PITTSBURGH | Rundown [Archive] - Page 25

PittPenn 03

08-22-2007, 02:36 PM

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/pittsburghcoffee0822.aspx

Crazy Mocha plans further expansion into Downtown Pittsburgh market

With two new locations in the works, Crazy Mocha Coffee Company is expanding its Downtown presence. After opening shops in Gateway Center, Steel Plaza and the Allegheny Building, owner Ken Zeff identified additional markets in two key locations. “It’s been good enough that we felt we need to open more Downtown,” says Zeff, who will open shops at PPG Two and 801 Liberty Ave. this year.

The 1,000 square-foot PPG location will seat 40 patrons in indoor and outdoor dining areas. Jared Imperatore of Grant Street Associates served as tenant representative.

Crazy Mocha’s second new shop will be located in the same building that houses The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “We’ve been working diligently with them for two and a half years. It’s a very interesting space,” says Zeff, who is working with Rebecca White, the Trust's director of real estate development. The 2,200 square-foot coffeehouse will be Crazy Mocha’s largest location.

“There’s a lot going on there. It’s a good exposure corner for us,” adds Zeff, who says the coffeehouse ties in to a master plan for property rehabilitation projects along the block. “It’s the one space Downtown where you have an eclectic mix of people--students, business people and entertainers. It really represents what our neighborhood stores are all about.”

Future growth is brewing at Crazy Mocha. “We’re trying to grow at a pace we can handle. Downtown will take creativity and a hands-on approach. We’ll get these open and then hopefully look for something else in the spring. We’ve got feelers out--anything’s possible,” says Zeff, who employs 50 people.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Ken Zeff, Crazy Mocha

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2074/crazy_mocha_300.jpg

I think the PPG location is a mistake. With Starbucks, City Cafe, Nicholas Coffee (which is also planning to put a cafe in the Irish pub that closed a while ago), two bagel shop chains, Au Bon Pan, Jenny Lee, hell even McDonalds all in the proximity of this location - someone will likely have to go and I think it will either be them failing or City Cafe. If it works great, but I really think we are getting over coffee shopped in Market Square. I think they would have been better off looking to fill in some gaps in service like on Wood Street, Fifth Ave, Smithfield, Blvd of the Allies, Penn Avenue by the convention center, just about anywhere but the Market Square area.

designer3d712

08-22-2007, 03:14 PM

I don't think the renderings of the parking garage does the casino justice. Architectural Rendering is my life, and I can see the potential in these images. Personally with that kind of a budget for a Casino, I would have requested better renderings. I would also like to see some Interior perspectives. I'm really excited about this project and I wish it would start happening soon. I love seeing new construction going up.

BANKofMANHATTAN

08-22-2007, 06:08 PM

Wow, I'm really impressed with the parking garage design.

Oh, is that a casino in front of it?

I would have never guessed.

Real classy guys.

I like the "Skinny Building"...it's so thin! So much so, that it looks to be a forced outcrop of the building next to it. The base where the 7/11 is located carries over to it, lessening it's feel as a single building.

BMikeSci

08-22-2007, 06:41 PM

Skinny Building

I never knew that it was a separate building. Does anyone know Sam Woo's restaurant in San Francisco? It's an extremely narrow restaurant on multiple floors. There was a waiter named Edsel Ford Fong who was famous for being rude.

PA Pride

08-22-2007, 06:51 PM

Well Joe Hardy is getting a divorce to his 23 yr old wife after 4 months of matrimony. I can't figure out why an asshat 128 yr old FAT billionaire can't get along with a 23 yr old beautiful young girl... Surely they have lots in common!

Also, did everyone see the new Post-Gazette.com layout? It looks pretty nice but i wish they didnt call it the corny name of "Post Gazette NOW". It sounds like they are trying to be super cutting edge when all they did is a redesign.

themaguffin

08-22-2007, 07:22 PM

I saw the PG site a few moments ago - well sort of, it had trouble loading but I saw most of the top. I think the "now" refers to up to the minute in that it will cover more than the daily print version.

EventHorizon

08-22-2007, 09:58 PM

The new PG (http://www.post-gazette.com/) site looks great!

It kinda reminds me of the 'Globe and Mail' site: here (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/)

Evergrey

08-22-2007, 10:02 PM

Decided to be a dork today. I was looking at Urbanized Area populations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_urban_area

"Urban areas in the United States are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as contiguous census block groups with a population density of at least 1,000 per square mile (about 400 per square km). Urban areas are delineated without regard to political boundaries. Urban areas with a population of at least 50,000 serve as the core of a metropolitan statistical area."

Here's a list of Census-defined Urban Areas:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/st2kua.txt

Here is a list of Urban Clusters... which number between 2,500 and 49,999.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/st2kuc.txt

Map of Pittsburgh UA:
http://ftp2.census.gov/geo/maps/urbanarea/uaoutline/UA2000/ua69697/

Map of Monesson UA:
http://ftp2.census.gov/geo/maps/urbanarea/uaoutline/UA2000/ua58168/

Map of Uniontown-Connellsville UA:
http://ftp2.census.gov/geo/maps/urbanarea/uaoutline/UA2000/ua89650/

All UA maps:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/ua2kmaps.htm

The Pittsburgh MSA includes three UAs (Pittsburgh, Monesson, Uniontown-Connellsville) and part of the Weirton-Steubenville WV-OH UA... which is its own MSA. In 2000, the Pittsburgh UA numbered 1,753,136 and comprised 74.3% of the MSA population. The Monesson UA numbered 56,508 and comprised 2.4% of the MSA population. The Uniontown-Connellsville UA numbered 58,693 and comprised 2.5% of the MSA population. 79.2% of the MSAs population was included in its three UAs. The portion of the Weirton-Steubenville UA included in the Pittsburgh MSA numbered only 342 and is rather inconsequential. The total number of people living in UAs in the Pittsburgh MSA was 1,868,679.

The following UCs are within the Pittsburgh MSA:

Butler: 40,622
California: 14,398
East Liverpool (PA part): 3,239
Kittanning - Ford City: 16,894
Ligonier: 3,778
Masontown: 4,740
Saxonburg: 4,233
Slippery Rock: 5,438
Vandergrift: 20,653
Zelionople: 8,019

Unless I'm missing some UCs... the total population of people living in UCs within the Pittsburgh MSA was 122,014 (5.0%).

The total number of people living in UAs and UCs in the Pittsburgh MSA was 1,990,693 (84.2%).

*I just noticed on the map that the Pittsburgh UA stretches all the way up to Ellwood City... which is mostly in Lawrence County and outside of the Pittsburgh MSA (though it's part of the Pittsburgh CSA). So there's probably about 6,000 people or so who live in the Pittsburgh UA but not in the Pittsburgh MSA.

Rufus

08-22-2007, 10:18 PM

I really hope they don't do something stupid like tear down the Skinny building, and for that matter the building it is attached to. Is the Fifth/Forbes redevelopment proposed by the city? I read about it a while ago but don't really remember what it entails.

Johnland

08-22-2007, 11:50 PM

I'm just soo let down by the casino garage. I knew it'd be a monster. But I never imagined the hulking box they are going to plop on the rivershore. The actual casino is incidental in comparison. That thing should be tucked away in some unseen valley - not in the most prominent, rivershore, downtown location. Now every picture of the Ohio River will include that beast. What civic pride! 'Where does the mighty Ohio River begin?'. 'Why, up in Pittsburgh by the garage - it's simple geography!'. I mean Pittsburgh went through a century of soot and grime in the process of building the bridges, rail networks and skyscrapers of the nation (Golden gate Br - san Fran, Empire State Bldg, NYC, Pennsylvania RR nationwide, etc), floods (St patrick's day 1936, Agnes 1972), population booms (peak population 1950 was bigger than Boston today), population declines, steel industry collapse, and on and on. And it still shines through as a city time tested. And what is the best they can come up with to grace the banks of the river - that damn garage. Come on people.

EventHorizon

08-23-2007, 12:05 AM

^Better yet, it should be underground!

Evergrey

08-23-2007, 04:02 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07235/811518-28.stm

Low-cost carriers pull fares down to earth

Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fares have plummeted. Local travelers are saving millions. And far fewer people are driving to other airports in search of bargains.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070823Ave_fares.gif

Nowhere is the evidence of change more dramatic than in fares. The average one-way fare out of Pittsburgh, which topped nearly $192 in 2000, making it one of the highest in the country, plunged 27 percent to $140 last year -- about $7 below the national average.

Average one-way fares to the top 15 destinations have dropped even more -- by 32 percent, to $120, according to the study. As for individual cities, fares to Chicago have plunged nearly 50 percent; to Orlando, Fla., 48 percent; to Las Vegas 42.2 percent; and to Philadelphia nearly 33 percent.

According to the study, the fare reductions saved leisure travelers $64.4 million and businesses nearly $110 million in 2006 alone.

The drop in fares has corresponded with the retrenchment of US Airways, the dominant airline at Pittsburgh International. It has slashed daily departures from a high of 510 to 126 over the last five years and eliminated Pittsburgh as a hub, cuts that have cost more than 10,000 US Airways employees their jobs.

But its actions also have opened the door for more competition and the emergence and growth of low-cost carriers like Southwest, USA 3000, JetBlue and AirTran, which launched service from Pittsburgh in 2000 at the height of the US Airways hub stranglehold.

The study, commissioned by the Allegheny County Airport Authority, was an attempt to quantify the impact of low-cost carriers on Pittsburgh.

County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said that while the airport still is in transition, it's a transition that "is going in the right direction."

"What we've done is made the best of a difficult situation," airport authority Executive Director Kent George said.

The study showed that low-cost carriers not only have saved travelers money, but have helped to boost local traffic to a record 8.2 million passengers last year, or 9 percent more than in 2001. The study estimated those carriers generated 76,200 new travelers in 2006, or the equivalent of 209 enplanements each day.

At one time, the airport handled over 20 million passengers a year. That has fallen to slightly less than 10 million last year.

Nonetheless, low-cost carriers are helping the airport to win back travelers who in the past drove to other airports to take advantage of lower fares.

In 2000, Wilbur Smith, in an analysis done for the state, concluded that more than 193,600 Western Pennsylvania residents drove to Cleveland, Columbus or Akron, Ohio, to board planes. But by last year, it estimated, that number had dropped by nearly 90 percent, to fewer than 21,000.

