PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[BrianTH]

I actually only saw a couple notably negative comments between the PG itself and its FB site, which seems like potential progress to me.

In any event, the City is moving on. And I think it is a good thing this has evolved into an all residential project, as is what McCaffery said about trying to build it basically all at once.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

The PG posted this and the FB comments are what you would expect...


Strip District produce terminal developer eyes big apartment and townhouse project


https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202203160072

I have to say, I don't see how this development has 60 townhouses included, looking at the renderings. I only see 20 townhouses here - four rows of five each.

That said, I'm unclear what the two medium-sized six-story buildings internal to the site are. Maybe they're both 20-unit condo buildings, but not true townhouses?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I have to say, I don't see how this development has 60 townhouses included, looking at the renderings. I only see 20 townhouses here - four rows of five each.

That said, I'm unclear what the two medium-sized six-story buildings internal to the site are. Maybe they're both 20-unit condo buildings, but not true townhouses?

This is what the article says:

The current proposal calls for eight structures in all. Two six-story buildings facing Smallman would feature apartments, each with 112 units.

Six others, ranging in size from four to six stories, would house for-sale townhomes. Two six-story structures each would have 20 townhouses and the other four would each hold five side-by-side units. All would be built on the Railroad Street side of the development.

So those two six-story buildings on the Railroad side definitely each have 20 units for sale.

Why they are being called "townhouses" is a bit more of a mystery to me.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

This is what the article says:



So those two six-story buildings on the Railroad side definitely each have 20 units for sale.

Why they are being called "townhouses" is a bit more of a mystery to me.

Sometimes marketers talk about a "stacked townhouse." This is typically at least a two-story structure within a larger building. Each unit has its own external entry and they tend to lack the central circulation space of condos/apartments.

That said, the typical setup for stacked townhouses is one unit on the basement/first, and a second unit on the second/third. The dwellers on the upper units need to go up a flight of stairs to get to their unit.

With six story buildings, I don't know how this is going to work. Who is going to pay top dollar to get a unit which is on floors 5-6 (or even 4-6) and deal with multiple flights of stairs every single day? Seems like they would need to have elevators, at which point it's just multifamily.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

With six story buildings, I don't know how this is going to work. Who is going to pay top dollar to get a unit which is on floors 5-6 (or even 4-6) and deal with multiple flights of stairs every single day? Seems like they would need to have elevators, at which point it's just multifamily.

I have two guesses.

(1) At least some of the units, say the top row or bottom row, are two-story. That would make some sense--four floors with four one-story units each plus the remaining two floors being four two-story units is twenty units total. But it will have elevators and thus not REALLY be townhouses;

(2) The PG just messed up its reporting entirely, meaning McCaffery did not actually claim these are townhouse buildings.

I'm actually leaning to (1) because I am not sure how you otherwise get only twenty units out of a six-story building. I guess the first floor might not be part of the units, but otherwise I am thinking that is too low.

[pj3000]

They definitely look better than the new apartment buildings a block away which stretch down Waterfront Place. The "Edge 1909" building especially is a piece of cheaply-constructed crap... the paint on the balconies already flaking, siding/paneling is buckling... its an awful building in its full multi-block-long, multi-materialed and colored and shaped shamefulness.

It almost makes me feel bad for the people who live in the townhouses across the street... almost. They shelled out the big bucks to have their view of the river completely blocked by this ugly building that's already falling apart.

[eschaton]

Took my first bike ride of the season this morning.

No pictures yet, but I was thinking...for the first time in years, there's basically no new development in Lawrenceville to speak of. Yeah, there's a few projects getting finished up still (like the E properties condo building on the 3700 block of Butler, and the next phase of Arsenal 201) but aside from the continued drip of infill townhouses - and the long-running redevelopment of Holy Family coming to fruition - I'm not aware of anything new being planned.

I'm not sure what this says exactly. It might just be luck of the draw, as all the easy sites have been redeveloped, and most of what's left along Butler or close to the river isn't available for a new project. But considering how much is still being built nearby in the Strip, it's quite notable.

[eschaton]

April 7 ZBA is now online...mostly. Here is what's coming up of interest.

1. New infill house in Lower Lawrenceville. Location is here...approximately, as the Google Car has never gone down this alley. It's a very constrained lot, and looking at the renderings, it seems like there was another infill house here not long ago? Design is awful, but awful in a generic way like all the Lawrenceville infill. Home has garage, which is allowed under the new zoning since there is only access along one right of way.

2. No information of interest in the application, but a new restaurant for the Mexican War Streets, right across from Randyland. I believe there were plans at one point to have a brewery on site, before it fell through and moved into a burger restaurant in Allegheny West.

3. Again, no information, but a request to build a new four-unit building here in Squirrel Hill. This is actually an appeal of a previously granted approval, meaning some NIMBY is trying to block this. Somehow I missed (or at least forgot) the original ZBA presentation. EDIT - schematics now online - shocked this got past NIMBYS to begin with, TBH.

