander it built. The lander will be carried to the moon by the Vulcan Centaur rocket, with a launch scheduled for perhaps later this year.

[eschaton]

The September 19 Planning Commission agenda is now online. Only three items for next week, all of them relatively minor, though they are showing that two projects are continuing to move forward.

1. Sign permit for the new Continental apartment on the North Shore (uncreatively named North Shore Flats). The signage is understated and won't really be clearly legible from most angles nearby.

2. Another North Shore sign permit, this for the Central Outreach Wellness Center, on an existing historic building on East General Robinson. A very small logo which won't be visible, save from 28.

3. Demolition of the existing building at 3440 Forbes. This is the two-story building that formerly housed CVS in Oakland, before it relocated into the ground floor of the new Wexford building on the opposite side of Coltart. This is part of the staging for the eventual construction of a new office building on the site, which is expected to begin in late 2024/complete in late 2026.

[photoLith]

^
Too bad they aren't preserving the facade for the former CVS. Talking about preserving facades, are they still planning on putting the facade back up across the street from the CVS for the Ukrainian Club or whatever that building was used for eventually?

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
Too bad they aren't preserving the facade for the former CVS. Talking about preserving facades, are they still planning on putting the facade back up across the street from the CVS for the Ukrainian Club or whatever that building was used for eventually?

I remember when the site housed a Giant Eagle. I do not think the current facade is historic.

[highlander206]

Originally Posted by wpipkins2

I remember when the site housed a Giant Eagle. I do not think the current facade is historic.

Looking it up on Google Earth, I would agree with you. If anything, I would say it's a fairly bland building for something from the 1920s.

3447 Forbes Ave
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iBt2JJNp38ENj7Cz9

[pj3000]

At this point, demolishing that building is a zero loss.

It might originally be from 1928, but it's been so badly modified over the decades and its context robbed by the surface lot next door, that it is time for it to go for someting far better.

[shantyside]

penn plaza in east liberty could have been one of the greatest housing developments in the history of the east end - they could have preserved the original enright park and all of its 100-year old oak trees, restored the original street grid and built 50 new single-family homes or a combination of single and multi-family new homes

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

At this point, demolishing that building is a zero loss.

It might originally be from 1928, but it's been so badly modified over the decades and its context robbed by the surface lot next door, that it is time for it to go for something far better.

It's interesting to note that once this site is built out, the south side of Forbes will have a continual street wall of at least midrise buildings stretching all the way from Halket to Atwood.

[pj3000]

^ yeah, I already get a “canyon” feel anytime I’m heading down Forbes in that vicinity

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

^ yeah, I already get a “canyon” feel anytime I’m heading down Forbes in that vicinity

I do wonder what will happen when development pressures get to be high enough that we're not only seeing crap like gas stations and parking lots redeveloped, but it directly encroaches on the remaining blocks of finely-grained urbanism like the 3700 block of Forbes.

I mean, the upzoning of Fifth/Forbes was explicitly to create new office towers in the area, but I see a community freakout inevitable sometime in the same 20 years, nonetheless.

The same will likely happen even sooner in the Strip District once the infill starts on Penn Avenue between 22nd and the 16th Street Bridge.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I do wonder what will happen when development pressures get to be high enough that we're not only seeing crap like gas stations and parking lots redeveloped, but it directly encroaches on the remaining blocks of finely-grained urbanism like the 3700 block of Forbes.

I mean, the upzoning of Fifth/Forbes was explicitly to create new office towers in the area, but I see a community freakout inevitable sometime in the same 20 years, nonetheless.

At a high level, this is why I would prefer "tall Oakland" to start expanding down BoA and Halket/Coltart. There are a few somewhat interesting residential buildings in that triangle, but overall I would rather sacrifice that whole triangle to new development as necessary than start tearing down the (to me) more important historic buildings in Oakland.

[shantyside]

it would have been so easy for the new whole foods to create an enjoyable outdoor space for their guests

people don't want to sit alone next to a wall - they want to sit in the company of other people

the only people sitting outside at the new whole foods were sitting at a table next to the entrance - where the people are

what they should have done is create a plaza at the corner of penn and euclid and put the entrance there

[shantyside]

if you ever have the opportunity to develop a property in Pittsburgh that includes a restaurant, and you want outdoor seating but only have the sidewalk to work with - make sure the outdoor seating has south-east exposure













do not create north-west exposure outdoor seating - people will not sit there

[shantyside]

US steel plaza downtown - great well-designed full southern exposure outdoor space that serves many functions



BNY mellon center - nice partial southern exposure outdoor space



one PNC plaza - full southern exposure outdoor space that could have been great but wasn't developed properly in the design process



tower at PNC plaza - horribly designed public outdoor space that sits in shadow most of the day
notice how the private outdoor second floor terrace has full southern exposure - thanks a lot PNC

[themaguffin]

The PNC tower has been up for almost a decade. Why bring this up now?

Edit: I'm not surprised that I didn't get a response.

I've been on this forum for 18 years and this is the first time I have had to use the ignore function. Oof.

[themaguffin]

This is a relatively small item, but still good to see...

Accounting Firm to Move to Southside Works