August is always the slow month for planning in Pittsburgh, since the Planning Commission goes on holiday. ZBA agendas have been pretty boring as well. However, September ZBA agendas are now trickling online, and there's some more interesting things than over the recent period.
First, for September 8:
1.
Three infill houses in Central Northside.
This is the location. Not a fan of these, at all, but at least they're way up the hill where no one will stumble upon them. Also disappointed they have front-loading garages. The developer seems to have been unable to buy the rear lots for two of the buildings, but the skinnier one could have parking in the rear.
2.
An infill house in an alley in Lower Lawrenceville.
Location is here. I honestly really like the rendering - it's "simple" in a way you generally don't see in the infill townhouses. I also like that it includes no parking whatsoever. The overall footprint is tiny too - 330 feet per floor, meaning 990 feet in total. I wish we were seeing more "tiny-ish" houses like this in Pittsburgh.
3. This one is just a mystery to me -
a new four-story mixed use building in the Hill District.
This is the location. I think this is one of the small infill projects that the URA has greenlit for Centre Avenue.
Turning to September 15:
1.
A new 8-unit residential building in Larimer. This seems to be adding to the existing veteran's housing project by
putting an additional building here. There was a set of historic (albeit abandoned) rowhouses here as recently as 2019. Looks like rather than face Washington Boulevard the new building will have an entrance internal to the complex, which is probably for the best given the quasi-highway status of Washington Boulevard around there.
2.
Four infill homes in Deutschtown.
They would be located here - right around the black from Spring Hill Elementary. Design is bland and uninspired, but at least they are building a new road between them which will allow for rear parking pads, meaning no front-facing garages.
3.
The residential conversion of 642 Fort Duquesne is going before the ZBA. Not a new project of course, but there's some new renderings of the planned rooftop lounge (or maybe penthouse unit) I hadn't seen before. Still not sure why they plan to keep the existing steel sign structure - it will just obstruct rooftop views.