Overall, the total economic impact related to the growth of low-cost carriers was estimated at $180 million a year.

Barbara McNees, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, said the emergence of those carriers "has made a huge difference to the bottom line of the business community." Cheaper fares also have helped in retaining and attracting talent, she said.

Local travel agents said the drop in pricing is no illusion. They said they have seen a noticeable difference in fares over the last several years.

Marc Zelenski, director of sales and marketing for Worldview Travel, said one big benefit to lower fares is that more people are now flying to cities like Philadelphia or Baltimore when they would have driven in the past.

He also said business travelers have benefited greatly because they can get lower fares even when booking on short notice.

"Three years ago, they were paying much higher fares booking at the last minute," he said.

But Mr. Zelenski and others said one of the drawbacks to the US Airways retrenchment is that the number of nonstop destinations has dropped significantly, making it harder for travelers, particularly those in business, to get to some places.

Local airline analyst Bill Lauer said the greatest benefits are on heavily traveled routes with lots of competition. But for travelers trying to get to the Pacific Northwest or San Diego, the results are not so good, because of the scarcity of nonstop and frequent flights resulting from the loss of hub status.

While the emergence of airlines like Southwest and JetBlue in Pittsburgh is "generally a good thing," it's "not evidence of the development of a more perfect world here," he said.

Jim Lehman, senior vice president of AAA East Central, said lower fares have made vacations more affordable to a broader range of people and for families. They also have benefited business travelers.

The trade-off has been the drop in nonstop destinations. Asked if the overall impact has been good, he said that depended on what the traveler was looking for.

"From an economic standpoint, for the average consumer, I think it's been a good thing. If you're looking at ease of travel for the business traveler, it may not have been an improvement over the days of it being a hub for one airline," he said.

Nonetheless, officials warned yesterday that for travelers to continue to reap the benefits of lower airfares they must patronize those airlines most responsible for the changes.

Mr. George noted that AirTran was forced to eliminate service to New York, Philadelphia and Chicago earlier in the decade because of a lack of support.

"In order to stay competitive we need to keep all of these airlines in Pittsburgh operating and going to the destinations they do," Ms. McNees said.

Wilbur Smith estimated that if Pittsburgh were to lose low-cost service, average one-way fares could increase 36.9 percent and local traffic would drop by 8.7 percent a year.

It said airports in Richmond, Va., Mobile, Ala., Huntsville, Ala., and Greensboro, N.C., saw fare increases from 15 percent to 70 percent on some routes after losing low-cost service.

....

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07235/811430-28.stm

Officials push for flights to Europe

Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Local politicians and airport officials are making another push to land flights to Europe from Pittsburgh International Airport.

Allegheny County Airport Authority Executive Director Kent George said yesterday that local officials are talking to at least three airlines about the possibility of service to Europe. He would not name the carriers.

Pittsburgh has been without nonstop European service since November 2004, when US Airways dropped flights to London and Frankfurt.

Airport Authority officials will travel to a conference in Stockholm this fall to meet with three airlines and possibly others to explore the potential for European service. Mr. George said some airlines have shown an active interest in such service.

Recruiting a carrier to start service to Europe has become more difficult since US Airways eliminated its Pittsburgh hub and slashed nearly 400 daily flights during the past few years.

Many airlines are concerned about being able to fill a flight based solely on local traffic without the millions of connecting passengers brought through the airport in the past because of the hub.

Since 2001, the airport has gone from handling more than 20 million passengers a year, many of them connecting, to slightly less than 10 million last year, nearly all local.

However, Mr. George believes there's enough traffic to fill a European flight nine months out of the year. He held out hope that an airline could fill the gap the other three months through code sharing agreements with other carriers.

He said authority officials intend to show the airlines they meet with that "there is a market in Pittsburgh and that the opportunity is there" for nonstop European service.

Michael Langley, chief executive officer of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, has said a Pittsburgh-Amsterdam route may be the most likely option for European service.
In the past, officials have tried to interest Lufthansa and Scandinavian airlines in starting European service without success.

designer3d712

08-23-2007, 01:44 PM

Ok, get rid of the parking garage and have everyone park at the Science Center. Better yet build it underground and cut the parking spaces in half to fit.:worship:

BANKofMANHATTAN

08-23-2007, 04:40 PM

At least clad the thing with some attractive exterior elements. Something that matches the casino perhaps...

Evergrey

08-23-2007, 09:34 PM

The new arena is a direct beneficiary of Pittsburgh's new casino parking garage.

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/08/20/daily11.html?t=printable

Oxford, Chester to oversee arena construction

Pittsburgh Business Times - 5:55 PM EDT Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Oxford Development Co. and Chester Engineers have been hired by the Sports and Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to assist with oversight of design and construction of the Penguins' new arena in Uptown Pittsburgh. The facility will be owned by the SEA and leased to the hockey team.

Oxford and Chester have formed a joint venture to provide various services, including project management, construction scheduling and organizational strategy. It has retained as consultants L. Robert Kimball & Associates Architects and Engineers and Crawford Consulting Services.

The arena will be approximately 730,000 square feet with an estimated capacity of 18,200 seats, including 69 suites. Adjacent to the arena will be a 500-space parking structure.

BMikeSci

08-24-2007, 12:20 AM

"Majestic Star Casino" should be renamed "Not So Majestic Garage and Slots." The Isle of Capri plan never looked so good! I guess one problem is that the garage cannot be underground being so close to the river. Nevertheless, one would hope for a more inspired design. Just because it's a garage doesn't mean it has to look like one. With the I of C plan, the facade of the garage was suppose to be hidden by shops. Well, all I can say is, if I lived nearby I would join the NIMBY's:-(

Johnland

08-24-2007, 12:57 AM

timmydogg91

08-24-2007, 01:39 AM

timmydogg91

08-24-2007, 01:45 AM

or is that supposed to be some hotel in the same location?

Evergrey

08-24-2007, 04:27 AM

Right!! This garage is exactly the object of scorn that a good and mad NIMBY group should rail against. On the local level, isn't it near the neighborhoods of Allegheny West and Manchester? Aren't those neighborhoods where those wonderful 19th centrury brick townhomes are? Haven't they been fighting tooth and nail to throw off decades of decline to turn the corner into becoming great urban neighborhoods? The garage is just such a visual assault. I mean a hospital garage, ok perhaps, a high tech research facility garage, getting warmer, a university garage, seems necessary....but a casino garage, mmmm, no. A uselessly, overconstructed, automobile-oriented structure that does not promote the aesthetic, historic, social, green or fundamental underlying economics of the city is a bad bet.

The cluster of elevated highways that sever Manchester and Allegheny West from the North Shore block pretty much the entire casino structure from street level view (in fact, you can rarely see much larger Heinz Field from these neighborhoods). The cylinder portion of the casino (known as the drum) is supposed to be 110'... while the rest of the casino is shorter... like 90' or something. The garage is also supposed to be 110'. However, the hulking behemoth of a garage depicted in these renderings seems to dwarf even the drum portion of the casino. I wonder if that's just some sort of perspective problem with the renderings... or if the garage height has been increased (in which case it may be highly visible from Manchester).

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1199/1196125687_bab491050c_o.jpg

Evergrey

08-24-2007, 04:36 AM

The older master plan had a rendering of the garage covered in reflective glass like the PPG Place and had the outward curve design to it that followed the curve of the casino in front of it. The older rendering looked too impressive to turn down for that new rendering of that ugly massive box towering over the casino. The glassy garage can be seen on the master plan that ended May which i think is on pdf at
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/cp/html/majestic_star_casino_development.html

I've seen that master plan before. The renderings never give you a perspective of the garage with the casino. There are a many renderings of the graceful casino building and riverfront views... but you never see the hulking garage behind it. The couple garage renderings don't really give you a feel of how it relates to the casino. I think the masterplan was misleading in its presentation of the physical massing of the casino/garage complex.

EventHorizon

08-24-2007, 04:59 AM

What appears to be just open decks of the garage from afar, is actually undulating metal/glass sculpture-like things on the outside of the building. Here's an image of the outside of the building.

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5601/untitled2to5.png

the apparent size of the thing is still horrendous.

EventHorizon

08-24-2007, 05:14 AM

The cluster of elevated highways that sever Manchester and Allegheny West from the North Shore block pretty much the entire casino structure from street level view (in fact, you can rarely see much larger Heinz Field from these neighborhoods). The cylinder portion of the casino (known as the drum) is supposed to be 110'... while the rest of the casino is shorter... like 90' or something. The garage is also supposed to be 110'. However, the hulking behemoth of a garage depicted in these renderings seems to dwarf even the drum portion of the casino. I wonder if that's just some sort of perspective problem with the renderings... or if the garage height has been increased (in which case it may be highly visible from Manchester).

Evergrey, here's a section of the building that gives the differing heights. I hope they stick with what's shown here.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/8610/untitled3mm0.png

Evergrey

08-24-2007, 05:16 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07236/811727-28.stm

Pittsburgh avoiding housing market woes

Friday, August 24, 2007
By Elwin Green, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

To quote the T-shirt: Save the drama for your mama.

Pittsburgh's housing market continues to avoid the nationwide housing drama with steady-but-not-exciting growth, according to two agencies that track local real estate data.

West Penn Multi-List, which tallies transactions in which area Realtors have played a part, said the average price for homes sold in Allegheny County in July was $169,383, up a respectable 6.3 percent from last July's $159,364. There were 1,432 Realtor-assisted closings last month, compared with 1,416 a year ago.

West Penn also includes Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland counties in its tabulations. For the six-county area, the average sales price was $164,719, up from $157,780 last year, and the total of closed sales was 2,570, compared with 2,546 last July.

RealSTATs, which includes non-Realtor transactions in its data, said the average price of a home sold in Allegheny County last month was $164,140, compared with $154,391 last year, an increase of (take a guess) -- 6.3 percent. The firm said the total number of transactions was down slightly, to 1,972 from 1,988.

Beyond Allegheny County, RealSTATs covers Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties. The average sales price in the five counties last month was $160,886, compared with $158,204 a year ago. Total area sales also dropped slightly, to 3,203 from 3,237.

chucka

08-24-2007, 01:15 PM

Here is a link to the video of the old design presented to the Gaming Board. Since then, the tower and building have been reduced in height, while the Garage remains the same.