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by shantyside

thank you william, serena and especially andre for always making me feel welcome! i always enjoyed the afternoon bar scene at the ace

Hate to break this to you, but bartenders make their money pretending to be nice to lonely racist homophobes. It's definitely one of the bleakest aspects of working in the service industry, and a big reason many folks end up quitting.

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by pj3000

They definitely look better than the new apartment buildings a block away which stretch down Waterfront Place. The "Edge 1909" building especially is a piece of cheaply-constructed crap... the paint on the balconies already flaking, siding/paneling is buckling... its an awful building in its full multi-block-long, multi-materialed and colored and shaped shamefulness.

It almost makes me feel bad for the people who live in the townhouses across the street... almost. They shelled out the big bucks to have their view of the river completely blocked by this ugly building that's already falling apart.

One of the most egregious examples of this new shitchitecture is this abomination in Oakland. Its hardly 2 years old and the crap siding is already all dented. All of this new shit will have to be torn down in 20 years.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4386...7i16384!8i8192

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by photoLith

One of the most egregious examples of this new shitchitecture is this abomination in Oakland. Its hardly 2 years old and the crap siding is already all dented. All of this new shit will have to be torn down in 20 years.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4386...7i16384!8i8192

My understanding is that building essentially is a leased dorm for Pitt, so I'm sure it being ugly isn't a big problem.

[pj3000]

^ At least it has an Arby's in it...

[dfiler]

Turtle Creek Connector Trail Feasibility Study
Westmoreland Heritage Trail (WHT) to the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP)
Final Report: January 2022
https://alleghenycounty.us/public-wo...dy-report.aspx

This study cost nearly $200,000. For now, this is just a study. The land isn't purchased and there isn't money to do that or build the trail... yet. Fingers crossed but being familiar with the area I'm not optimistic about a number of the more difficult sections. This isn't as simple as building the GAP. There isn't an unused rail line to use. Instead, this will require a thousand small projects with land owners and various municipalities.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

The PG posted this and the FB comments are what you would expect...


Strip District produce terminal developer eyes big apartment and townhouse project


https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202203160072

Loving that density! I would like to see something substantial built there. This is even larger I think than the older proposal in the rendering on Page 1 of this thread.

[photoLith]

And at least from the renderings, it actually appears to be made mostly of brick, hopefully thats what happens.

[BrianTH]

Yeah, a lot of brick right there would play very nicely with the church, Produce Terminal, and surrounding historic warehouses:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4520...7i16384!8i8192



The old Rugby design had a bunch of modern glass that looked OK in isolation, but wasn't really contextual:



Just doing more of a box-shaped building, and then with a lot of brick, particularly the red-orange brick on the corners as shown in the renderings, could be a big improvement in terms of how it would likely shape the overall feel of that part of the Strip.

So hopefully that general concept carries through. In fact, if anything I would like to see more of the red-orange brick. But I do think the alternating sections in grey brick look nice, so I would not have a big problem with that either.

[BrianTH]

So the East Busway extension into the Upper Mon Valley got a federal planning grant, and Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) is trying to organize the relevant communities and help them participate in the planning process. Aside from potentially being relevant to people who actually want to participate in that process, this meeting announcement actually has a pretty good summary of what has happened so far, and what might happen next, and some notes about how it might tie into general development plans in this part of the core area:

https://www.pittsburghforpublictrans...lopment-needs/

On a personal note, as long as I have been paying any attention to transit issues in Pittsburgh (which is a long time now), the concept of an East Busway extension has been part of that discussion. So the idea it might actually be on its way to happening feels like a potential watershed moment to me.

Of course it then actually has to happen. But so far so good.

[shantyside]

just a reminder that, for better or worse, bakery living is pure soviet-inspired architecture

shadyside, pittsburgh



lviv oblast, ukraine

[eschaton]

The Planning Commission - among other things - approved the new Oakland Crossings plan yesterday. Commissioner Mingo did add two conditions however. One was pretty toothless - asking the City Council to "look" at the heights/massings. The other was to remove college/university campus uses from the the list of allowed developments, which I also don't think really hurts anything, since Pitt could always just directly buy land and expand its EMI zone. Seems like OPDC did not explicitly oppose the rezone, though it was critical - and some individual NIMBYs did turn out. Seems like it's a done deal now, given the levels of support the initial plan had on City Council.

[shantyside]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Hate to break this to you, but bartenders make their money pretending to be nice to lonely racist homophobes. It's definitely one of the bleakest aspects of working in the service industry, and a big reason many folks end up quitting.

i thought bartenders made their money making and serving drinks

maybe if the ace had done a better job pretending to like the people of pittsburgh the place would still be around

i can just imagine the conversations behind the scenes - why do we have to keep serving and pretending to be nice to these lonely racist homophobes? i hate these people. screw it, i'm not going to hide my contempt for them, i don't care what management says about pretending to be nice and friendly. it's like pretending to be nice to hitler. these people don't deserve to live, let alone sit at my bar and drink fancy cocktails, etc, etc...