PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[Chip15213]

1. Duquesne is putting in for a new 12-story (!) dorm. Sadly, the ZBA presentation is basically empty, but it's going on this surface lot, directly across from the new Osteopathic Medicine college. Looks to be an Indovina project...anything on their website yet?


https://www.designcollective.com/por...venue-housing/

Apparently Indovina is part of a team that has developed plans for the new dormitory.

[BrianTH]

As always it is a bit of a bummer how university buildings tend to create gaps in the street-level urban fabric, but at least this a good scale and looks reasonable:

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

As always it is a bit of a bummer how university buildings tend to create gaps in the street-level urban fabric, but at least this a good scale and looks reasonable:

Biggest let down is it looks like they're planning on keeping a small surface lot at the corner of Forbes and Magee Street.

But at least it has some substantial height for the area. Big unit count too. I have to wonder if Duquense is expecting enrollment to climb that much, or if it's replacing other scattered housing in the area.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

But at least it has some substantial height for the area. Big unit count too. I have to wonder if Duquense is expecting enrollment to climb that much, or if it's replacing other scattered housing in the area.

Good question. I do remember being surprised to learn that more Duquesne students live on campus than Pitt or CMU students. But otherwise I really know nothing about their housing plans.

[pj3000]

I like the perspective shown in this one, showing the planned medical school building... plus, I'm digging that blonde.

[highlander206]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Biggest let down is it looks like they're planning on keeping a small surface lot at the corner of Forbes and Magee Street.

But at least it has some substantial height for the area. Big unit count too. I have to wonder if Duquense is expecting enrollment to climb that much, or if it's replacing other scattered housing in the area.

Duquesne alumni here who graduated nearly 10 years ago (where do the years go?!). I think it could be one of two things. The first possibility is that it's to modernize their underclassmen dorms (at least when I was a freshman in 2009, they weren't the best), or it could also be the possibility of keeping more upperclassmen on campus as a lot of juniors and seniors live in the South Side.

Keeping part of the parking lot at the corner sucks, but the height and scale of it seem pretty good IMO.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I like the perspective shown in this one

Although I suppose I understand why, there is a huge parking garage missing from this rendering (on the other side of Forbes), no?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Although I suppose I understand why, there is a huge parking garage missing from this rendering (on the other side of Forbes), no?

Looks to me like the view is from standing on the top of the corner of the garage, judging by where the buildings in the alley behind are in the rendering.

Which also means the gap between it and the existing building immediately to the west is wider than appears on the renderings.

[Austinlee]

I like that massing. Looks pretty good. I am feeling very optimistic with how Uptown is filling out. Does anybody know what that big dig site is right next to the Birmingham bridge on the Uptown side? I don't recall.


Now if only we could demo this ugly duckling. This is my vote most hideous building in the city. Makes me want to do a swan dive off of the 10th Street bridge every time I see it.

[eschaton]

October 4th Planning Commission agenda is now online. Only one item for next week - the relocation of the Point Park Center for Media Innovation. The move is necessitated because it's currently in the YWCA building, which will be gutted to become the podium for the new residential tower. The building it is being relocated into has an awful, dead first-floor façade, so anything is a step up. This is exactly the sort of small-scale project I would expect the Planning Commission is soon going to stop reviewing however.

[themaguffin]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I like that massing. Looks pretty good. I am feeling very optimistic with how Uptown is filling out. Does anybody know what that big dig site is right next to the Birmingham bridge on the Uptown side? I don't recall.


Now if only we could demo this ugly duckling. This is my vote most hideous building in the city. Makes me want to do a swan dive off of the 10th Street bridge every time I see it.

I lived in that building once, long ago.

[BrianTH]

Eastern Bloc Prison Aesthetic was a short-lived architectural movement . . . .

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Now if only we could demo this ugly duckling. This is my vote most hideous building in the city. Makes me want to do a swan dive off of the 10th Street bridge every time I see it.

Commie prison / Catholic residence hall... one and the same.

To me, these types of buildings are just expected filler in any city. She's no homecoming queen, but she damn sure gets the job done as captain of the softball team. Certainly far from "most hideous building in the city"...



... when we have frighteningly-puzzling presences in our city like this:

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1...64810916845023

I mean, wtf is that?

[photoLith]

^
Eh that building on the southside is miles better than the schlock tin sided crap that has been marring the city for the past ten years thats being built everywhere.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
Eh that building on the southside is miles better than the schlock tin sided crap that has been marring the city for the past ten years thats being built everywhere.

We have plenty of new additions to the "hideous" category, no doubt.

Though I don't think there is anything quite like that corner gem with the "stone" 2-story, top-heavy entrance pediment thing on 3-story, red-brick building fashioned with 12 non-functional, royal blue poles jutting diagonally out of it and pretending to support a non-functional overhang composed of 11 rectangles of low-grade corrugated galvanized steel... why would there be?

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

I lived in that building once, long ago.

I'm so sorry

Originally Posted by pj3000

Commie prison / Catholic residence hall... one and the same.

To me, these types of buildings are just expected filler in any city. She's no homecoming queen, but she damn sure gets the job done as captain of the softball team. Certainly far from "most hideous building in the city"...

The massing and location is fine; I think a well designed re-cladding could take this thing from ashy to classy.

[MarkMyWords]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I'm so sorry




The massing and location is fine; I think a well designed re-cladding could take this thing from ashy to classy.

That's a nice dream to have. But remember that this is a private university, which along with many other colleges and universities, have to deal with declining enrollments and beleagured endowments. So they probably will never have the money to do something like recladding a perfectly workable, albeit ugly, dormitory.

[eschaton]

If you look at historic aerial photos from the 1950s, it's pretty heartbreaking what the expansion of Duquesne's campus destroyed. There was basically an entire sub-neighborhood of Uptown which was wiped clean within around a ten-year span, packed to the brim with rowhouses, and replaced with a pretty shitty campus.

[pj3000]

And now begins the "watering down, cheapening up" phase of the Lower Hill redevelopment...

Penguins tweak plans for live music venue at former Civic Arena site

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202210030097

• The Penguins are revamping plans for a live music venue at the former Civic Arena site, scrapping a proposed outdoor section because of concerns about noise and economics.
  
  
• As originally planned, the venue was to be built on top of a 900-space parking garage. The two structures now will be built next to each other at the corner of Wylie and Logan Street.
  
  
• They also are proposing to eliminate two streets that were originally planned in the upper part of the site near Crawford Square.
  
  
• And at the lower end of the property, part of Wylie Avenue will be replaced with open space leading into Frankie Pace Park, which connects the Hill to Downtown.
  
  
• The goal is to centralize the open space and create a gateway into the Hill. The same rationale applies in creating a park at the lower end near the new 26-story office tower anchored by First National Bank rather than extending Wylie to Washington Place. Which seems to translate as, "create a central plaza that is disconnected from the Hill and Downtown".
  

From this:






Bring in Desmone... and get this:

[BobLoblaw]

Gotta love the color scheme, too -- clearly a nod to Consol/PPG Arena which makes me wonder if we'll eventually end up with the Khaki & Gray District. Not to mention starting off with a bang by halving the density of that lot by having a standalone parking garage.