Video (http://207.234.131.187/pgcb/pgcb2.wmv?MSWMExt=.asf)

Grego43

08-24-2007, 01:47 PM

PittPenn 03

08-24-2007, 02:02 PM

I think all anyone has to do if you want to see what we will likely get is take a train ride to Chicago. Amtrak runs right along the casinos in Gary, IN and they are atrocities.

PA Pride

08-24-2007, 05:47 PM

Phase 1 of Sterling Plaza in North Oakland:

90,000 sq ft 5 story office building.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/austindaniel/90000sqftsterlingPlaza.jpg

More info:
http://www.sterlingland.com/cSterlingPlaza.html

biscuit

08-24-2007, 07:08 PM

The MSC garage is going to be a craptactular addition to the North Shore.

Judging just from the renderings it's easy to think so. However, the casino and the garage are sited on the property so that they really won't be very noticeable until you are right up on them on either the river or cruising down Ohio River Blvd. At least that's what the architects are attempting.

Evergrey

08-24-2007, 07:08 PM

That hideous building was built about 15 years ago. Sterling II is to be erected next to it on the site of a gravel parking lot.

Evergrey

08-24-2007, 09:00 PM

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A34683

AUGUST 23, 2007
Cornering the Market on Good Design

East Liberty's latest revitalization effort avoids mistakes of the past

BY CHARLES ROSENBLUM

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/binary/1152/34_0004_arch.jpg

Walk right in: The EastSide complex, in East Liberty.
Photo by Heather Mull
A good building knits urban pathways together, encouraging pedestrians to move a bit further along the street, maybe to the next store or the next purchase -- any place but back to the car. Walk in either direction on Highland Avenue near Centre, for example, and you will encounter the Stevenson Building, a pleasant, vaguely neoclassical building of 1896. It has just enough renaissance detail in its arched windows and columned entry to seem slightly formal, and it curves instructively around the corner to Centre, urging pedestrians toward further exploration.

More than a century later, the role of architecture and urban design in this part of East Liberty has not been forgotten. The question, as explored in the growing EastSide development, is to what degree good design intentions can hold off the onslaught of automobiles and concrete.

To get The Home Depot to move to East Liberty in the late 1990s, the city felt compelled to offer a site swept clean of all buildings, a blank slate that allowed for a suburban-sized parking lot. The EastSide team has been shrewder, having fought hard to make the development more urban and pedestrian-friendly.

The final design results from an intensely collaborative process involving the developer, the Mosites Company, architects The Design Alliance and East Liberty Development Incorporated, a nonprofit revitalization group. Faced with a long, slender five-acre parcel of land between Centre Avenue and the East Busway, the project needed to encourage tenants to come to the neighborhood without turning it into a suburbanized desert of parking.

The EastSide complex as a whole is four buildings along Centre, where tenants include a Borders bookstore, a Walgreens, a state liquor store and other storefronts. In the first three buildings, the material palette combines the orange brick of a number of nearby structures (including the Stevenson Building) with a more modern aesthetic of expansive glass and aluminum windows. Some trendier mesh screens and corrugated metal panels appear also. It's telling that the design team had to lobby hard with tenant Walgreens to put in windows at all.

The corner building, meanwhile, is particularly lively, suiting its more prominent site. It responds to but does not imitate the Stevenson building nearby. It too has a curving wall, but the material is fiber cement board rather than masonry. The windows are offset and horizontal, rather than vertical. Unlike just about any speculative retail building you will ever see, this structure makes three-dimensional play out of its site conditions. The curving wall creates a small atrium in the ground-floor space. A smaller office space on the third floor opens to an outdoor balcony. What might have been a hidden interior stair instead finds a bit of sculptural expression on the outside -- you can go up this way if you want. This building doesn't simply adapt the Stevenson building curve; it continues the urbanistic principle of drawing pedestrians into its spaces, and it does so with unapologetically snappy modern forms.

But a key move was to put parking for 400 cars on two levels: Most chain retailers still insist on having their store entrance at the same level as automobile access. The developers, though, created an entry at the level of the Shadyside side of Highland Avenue before it descends to Centre. (A pedestrian bridge from Ellsworth across the busway is forthcoming.)

Mark Minnerly of Mosites says the team had some extra leverage, thanks to the success of the nearby Whole Foods and a profusion of new restaurants in the area. Since the neighborhood was already becoming more desirable, he recalls, "We had a capacity to push much harder in how people fit into the development."

Minnerly adds that instead of the usual ratio of six parking spaces per 1,000 square feet, they negotiated their tenants down to four. Combine this with the more city-like practice of pushing buildings out to the sidewalk, and the development becomes denser, less suburban. Says Chris Minnerly, "The project really is ultimately a hybrid."

Indeed, this development is certainly not perfect. Even after the noble battles, there is still too much parking and not enough of a designed landscape for pedestrians on the upper parking deck. ("We have to give the tenants things they want, or it doesn't happen," Mark Minnerly explains.) But by fighting hard for the right issues, the design team has raised the bar for such developments in the future. "We probably have more architecture than we need to satisfy the market," Mark Minnerly says.

Then again, the better architecture should cause the market to expand.

Evergrey

08-24-2007, 09:02 PM

...

Grego43

08-24-2007, 11:22 PM

now THAT'S a sexy little building. :previous:

Johnland

08-24-2007, 11:26 PM

A refreshing design, for sure. I love the glass and steel (maybe it's aluminum, even better if it is). From the photo, it looks crisp and sharp. I'm sure it's a good compliment to the urban neighborhood of East Liberty/Shadyside.

Evergrey

08-25-2007, 05:13 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07237/812037-192.stm

Curb appeal: Like a good neighbor, Point Park checks its look

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Point Park University has been one of Downtown Pittsburgh's slowly unfolding good-news stories.

Since its inception in the 1930s as a secretarial school, to its conversion to a liberal-arts college in 1966 and its attainment of university status four years ago, the institution has been making a larger and deeper footprint on the Golden Triangle.

With its growing real-estate holdings along Wood Street, the Boulevard of the Allies, Forbes Avenue and now Fort Pitt Boulevard, Point Park University is the second-largest property owner Downtown, after the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Despite the nonprofit's positive impact in terms of bringing vitality and curb appeal to the neighborhood, one downside to its creeping growth, particularly in previously existing buildings, has been the lack of a unified "look" to its campus.

That is difficult to achieve in a busy urban business corridor that includes many handsome and historic structures, not to mention a street grid used by workers and shoppers, but the Urban Land Institute would like to give it a shot.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization will be paid $158,340 to study how Point Park might become better integrated into the neighborhood. The examination, which will begin next month and focus on Wood Street from Fort Pitt Boulevard to Fifth Avenue, will also explore possible street improvements and ground-level retail.

That's a wise thing for the university to do, as its reach extends to ever-more spaces (Point Park will soon open its new $15.4 million dance and performing arts building) and as future opportunities open up (the nearby YMCA will be relocating next year, leaving the university with a potential site for a gym).

The results of the Land Institute study, to be supported by a $20,000 grant from the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority and aid from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, will be used in combination with two forthcoming reports: a master space plan to assess interior needs and a strategic plan to look at the academic landscape.

All this study comes at a good time for an institution whose enrollment has grown by 57 percent -- to 3,600 -- in the last decade. As a bigger player on the Downtown scene, Point Park University is doing itself, and the city, a favor by plotting its future carefully.

Evergrey

08-25-2007, 05:23 AM

i'm very pleased... Market Square seems to have made huge strides this summer... partially due to the absence of the roaring buses (I'm a mass transit fanatic... but could PAT's buses possibly be any louder as they pass by?)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07237/812119-53.stm

Buses return to Market Square

But rerouting is only temporary

Saturday, August 25, 2007
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Port Authority buses will return to Market Square in mid-September but, apparently, not for long.

The city is planning to remove buses permanently next summer as part of an effort to revitalize the square and create a more inviting environment for workers, diners, visitors and merchants.

"We are looking to do that, yeah," said Joanna Doven, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's spokeswoman.

The city began detouring nearly 600 buses a day from Forbes Avenue in Market Square in June to assess the impact on the square and other areas of Downtown. About 3,000 riders a day have been affected by the move.

What started as a one-month test run has lasted most of the summer. Buses will be rerouted back to Market Square in mid- September because of construction of the Three PNC Plaza office building on Fifth Avenue.

Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove said that is expected to last only until June, when the city wants to permanently reroute the buses from the square.

"My understanding is that the city is basically happy with what they've seen [in removing buses] and they're looking at making that a permanent situation once we get on the other side of [the PNC] construction project," he said.

While the rerouting this summer has inconvenienced people who boarded in Market Square, it did not result in a loss in ridership and "there has not been a major hue and cry from customers about it," Mr. Grove said.

"As a whole our riders just dealt with it," he said.

At the same time, the city received positive feedback about not having buses in Market Square, Ms. Doven said. Merchants were among those happy about it, she noted.

"The mayor really believes it has brought life back to Market Square," she said. "It makes sense for Downtown's vitality."

With the permanent change in the works, the Port Authority is looking to restructure all of its bus loops through Downtown, Mr. Grove said.

It already has started discussions with city planners on ways to more efficiently move buses through Downtown, from the simple, such as eliminating some parking meters so buses can make easier turns, to the more complex, such as perhaps adding a bus lane on Smithfield Street between Boulevard of the Allies and Fort Pitt Boulevard.

"I think our attitude is let's do the best job we can do" to make sure all traffic is moving efficiently, Mr. Grove said.

Ms. Doven said the city intends to work with the Port Authority to figure out solutions.

"All options are open right now. This is in its infancy. We will work to the best of our ability to make everyone happy," she said.

First published at PG NOW on August 24, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.

Evergrey

08-25-2007, 05:26 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07237/812134-53.stm

Regent Square an example in neighborhood vitality

Saturday, August 25, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Regent Square takes portions of four municipalities to express the full measure of its identity -- a sliver of Pittsburgh, a chunk of Wilkinsburg, a fragment of Edgewood and a notch of Swissvale.

That would be anomaly enough.

But the neighborhood is unusual in other ways.

On the wave of a commercial boom, it is largely unscathed by crime and blight and has almost no vacant homes. The population as defined by the Regent Square Civic Association is roughly 2,000; the Pittsburgh portion is 1,100.

In the 17 years since Edgewood Towne Center was built across the parkway, the small commercial heart of Regent Square along Braddock Avenue has never been stronger.

The annual "Run Around the Square" 5K and fun-run festivities is playing out today in Frick Park for the 25th year, a milestone that serves to show how Regent Square's business district has adapted but maintained its coherence.

Regent Square earned the highest score in the neighborhood vitality index, a city planning tool, with 10.5 against a perfect 11.

"It's the kind of community that has the old-fashioned feel, but it's also sophisticated and artsy," said Maureen States, a Realtor and owner of Neighborhood Realty Services.

She said many homebuyers are "university folks and people from the medical community. ... You hear about the housing market being down, but I'm not seeing that here. Prices are pretty much holding, and we are not feeling the impact of bank foreclosures."

Kurt Ferguson, Edgewood's borough manager, who used to be in the development field, said Regent Square has achieved without formula what development planners try to create: "Unique shopping places, nice places to eat, nice hometown bars, a theater." The Regent Square Theater is owned by Pittsburgh Filmmakers, which is making a $25,000 upgrade of equipment.

"There are certain roles a business district like this can have to be successful," said Mr. Ferguson. "Struggling commercial areas take shots with anyone who wants to come in. Building owners may be desperate to take rents." In Regent Square, "if there's a vacancy, someone on the street already has his eye on it."

Mr. Ferguson said Edgewood and Swissvale have started joint comprehensive planning "to be beneficial to business retention." Both also have cooperative public-safety agreements.

The once traditional "main street" district along Braddock Avenue, with all the goods people depended on, has transformed in 25 years into a destination for cultural and leisure activities, decidedly more upscale.

When Dino DeFlavio opened McBrooms, a beer distributorship on the corner of Braddock and Sanders in 1980, his commercial neighbors included a sporting goods store, barber, shoemaker, drug store, fruit market and deli, an Isaly's and three gas stations.

Charlie's Ten-Cent Saloon had mud wrestling where diners now eat at the newly remodeled Dunning's. Concept Art Gallery, near the Regent Square Theater, established in what was once a little supermarket with a butcher.

The building where Sherree Goldstein opened Square Cafe in 2003 replaced a mechanic's shop and gas station. Her research convinced her the business would fly but it didn't say how fast.

"We have some customers coming from as far as Murrysville and Wexford," she said. "Eighty to 90 percent is repeat business, and every month we see bigger numbers." She counted more than 6,000 customers last month.

Alina Keebler, a board member of the civic association, said four new businesses include a chiropractor and three wealth management companies.

"We have a lot of college students who come down to the noodle hut [Green Mango restaurant], and since Carnegie Mellon started giving students bus passes, we have more young people coming to the theater," she said.

And existing merchants keep investing in the area.

Mr. DeFlavio and his wife, Cynthia, bought a former bar on the Swissvale side in 1999 where they established D's SixPax & Dogz. Two years ago, they bought a former dry cleaner to expand it and added a boutique beer shop in back. He said he hopes to open a sweet shop and deli in a former bakery by next month.

The recent arrival of restaurants Green Mango and Legume has been "phenomenal," he said. "Cross-marketing. The best thing that could have happened."

Kathy Cauley bought the White Hawk in 1988 and made it Murphy's Tap Room. In 1996, she bought the building beside it, a former housewares store, and turned it into Katerbean, the neighborhood's first coffeehouse.

"Everyone was excited about having a coffeehouse," she said, "but today, you could probably open anything in Regent Square and it would fly."

First published at PG NOW on August 24, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.

Evergrey

08-26-2007, 05:11 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07238/812146-53.stm

First Fruits: Fifth/Forbes corridor shows signs of progress at last

Sunday, August 26, 2007

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200708/20070826jhMillcraft_500.jpg
John Heller/Post-Gazette
The Capital Grille in the former Lazarus-Macy's building.

The developer at the forefront of efforts to revive the Downtown Fifth and Forbes corridor tomorrow will give people something to sink their teeth into.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070826Fifth_Forbes_Millcraft.gif

The public opening of the swanky Capital Grille steak house in the former Lazarus-Macy's store is the first tangible evidence of redevelopment in the downtrodden corridor nearly two years after Washington County-based Millcraft Industries rode into Pittsburgh as its white knight.

"I'm sure everyone is sick and tired of hearing everyone talk about it. This is evidence that it is happening and that we're actually doing it," said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft's vice president of real estate.

The opening comes about 20 months after Millcraft reached agreement with the Urban Redevelopment Authority to buy the building for $8.5 million. It signals the start of a construction blitz that could transform the corridor from dowdy to dashing.

As Capital Grille patrons dine on "dry-aged'' steaks, work crews soon will be erecting a steel skeleton on the building's roof to support construction of 65 luxury condominiums, a key part of Millcraft's $70 million in redevelopment plans for the store.

In November, another chain restaurant, McCormick & Schmick's, will join Capital Grille on the first floor.

Before the end of the year, Millcraft also hopes to get started on another key redevelopment -- the conversion of the old G.C. Murphy store on Fifth Avenue into shops and apartments.

The anchor for the $32 million Market Square Place project will be the Downtown YMCA, which will move from its current location on the Boulevard of the Allies. Millcraft also is planning 46 upper-floor apartments priced to attract residents earning $40,000 to $50,000 a year.

Across from Murphy's on Fifth, construction of the Three PNC Plaza tower, Downtown's first new skyscraper in two decades, also will be moving into full bloom this fall. The shell is scheduled for completion at the end of 2008, the same time the redeveloped Murphy's building is to open.

The Reed Smith law firm will move its Pittsburgh offices into PNC's 23-story skyscraper, which also will feature 28 condos and a 185-room hotel to be managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, operator of the Fairmont in San Francisco and The Plaza in New York City. The hotel will open in 2009.

To Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the opening of the Capital Grille "reaffirms the fact that we are bringing Downtown Pittsburgh back to life."

"I think it really once again allows Pittsburghers to see that what previously had been a dream is now becoming a reality."

But so far neither the two Millcraft projects nor the Three PNC Plaza construction has produced much spin-off in the corridor, for the most part a collection of vacant storefronts, convenience stores, discount clothing, novelty outlets and other lower-end retail.

A decade ago, former Mayor Tom Murphy had hoped to use the construction of the government-subsidized Lazarus-Macy's store as a linchpin to spur development. But that never happened, and the store ultimately failed after five years at the corner of Fifth and Wood.

Tom Sullivan, a commercial broker with Pennsylvania Commercial Real Estate, said some property owners don't have the financial wherewithal to improve their buildings.

"A number of people, particularly retailers, are doing their best to hang on. They simply don't have the money or the credit, I suppose. So much has been on hold for so long. It's not the most fertile of retail environments," he said.

Toward that end, Mr. Ravenstahl said, the city, through the URA, may make some storefront-renovation grants available to property owners in the Fifth and Forbes corridor.

He said the Millcraft and PNC projects, as they open, could help to stimulate more development.

"I believe that once that happens with G.C. Murphy's, once that happens with PNC, once that happens with Piatt Place, then all of the sudden that property becomes more valuable and I think you're just going to see, slowly but surely, the gradual growth around those areas happen," he said. "Just like it's taken time to get where we are now, it's going to take time to revitalize all those blighted areas of Downtown."

Herky Pollock, the executive vice president of real estate firm CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh who is helping to market the Millcraft projects, said that until now, other property owners in the corridor have not had the benefit of the foot traffic from the Capital Grille and Piatt Place development.

"Once they see the potential of a quality establishment and the rents they're able to garner, these developers most definitely will realize the opportunity before them," he said.

While Mr. Sullivan believes more office development -- not residential -- is the key to revitalizing the corridor, Mr. Pollock disagrees. He said residential not only will boost retail Downtown, it will bring a "great diversity which has been sorely lacking."

"I think that if you look around the country, the most successful business districts have a strong residential component."

Mr. Pollock said he has received a lot of interest from national and regional retailers in the Murphy's building with the addition of Capital Grille and McCormick & Schmick's to the Downtown menu.

And Mr. Ravenstahl said he has been approached by a number of out-of-town developers with an interest in further developing residential space Downtown or in the Strip District.

At Piatt Place, Millcraft has sold 35 percent of the 65 condos available, a pace with which Mr. Piatt is comfortable. He believes that will pick up with the opening of the restaurants.

The developer has been unable to interest anyone in the 180,000 square feet of office space available in the building. But Mr. Piatt believes it's only a matter of time before someone bites.

"We have some great prospects. Hopefully we'll be getting something soon. I still feel optimistic about it. The office market is better than it has been the last several years. I'm pretty confident that we will land a big one shortly," he said.

One Downtown property owner who is happy to see the addition of Capital Grille is David Kashi, owner of Kashi Jewelers at Fifth and Wood opposite the restaurant.

"Pittsburgh needs something like that," he said. "It gives an upscale look to the city, don't you think?"

Mr. Kashi has been in business at Wood and Fifth since 1987. He is torn between selling his property and retiring or redeveloping it to put housing on the upper six floors, maybe keeping a top-floor penthouse for himself. He maintained the view is the best in town.

"You don't think you're in Pittsburgh. You think you're in New York," he said. "You think, wow, that's so beautiful. That's Pittsburgh?"

First published at PG NOW on August 25, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.

Evergrey

08-26-2007, 05:13 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07238/812261-53.stm

Subway work puts squeeze on Gateway Center traffic

Boring of twin tunnels to begin this fall

Sunday, August 26, 2007
By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200708/20070826lf_northshoreconnector_500.jpg
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette
Construction workers deliver supporting tubes to the North Shore Connector project site outside PNC Park yesterday. A tunnle-boring machine will start digging the twin tunnels this fall. The 1.2-mile light-rail extension will connect Downtown to the North Shore.

Subway construction will put another squeeze on traffic around Gateway Center starting at 6 a.m. tomorrow as a Port Authority contractor moves closer to boring twin tunnels beneath the Allegheny River.

An additional lane of Penn Avenue through part of Gateway Center will be closed through early December, leaving only one lane open toward Commonwealth Place and the Fort Pitt Bridge/Parkway West.

The contractor needs the extra room in the front of the Three Gateway Center building to erect a batch plant that will produce concrete grout. The material will be used to stabilize excavation 55 feet deep on one block of Stanwix -- the "receiving pit" for a huge worm-like machine that will bore 22-foot-diameter tunnels under the river.

The closing is part of the first construction contract for the $435 million, 1.2-mile light-rail extension from Downtown to the North Side.

Original plans called for the batch plant to be located in the grassy triangle bordered by Stanwix, Penn Avenue and Liberty Avenue. Since then, city officials told the authority it needed that area for the Richard S. Caliguiri/City of Pittsburgh Great Race on Sept. 30 because Point State Park, the usual finish point, is closed for reconstruction.

"We didn't expect to have to further restrict Penn Avenue," where one lane is already blocked off, authority spokesman Bob Grove said.

The batch plant will consist of several small metal silos to store mostly cement and sand, a huge mechanical mixer, and machinery to force grout through a tube that will carry it to the excavation site. The grout will be injected into the ground at high pressure and, when it hardens, it will stabilize the soil around the pit in front of the former Horne's Department Store building.

The receiving pit will be a big hole in the ground -- 55 feet deep, 60 feet long and curb-to-curb on Stanwix between Fort Duquesne Boulevard and Penn Avenue.

The block-long section of Stanwix where the pit is being built was closed July 3 for five months, requiring traffic to detour in the Gateway Center area. Sidewalks remain open, along with stores, office buildings and restaurants in the work zone.

The Port Authority said that besides the one lane of Penn Avenue that will remain available to vehicles, the sidewalk that provides access to Two Gateway Center and Three Gateway Center next door will remain open to pedestrians. No parking will be permitted along the restricted section of Penn Avenue.

The $10 million tunnel-boring machine, manufactured in Germany and shipped here over a two-month period, is being assembled on the North Shore near PNC Park. It is 40 feet long and weighs about 300 tons.

The machine, with a rotating, cast-iron cutting head and carbide cutting blades, is to start digging the first 2,400-foot-long tunnel this fall.

In the next several weeks, cranes will lower it into a 60-foot-deep "launch pit" being built beneath General Robinson Street, where the digging will begin.

The project includes a new Gateway Center Station and two stations on the North Shore -- the North Side Station near PNC Park and Allegheny Station tied into a new parking garage northwest of Heinz Field. Work is to take another four years.

First published at PG NOW on August 25, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com.

BMikeSci

08-26-2007, 12:33 PM

PGH shows slight uptick in real estate prices

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/08/20/daily29.html

BMikeSci

08-26-2007, 12:41 PM

Downtown Condo to be Auctioned

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07237/812045-30.stm

themaguffin

08-26-2007, 04:20 PM

I haven't been able to get the PG homepage in 2 days. It's been slow since the redesign and impossible this weekend, how long does it take you guys to get this? I know some of you are getting the info at night when the date/data refreshes for the next day's news and traffic is lower at that time of night, but this is ridiculous.

hyperion1110

08-26-2007, 04:43 PM

:previous: I had a little bit of trouble when they upgraded. But, since then, it's been okay for me, regardless of time of day.

Evergrey

08-26-2007, 05:51 PM

Ruth Ann Dailey had a great piece on the ridiculous system of hyper-fragmented regional governance we have here... the balkanized pattern of development is one indication of this system's grave failings

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07235/811383-152.stm

Plan countywide to keep us all afloat

Consolidating government services necessary as development brings a flood of problems

Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Ruth Ann Dailey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In the past, we've thought of our feudal system of government as, at worst, a charming inconvenience.

Allegheny County's big cluster of tiny little townships and boroughs, established back in horse-and-buggy days, was a quaint holdover that offered more benefits than burdens.

Sure, it cost us all a little extra in duplicated services (Neighboring municipal headquarters just blocks apart! Garbage haulers negotiating separate contracts for every 300 or 400 homes!), but the distinctive identity it provided each cozy community (I'm from Bellevue! Well, I'm from Ben Avon!) was prized.

Now, thanks to another devastating flood, we can see that this system of government isn't merely inconvenient. It is essentially and devastatingly unfair. It has become, in fact, a kind of "taxation without representation" that would have had our forebears fomenting a revolution.

The car has been a common convenience for almost a century now. Kids no longer take trains and horse-drawn wagons to escape a steamy city summer for the far-flung farms and forests of Camp Horne Road.

Most of those kids, in fact, are all grown up and living with their children and grandchildren in new subdivisions on those once remote farms, and on former farms in new suburbs like Marshall, Pine and Richland.

But we've clung to a system of government -- a system of organizing ourselves supposedly for the common good -- that allows us to ignore the fate of our most vulnerable neighbors: the people who still live where the rain running off our booming suburban developments merges to fill the Three Rivers.

No, this fragmented system doesn't just allow us to ignore our neighbors' fate, it allows us to actively make things worse.

Can anyone look at the pictures of this month's repeated flooding in Millvale and not think we're doing something very wrong? The decades of debris clogging Girty's Run and the extra millions of gallons of water sweeping through nearby basements didn't come from Millvale. It came from upstream, where independent townships can build and pave and build some more, without a thought for what they're doing to the (usually less prosperous) people downstream. This has to change.

While touring the destruction in Millvale, County Executive Dan Onorato said he might push the state Legislature to give the county more oversight on local development to prevent this thoughtless harm. He must do this. Officials and residents of low-lying communities should hold his and their state representatives' feet to the fire.

In the meantime, these very same people should be at every planning committee or council meeting in the suburbs to their north, making sure that any new development there is held accountable for its impact downstream.

McKnight Road may be able to handle a couple more strip malls, but can the Pine Creek watershed? Millvale residents would say "no."

The state Municipal Planning Code provides for, even encourages, this kind of input from neighboring communities, but it's rarely seen. When it is, it doesn't have any teeth, and you don't have to look to flood zones to witness the impact -- or lack thereof.

When a landslide shut down the Wal-Mart site development in Kilbuck last fall, much of the heavy traffic from Route 65 had to be diverted onto Ohio Township's two-lane roadways. Not only did the township have to pay police officers to direct the awful rush-hour traffic jams, but within weeks a small stretch near the crest of Mount Nebo Road had crumbled.

Did Kilbuck pay for this? No, although the developer had to cover some of the cost.

Perhaps a comprehensive countywide approach to development would prevent one township's unilateral and sometimes ill-advised decisions from draining the till of the township up the road -- or down the watershed.

When any small group of people can make decisions that take thousands or millions of dollars from others who were given no vote in the matter, is this representative self-government we can be proud of? After their third recent "once in a century" flood, Millvale residents would say no. So might the weary commuters driving around the Route 65 landslide.

Consolidating government services and community planning into larger, more representative bodies that share the costs, the benefits and the responsibilities of development is, at this point in local history, a good and necessary thing.

It will not, of course, guarantee that Nature's wrath and man's incompetence won't combine for more loss or even tragedy. Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans provide the most recent lesson in the truth that if human beings are involved, humans will find a way to foul things up.

But reasonable consolidations at least offer the possibility that older, less advantaged communities will have a fighting chance at fairness. Right now, they're just getting dumped on.

BMikeSci

08-26-2007, 09:44 PM

Buses returning to Market Square :-(

Well, It;s just temporary ;-)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07237/812119-53.stm

BMikeSci

08-28-2007, 12:05 AM

More Restaurants in Downtown PGH

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/fooddrink/s_524366.html

BMikeSci

08-28-2007, 11:05 PM

Sidewalk Software

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07240/812579-53.stm

BMikeSci

08-28-2007, 11:06 PM

PGH production facility

http://www.popcitymedia.com/timnews/euphoria0829.aspx

BMikeSci

08-28-2007, 11:12 PM

Pittsburgh's Google Office creates Sky

http://www.popcitymedia.com/timnews/Google0824.aspx

BMikeSci

08-28-2007, 11:13 PM

Robot City

http://www.popcitymedia.com/timnews/robotcity0822.aspx

BMikeSci

08-28-2007, 11:15 PM

Schoolhouse Yoga expands to Downtown

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/pittsburghyoga0822.aspx

EventHorizon

08-29-2007, 04:30 AM

Preliminary sketches of the new penguin arena:

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k148/MRM80/1-1.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k148/MRM80/2-1.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k148/MRM80/3-1.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k148/MRM80/4-1.jpg

Here's a slide show of before and after shots: http://penguins.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=2238

PA Pride

08-29-2007, 04:34 AM

^those renderings look better than I would've expected. Huzzah.

Evergrey

08-29-2007, 05:26 AM

This photo shows the new American Eagle HQ at SouthSide Works at the far left.. to the right along the riverfront is where site prep is progressing on the development's 13-story hotel, Hofbrauhaus and condo components.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1334/1263036879_de9555e590_b.jpg

AaronPGH

08-29-2007, 06:03 AM

Maybe you guys are on this site....maybe you're not...but I am drunk as hell and did a search tonight for something and stumbled upon this message board:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/pittsburgh/

It seems to be VERY suburban minded and maybe it could use an influx of some more urban-minded people....I noticed a lot of posts from people moving to Pittsburgh from other cities and I also noticed a lot of bad advice. Hopefully maybe we can intercept a little bit. ;)

BTW - the new AE HQ looks GORGEOUS at night the way the top floor is lit up........wonderful!!

Evergrey

08-29-2007, 01:39 PM

it seems that the $5 million dollar cleaning and restoration of the Cathedral of Learning is complete... it has made a huge difference... the Cathedral is so much more beautiful now... it's like a whole new building... I can't stop gazing at it when I'm on campus...

Here's some before shots:
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/52543942.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/52543944.jpg

After:
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/84674425.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/84674427.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/84674430.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/84674439.jpg

Evergrey

08-29-2007, 03:04 PM

more on the arena

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07241/812912-85.stm

Penguins unveil arena design drawings

Hill ministers seek separate meeting on side investments

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
By Ann Belser and Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Penguins last night unveiled preliminary design drawings for the new arena to be built between Centre and Fifth avenues, Uptown, to replace Mellon Arena.

The drawings were shown at a public meeting attended by about 150 people, including Hill District residents and others interested in the design.

The new building, which is being designed by HOK Sport of Kansas City, Mo., will have its main entrance on Centre Avenue near Washington Place, with other entrances on the east side of the building off Centre Avenue and at Fifth Avenue and Washington Place.

Patrick Lempka, lead architect for the project, said the building will be 80 feet tall along Centre Avenue and about 130 feet high at Fifth Avenue.

People on Fifth Avenue won't necessarily see the arena looming above them because the facade along Fifth Avenue will be brick and cast stone storefronts that will be about 55 feet high, with the arena set back on a plaza from the top of that base.

The new building will have a corridor around the main level that will run from Centre Avenue to the plaza behind the Fifth Avenue facade. That circular corridor will be faced with glass while the top of the arena will have some sort of metal or painted metal skin, Mr. Lempka said.

Mr. Lempka said the architects are working with the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority to incorporate features that would make it a green building.

In a related development, nine Hill District ministers want to meet with public officials and the Penguins to discuss neighborhood reinvestment that will result from the new arena, including a proposal for $10 million in development funding, even as a separate group gets ready to negotiate its own agreement for residents.

The ministers sent an e-mail to Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the Penguins and the Sports & Exhibition Authority last week seeking to "reconvene conversations regarding the Hill District community in relation to the lower Hill District site and the new arena."

"As faith leaders, we are clear about what must happen in order to ensure that the Hill District has holistic representation that protects the residents of this community and their interests," the e-mail said. "At this time, we have resolved that our collective leadership is required in order to bring sobering clarity and progress to this complex matter."

They said the discussion would be a follow-up to meetings held in April. Then, they and some Hill business leaders presented a term sheet to Mr. Ravenstahl and Mr. Onorato that included requests for the $10 million in upfront development funding, plus an unspecified annual contribution for 30 years, to be directed to the "greater Hill District community's development interest"; at least 30 percent of arena jobs for "minorities of color"; and a percentage of revenues from the new arena and future redevelopment of the Mellon Arena site for Hill reinvestment.

Their e-mail arrived as a separate group, the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement Coalition, announced that it had formed a nine-member negotiating team to start discussions with city and county leaders and the Penguins on a community benefits agreement for the neighborhood.

The coalition team was scheduled to sit down with Mr. Onorato, Mr. Ravenstahl and the Penguins yesterday for an introductory meeting.

Carl Redwood, the One Hill chairman and spokesman, said the coalition represented more than 100 Hill District groups. He said more than 1,000 Hill residents participated in numerous meetings over five months to determine what benefits it wanted in negotiations with the city, county and Penguins.

Mr. Redwood said yesterday he did not know why the ministers, some of whom he described as members of the One Hill coalition, are seeking their own meeting with government leaders and the team.

"They don't represent the Hill and to claim otherwise is divisive," he said.

City Councilwoman Tonya Payne, who represents the Hill District, said the One Hill coalition was created so there "would be one voice that represented the entire Hill District." She said it was wrong for the ministers to be seeking their own meeting.

"The community has voted on who they wanted to negotiate a community benefits agreement. They selected negotiators. I think it's terribly unfair that [the ministers] would be that presumptuous that they would come out and say they would be better negotiators than the ones chosen by the community," she said.

In an interview Friday, the Rev. Glenn Grayson, senior pastor of Wesley Center African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and one of the nine ministers seeking a meeting, said the group was "just continuing our dialogue" with local politicians and the Penguins.

He noted a community benefits agreement was just one of the nine requests ministers and other Hill representatives made of the Penguins and the city and county during the initial meetings in April.

"We set up another date to meet with public officials to get an update on our request for the total community," he said.

Mr. Redwood has said that among the benefits the One Hill coalition is seeking as a result of the community meetings are the first shot at jobs created by the arena and support for community programming, including help in landing a grocery store which residents have coveted for years.

The list does not, however, include the $10 million in development funding. Mr. Redwood has said that was not one of the benefits "the community came up with" during meetings.

Evergrey

08-29-2007, 03:43 PM

big news for Downtown Greensburg... over 600 jobs!?!?

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/pittsburghcollege0829.aspx

Seton Hill University's $21M arts center part of downtown Greensburg revitalization

Construction of Seton Hill University’s $21 million performing arts center is underway. Located at the corner of Harrison Ave. and W. Otterman St. in downtown Greensburg, the new 73,000 square-foot center will provide much-needed facilities for SHU’s theater and music programs, which have outgrown their current space on campus.

Designed by MacLachlan Cornelius & Filoni Architects, the center will bring two of SHU’s thriving arts programs to the heart of Greensburg. An anchor within Greensburg’s cultural district, the center is part of major revitalization efforts that in 18 months have attracted $78 million in investments.

“It’s become a catalyst. The Governor is calling it a model for the state in terms of economic impact on the community and city. We’re coming off the hill and into town,” says Christine Mueseler, with SHU. “Our music and dance programs have grown substantially since we’ve announced the project.”

The three-level center will house a 225-capacity flexible theater, 450-seat music hall, set, costume design and rehearsal rooms, faculty offices, and classrooms where lessons for students ages 4-94 will be offered.

SHU will run a shuttle from campus to the new center and additional Greensburg destinations, like the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, historic Palace Theater, Greensburg Train Station, and cafes, restaurants and bookstores. Designed to complement Greensburg’s architecture, the awning-clad brick and stone facility will enhance surrounding storefront renovation and beautification projects. Contractor is Massaro Corporation.

The project has raised $19 million from city, county and state sources. Slated for completion during the spring of 2009, the project is expected to create 635 new jobs and generate $1 million in annual visitor spending.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Christine Mueseler, SHU

Image courtesy of MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni Architects

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2075/SHU_center_300.jpg

Evergrey

08-29-2007, 03:59 PM

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/08/27/focus1.html?b=1188187200^1510054

Suburban styles reshape the city

How concerns about cars are driving Pittsburgh's redevelopment

Pittsburgh Business Times - August 24, 2007
by Tim Schooley

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_image/95136-300-0.jpg
Parking areas are playing an enormous role in redeveloping the city of Pittsburgh. Here, a garage at SouthSide Works was crucial to the development of residential, retail and office buildings that are there today.

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_image/95144-300-0.jpg
Downtown resident Lynne Figgins does her grocery shopping by walking to the Strip District, with her cart in tow.

Lynne Figgins has grown used to promoting what can seem like an ancient but basic concept: putting one foot in front of the other.

As she was leading a group on a recent Downtown walk-and-dine tour, Figgins asked a question that stumped the group of generally suburban residents.

"I asked people how many of them walk to go grocery shopping. Only one person put up their hand," said Figgins, a Gateway Towers resident who takes a weekly 20-minute hike to the Strip District to do her food shopping.

"People are just so foreign to the concept of not having cars. But that's how Pittsburgh differs from other cities in America and all over the world," she said. "There's many cities where people just don't have cars, and there's no use in having one."

It's an anecdote that reveals how far the Pittsburgh area has gone from being a city full of residents accustomed to the habits of urban living to what is now a predominantly suburban region with sensibilities more attuned to parking lots and drive-throughs.

After more than 50 years of suburbanization, Pittsburgh's suburbs have exerted a major influence on the city left behind. Now, Michael Beyard, senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, sees another major metropolitan change coming across the United States.

"We're kind of in a generational shift in our metropolitan areas," Beyard said.

Throughout the country, he sees a growing emphasis on creating more higher-density, mixed-use development in the suburbs and also in redeveloping cities.

Only now, city redevelopment comes with the new demands of a country acculturated to life in the suburbs.

"I think cities are learning the lessons about what's been successful in the suburbs, and the suburbs are trying to urbanize without the problems that we used to associate with cities," Beyard said.

Suburban standards are influencing cities in many ways, Beyard said.

More than 20 years ago, cities responded to the dominance of suburban shopping malls by undergoing major redevelopment projects that razed established buildings and replaced them with indoor malls.

As evidenced by the North Side's Allegheny Center, a failed project that replaced a former public market with a mall, Beyard said shopping centers have usually generated only disappointing results.

Instead of recreating suburban-style developments, Beyard said, cities are getting smarter about using suburban management techniques while maintaining the city environment.

"What cities are learning from the suburbs is that in the suburbs you have a quality of life associated with recreation, leisure, outdoor kinds of environments, and where everyone has a private yard," Beyard said. "I think cities are beginning to recognize the importance of bringing that kind of outdoor orientation back to neighborhoods."

Pittsburgh has seen such trends in the development of new riverfront trails and parks. By next year, the Allegheny Trail Alliance expects to have trails completed from the Point to Washington, D.C., including a new stretch in the city that runs along the Mon Wharf and a new bicycle bridge near the SouthSide Works.

Meanwhile, Point State Park is undergoing a multimillion-dollar makeover.

Beyard sees city neighborhoods learning from the experience of suburban shopping centers by establishing business improvement districts, in which local businesses essentially choose to tax themselves to support an organization to clean and promote the business district.

He said BIDs serve the same kind of function as a mall management fee and are growing in use throughout the country. Their growth is an important trend in urban development, he said.

After the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and the Oakland BID, Pittsburgh may soon see its third BID in East Liberty, where the chamber of commerce has established early support for one.

Because major new highways are rare, America's suburbs have extended about as far as they can go, Beyard said. That, in turn, positions cities for renewed growth.

"There are lot of things that cities can do in order to compete with their suburbs because they have so many advantages," said Beyard, noting the appeal of shorter commutes, walkable neighborhoods and often historic architecture.

Court Gould, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, a local nonprofit organization focused on regional development issues, thinks Pittsburgh should focus on basic needs: day care, health care, playgrounds and grocery stores.

"Redevelopment strategies need to include with them the amenities that relate to our quality of life," Gould said.

In terms of the big picture for Pittsburgh and the region's other central towns, Gould said he believes the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a 10-county regional planning organization that establishes its long-term spending priorities, has undergone a landmark shift in planning policy.

A June report, called the 2035 Transportation and Development Plan for Southwestern Pennsylvania, concludes that the region's out-migrating growth and development patterns are not tenable for a prosperous region.

The report has implications for how billions in tax funding are spent on transportation and infrastructure in the coming decades, Gould added.

"This is a remarkable moment in our region's long-range planning and perspective on where we've been and where we need to go," Gould said.

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3826

cdc

08-29-2007, 06:01 PM

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/08/27/focus1.html?b=1188187200^1510054

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_image/95144-300-0.jpg
Downtown resident Lynne Figgins does her grocery shopping by walking to the Strip District, with her cart in tow.

Lynne Figgins has grown used to promoting what can seem like an ancient but basic concept: putting one foot in front of the other.

As she was leading a group on a recent Downtown walk-and-dine tour, Figgins asked a question that stumped the group of generally suburban residents.

"I asked people how many of them walk to go grocery shopping. Only one person put up their hand," said Figgins, a Gateway Towers resident who takes a weekly 20-minute hike to the Strip District to do her food shopping.

"People are just so foreign to the concept of not having cars. But that's how Pittsburgh differs from other cities in America and all over the world," she said. "There's many cities where people just don't have cars, and there's no use in having one."

Promoting walking to the grocery to suburban residents... hmm. What's to be stumped about? I'm afraid it is not very practical for many of us (even those of us such as myself who live in city neighborhoods like Sq Hill).

I wonder how many small children Lynne has and if they accompany her on her weekly 20 minute trip to the store? How many "super mega" boxes of diapers do you think she can get in that little small cart she uses?

BMikeSci

08-29-2007, 09:38 PM

Don't forget about Flexcar. To rent one is $6 an hour, no need to fill the gas tank on return, no parking fee, and no added insurance!

What a deal!!

Johnland

08-29-2007, 09:47 PM

Southside Works night photo: I'm curious - what was the vantage point for that? I've never really seen that view before. I love the way Pittsburgh's cityscape is just exploding with different angles, directions, elevations, rivershore curves - extremely complex and interesting. Full of energy. Compared to Tampa's completely flat layout, it's just so exciting looking. I reallylove the lights of the incline going up Mt washington.

Cathedral of Learning - Ooohh MMMyyy GGoood. How fantastic. There's gothic details that I never noticed when it was soot covered. That building is so much more than I ever realized. You can actually mae out individual blocks of the fascade. I went to Pitt and lived in N. Oakland for several years after. The Cathedral was always there, but not really appreciated i think. Cleaned, it just dazzles.

Evergrey

08-29-2007, 10:04 PM

Southside Works night photo: I'm curious - what was the vantage point for that? I've never really seen that view before. I love the way Pittsburgh's cityscape is just exploding with different angles, directions, elevations, rivershore curves - extremely complex and interesting. Full of energy. Compared to Tampa's completely flat layout, it's just so exciting looking. I reallylove the lights of the incline going up Mt washington.

I took the photo from an overlook in Greenfield... right at the edge of the cliff overlooking the Mon... basically where Hazelwood gives way to the Technology Park

Rufus

08-29-2007, 10:33 PM

I think I liked the cathedral better when it was dirty, in a weird way. But it does look great now.

UrbaniDesDev

08-30-2007, 04:00 AM

I hope they are planning better lighting for the Cathedral. The tower was once flooded with a warm light that lit the entire building. It really showed the detail of the building. Then in the 80's they changed it to lighting that was very spotty, a harsh light with a lot of glare. We shall see.

Im not sure about that arena, especially the Fifth Avenue facade
hmmmmm

chiaroscuro

08-30-2007, 01:30 PM

What is everyone's opinion on the state of public art in Pittsburgh? I'm talking about sculpture, statues, murals, etc. Quantity and quality. Any pictures you have would be appreciated.

chucka

08-30-2007, 04:47 PM

Here is a link to public art guides in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Public Art (http://www.pittsburghartscouncil.org/public_art_walkingtour.htm)

The latest art installation is the R.M. Fisher piece on the North Shore. It represents the Railroad history in Pittsburgh.
http://lh6.google.com/chuck.alcorn/Rtblv0o0PJI/AAAAAAAACgw/I8HxJXUbZPc/IMG_1855.jpg?imgmax=512

Evergrey

08-30-2007, 09:03 PM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_524824.html

South Oakland's tech strip to expand

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Pittsburgh's "technology corridor" is about to enter a major phase of development in South Oakland.
It's happening on a stretch of land sandwiched between Second Avenue and the Monongahela River where the Pittsburgh Technology Center already houses a collection of seven university and corporate buildings.

The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, working with development partners including John Ferchill of Cleveland and the Regional Industrial Development Corp., has mapped plans for up to 11 buildings that would house just under 1 million square feet of research facilities, laboratories and offices, parking structures and a hotel.

"Building more buildings is a good idea. This is a great place to be," said Larry Manzetti, CEO of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. The state-supported greenhouse works to build the region's biotechnology and bioscience industries.

It occupies about 21,000 square feet of fourth-floor space at the Bridgeside Point I building at the technology center, a campus-like business park developed on a 48-acre former Jones & Laughlin steel mill site in the early 1980s by the URA.
Its space includes a 13,000-square-foot incubator for fledgling life sciences companies that local leaders hope will join with developing technology companies to form the backbone of Pittsburgh's "new" regional economy.

With Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh in the city's cramped Oakland neighborhood attracting more than $1 billion a year in research dollars and spawning increasing numbers of spin-off companies, officials say more than 1 million square feet of space will be needed to house such firms over 10 years.

Over a four-year period, 24 companies have moved into and out of the incubator, including some that ultimately could have a need for the wet lab, for testing chemicals and other materials, and research space that Ferchill plans at his $46.5 million 150,000-square-foot Bridgeside Point II building at the technology center, Manzetti said.

He's been contacted by a number of out-of-town companies -- one from California -- looking for space close to the university and hospital facilities in Oakland.

It's that need that the URA hopes to fill at the Pittsburgh Technology Center, where the agency and the city will spend $19 million to support Ferchill's newest building with road improvements and construction of a 750-space parking garage.

Construction should start in September and be completed in about 14 to 15 months, said Don Kortlandt, acting executive director of the URA.

"I wouldn't be able to fill the building, but I could do a pretty good job in filling at least one full (22,000-square-foot) floor," said Manzetti. "There also are companies outside the city who want to move back, and it would just make it easier for us to attract technology firms."

"Expansion (of the technology center) would be ideal," said Larry Bootman, of CrystalPlex, a small biotech company based at the University of Pittsburgh Office and Research Park in Harmarville.

The firm looked for new laboratory space closer to the universities in Oakland, but failed because of a lack of convenient, affordable space.

Manzetti and Bootman welcomed the idea that the authority recently put out a request for bids to develop a hotel at the main entrance to the park at Bates Street and Second Avenue.

"It would be a little easier and convenient," not only for people visiting technology center companies, but for prospects looking over the site for expansion or relocation opportunities, Manzetti said.

URA received feedback from tenants and prospective tenants at the technology center expressing interest in adding a hotel and other amenities, such as restaurants, said Kortlandt.

"The whole concept of the Pittsburgh Technology Center expansion really makes sense," said Robert Stephenson, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corp. "You've got to have some place to expand opportunities out of Oakland."

The RIDC is planning its own building at the business park -- a wing that would double the size of 2000 Technology Drive, a 70,000-square-foot building it owns at the western end of the site.

Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2007-08-29/0830bptc-a.jpg

map:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2007_pdfs/GX-PTC-bn-08-30.pdf

Johnland

08-31-2007, 12:16 AM

The arena does look dreadfully boxy. A big glass box. Not really complimentary to the lower Hill. Lord only knows how they'll handle the parking.

As for the 750 car parking garage in the South Oakland Technology park, I hope they put it along the Parkway and not on the rivershore. Putting it on the shore would ruin good waterfront land.

BMikeSci

08-31-2007, 02:53 AM

Parking is on the lower floors off fifth ave. The renderings do feel a bit like a plain box, and the entry is nothing special. I'm not really sure why there is this boxy feeling since there are a lot of curves. For some reason it still feels box like.

In any case, surely, the main entrance could be improved a lot. In general, I like lots of glass, but there is an opportunity to show a little architectural flair - like the convention center. Maybe the scale here is wrong for the shapes? The inside rendering looks by far the most interesting - quite good actually.

Also the signs jump out as too generic. Pittsburgh Arena is a dull name, and the font is very boring. I know that the penguins fans will go no matter what the building is like, but why not try to make it a little special anyway.

The sidewalks look too narrow also. It would be great to have some sidewalk cafe's on Fifth like the ones at PNC Park. By moving the building back 10 feet, those kinds of cafes become possible. They would be a big boost to the neighborhood, and you would only lose a few parking spaces on the first floor. The second floor parking could overhang and give cover to the cafes.

The integration with the church is good. All the glass seems to frame the church and not compete. I can't tell whether the brick on the arena will match the color on the church. I'm not sure that it should, but the area is eclectic already. The little grassy knoll is a nice touch too. This project should have some nice public space, given the public funding. I hope there will be some public space on the plaza.

EventHorizon

08-31-2007, 04:06 AM

Penguin officials said that the arena is still in the planning stages .... things will look different from what we see the those preliminary renderings.
I also don't think you have to worry about the name (or font) of the area ... I think they just put a generic name on the sketches, because naming rights haven't been established ... who knows if Mellon will keep those rights??

Here's what the Penguins President had to say: http://kdka.com/sports/local_story_241081638.html (video to the right of the article)

timmydogg91

08-31-2007, 07:12 AM

I have heard rumors that UPMC would buy the naming rights and name it the UPMC Arena like Heniz field

themaguffin

08-31-2007, 02:13 PM

11 buildings that would house just under 1 million square feet of research facilities

That's a lot of small buildings. Seems like the limited area would benefit from 1 million square feet in a third of the number of buildings or less. I realize this isn't regular office space, so the buildings aren't going to be big, but these buildings will be probably four stories each.

Evergrey

08-31-2007, 05:04 PM

That's a good point, themaguffin... I wonder if that 11 buildings includes the hotel and parking garage... but those would still be some small buildings... I think the new Bridgeside II is supposed to be around 150k sq. ft. (it's mentioned somewhere in this thread)... it would be cool if they could develop that area into a mid-rise district... 10-story buildings or so... it's in a location that would probably would receive minimal NIMBY resistance due to its relative isolation from neighborhoods and transportation infrastructure

...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_525060.html

Union Trust building not left standing long at altar

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, August 31, 2007

It didn't take long for another buyer to emerge for Downtown's landmark Union Trust Building.
About a week after a New York-based investment group pulled out of a deal to buy the building at 501 Grant St., a major California-based investor on Thursday stepped up to put the building under agreement for purchase.

"I can tell you that the property is under agreement, but I can't identify the buyer," said Jeffrey Ackerman, executive vice president of the CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh commercial real estate firm.

The building has a market value of $30.75 million, including land, county records show.

Ackerman declined to specify a sale price. He has been marketing the block-long, 11-story building on behalf of Cigna Corp., its Philadelphia-based owner.
The previous potential buyer, a New York investment group that included Houlihan-Parnes/iCap Realty Advisors, of White Plains, and J.J. Operating Corp., of New York City, pulled out when they could not secure financing.

"I don't think that will be a problem this time," Ackerman said. "This is a substantial buyer with major holdings nationally.

"The owner told me they plan to return the building to its original grandeur and spend a substantial amount of money to keep it as a prime office building on Grant Street. They also have plans to upgrade the retail and conference space."

The company is a privately held firm with expertise in rehabilitating older properties, he said.

The agreement to buy the building should close within 60 days.

Even before then, CB Richard Ellis will begin a marketing effort to secure leases with new tenants, he said.

The historic building was designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick, but it has been nearly empty since it was vacated by Mellon Financial Corp. last year.

Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.

themaguffin

08-31-2007, 05:31 PM

they could develop that area into a mid-rise district... 10-story buildings or so... it's in a location that would probably would receive minimal NIMBY resistance due to its relative isolation from neighborhoods and transportation infrastructure

That's what I was thinking. The Bridgepoint one looks nice enough, but a little more size could make for a really nice midrise area, which again would maximize the space better.

Evergrey

08-31-2007, 06:56 PM

another reason the Mon-Fayette boondoggle should die a quick death... a $400 million mixed-use development in Hazelwood? That's basically another SouthSide Works! Could you imagine both sides of the Mon River being lined with high-quality new development? If it wasn't for the sword of Mon-Fayette hanging over Hazelwood... this might be reality already. The fact that RIDC is finally going ahead with this anyways makes me think that the Mon-Fayette will never get a chance to devastate the cityscape.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_525058.html

Master developer sought for Hazelwood site

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, August 31, 2007

Efforts to bring a $400 million development with housing, commercial space, community amenities and greenspace to a 178-acre former LTV Corp. coke works property in Hazelwood will move forward under new direction, officials said.
A master developer is being sought to spearhead development of the prime riverfront site since Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. is no longer actively involved.

"By mutual agreement with Forest City, we've decided to move in another direction," Robert Stephenson, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corp., said this week.

The RIDC is the general partner in Almono L.P., a nonprofit partnership of four local foundations that purchased the site in September 2002. Buildout of the project is expected to take years and create 2,400 jobs.

Forest City, owner of Liberty Center, Downtown, and Station Square, in the South Side, had worked with the group to move the project forward. But it also became heavily involved in an effort to win state approval to build a slots casino at Station Square, losing out earlier this year to Majestic Star Casino's proposal to build a casino on the North Shore.
Stephenson said Forest City never signed a development agreement with the ownership group, which includes the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, Richard King Mellon Foundation and the McCune Foundation.

Forest City officials could not be reached for comment.

"Forest City could still become involved at some point ... but now our focus is to find a new master developer," Stephenson said. "We're talking to a half a dozen different folks. Our objective will be to get a new developer by the fall and be able to start the planning approval process with the city in the early part of 2008."

The foundation owners and RIDC have decided that they no longer can wait to find out whether plans for the Mon-Fayette Expressway to go through the Hazelwood area will ever come to fruition.

Uncertainties about the roadway made it difficult to plan because one proposed path for the road could cut through a portion of the property.

"We're moving beyond that," Stephenson said. "We're taking the attitude that we are going to go ahead with planning."

Representatives of the Hazelwood community will continue to be involved in the process, he said.

"I think this is a good move on the part of Almono and the RIDC," said Jim Richter, executive director of the Hazelwood Initiative, a nonprofit neighborhood group. "I'm still excited about the project."

As described when it was announced in 2002, the project envisioned a mix of housing, offices, light industrial and university facilities, complemented by a blend of public park land, walking trails and other recreation and neighborhood amenities.

Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.

hyperion1110

08-31-2007, 09:41 PM

The buildings at the Technology Center need to be small, for a few reasons. In the first place, development will not take place immediately. It will likely be done on an as needed basis. This, in turn, has implications for the buildings' sizes. Given that the primary tenants will be involved in biomedical science research (presumably), these facilities require very specific conditions to make them acceptable laboratory space. For example, NMR requires absolute motionlessness in order for the measurements to be reliable, as does atomic scale microscopy. This is why these facilities are located underground in Biomedical Science Tower 3 (where I work), and the environmental systems are actually in the uppermost floors. Now, were they to make a building as large as BST3, much of it would be unusable as laboratory space until the entire building is complete (due to the vibrations, compromised air quality, etc.), which is likely to be 2+ years for a 10 story building. Moreover, such buildings would be prohibitively expensive. To use the example of BST3 again, it cost over $205 million, just in initial construction and equipment costs; 4 years after construction began, and two years after many of the offices opened, the building is only now nearing completion.

So, while I agree with you guys in that I would like to see some taller buildings, and more density, it's just not practical in this case.

BMikeSci

08-31-2007, 11:47 PM

BMikeSci

08-31-2007, 11:52 PM

Union Trust building not left standing long at altar

IMO one of the country's best buildings.

Evergrey

09-01-2007, 06:18 AM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_525220.html

Developer envisions plush 'green' units

By Sam Spatter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, September 1, 2007

Former Carnegie Mellon University student Brian Mendelssohn wants to build a three-story, 24-unit luxury-apartment building in Shadyside that would meet green building standards.
Through their company, Botero Development, Mendelssohn and his brother, Irwin, have obtained an option on a three-story vacant commercial building at 5135 Fifth Ave., where the new apartments would be built.

Although Mendelssohn has a conceptual design of the building, he has not obtained an estimate on the cost. A price tag would come once a final design has been completed, he said.

"We hope to demolish the building and begin construction in February or March of 2008, with an opening in the spring of 2009," he said.

Before acquiring the property -- he has an option on it with owner David R. Hamburg -- Mendelssohn must obtain a density variance from the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment. The existing zoning permits construction of the apartment, he said.
Mendelssohn recently described his building to members of the Shadyside Action Coalition. He plans additional meetings during October to obtain input from neighbors and other neighborhood groups near the site.

"We were pleased by the professionalism (of Mendelssohn) and the great presentation," said Peggy Ott, coalition president.

Ott said eliminating the unsightly building at 5135 Fifth Ave. would be welcomed. She added that construction of a luxury apartment there would help keep young professionals in Shadyside.

Concerns were voiced over the density of the apartment and about traffic it could cause along Fifth Avenue.

"Some of the amenities Mendelssohn described for the building included a pedestrian friendly lounge on the first floor, a movie-screen room and a fitness center," she said.

Mendelssohn is working with mossArchitects of East Liberty on the design. Plans call for parking beneath the building. Rental rates would range from about $1,200 to $2,000.

Sam Spatter can be reached at sspatter@tribweb.com or 412-320-7843.

Concerns about density, eh? Cuz it's not like ther's any other apartment buildings along Fifth Ave. in Shadyside, right?

Johnland

09-01-2007, 05:33 PM

Perhaps the density concerns were that the density of the proposed apartments was not high enough. This building is going on the 5th Ave, right? The one that's a major car and bus route? If the concerns were that the density was too high, I'd say they're about 115 years too late. Shadyside morphed from country village to urban neighborhood around the 1880's I think.

Rufus

09-01-2007, 11:36 PM

Certainly the concern is that it is too dense. Ridiculous.

UrbaniDesDev

09-03-2007, 01:05 AM

An interesting article in POP City
I feel sums up The Pittsburgh attitude problem pretty well

http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/oliphant0829.aspx

Changemakers: Grant Oliphant
By: Abby Mendelson

August 22, 2007
For Grant Oliphant, the epiphany came one evening at the Convention Center. Gazing out of the world’s largest green building at the Allegheny River, watching the setting sun sparkling on the water and painting the buildings a burnished gold, Oliphant, the Heinz Endowments’ vice president for programs and planning, realized it was one of the most beautiful scenes he’d ever seen anywhere in the world. “What an amazing place!” he marveled.

It wasn’t always that way. When Oliphant first arrived in 1991, he really didn’t care for Pittsburgh at all. Born in Australia, raised in Denver, son of the noted political cartoonist Pat Oliphant, he served as the late Senator John Heinz’s press secretary. When the Senator died in a plane crash, Oliphant decided to escape the nation’s capital for more family-friendly climes. But after cosmopolitan Washington, Pittsburgh came as a shock to him.

“I really disliked the place,” Oliphant recalls. “Oh, I did like the topography, and the character of the city. But I detested the fact that Pittsburgh was 20 years behind the times on gender, 30 years behind the times on race, and well behind the times on the environment.”

That was then, and this is now. While it took time – all great love affairs take time to distill – Oliphant was won over. “Pittsburgh’s relationship to nature is stunning,” he says, “and our emerging rediscovery of the rivers is a fabulous asset. There is something distinct about Pittsburgh – our neighborhoods, our ethnic heritage. From a quality-of-life perspective, that’s priceless. That’s part of what we celebrate. Here, you can visit a dozen different cities in a day – Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Oakland, and so on. That is cause for celebration.”

In fact, Oliphant adds, “moving to Pittsburgh was the best choice I could have made. Living in the fabric of a community, it’s a great place to raise my children. I know people of family-raising age who would die to come back here.”

Lovely. We’re all agreed. So what’s the problem?

“There’s an incredible negativity here,” Oliphant shakes his head. “A classic case of civic low self-esteem. In Pittsburgh, it seems, the starting point is always ‘we don’t have what others do.’ We ought to be celebrating. Instead, we trivialize our experiences, as if they don’t measure up to other places.”

Focusing on Strength
You know the drill. Why don’t we have this like Austin or that like Boston – and on down through the alphabet? If we would, then we’d be a contender. Then we’d be somebody.

This is all wrong, Oliphant says. “People don’t realize what we have here. It’s almost like we’re missing the story of the time we’re living in.”

So how do we appreciate the things we have?

"First," he says, “when a person or organization changes the dialogue, they change the world. That’s something my boss Teresa Heinz has taught me, that what we talk about and the way we talk about it has meaning. We need to talk about us. Our place. Our assets. Not just the comparisons. Not just the difficulties.”

One way to do that, Oliphant adds, is to focus on strength. “If you just focus on solving problems,” he says, “you’ll always have problems, and you’ll always be solving them. If instead, you begin by saying, ‘here’s what I like about such-and-such – and now let’s build on it,’ you’ve begun with a positive – and added only positives to it. If you describe your community in terms of assets, you create more assets.”

Can it be that simple? It may be. Change the focus, you change the world.

From No Place to Our Place
Speaking of the world changing, in the 1950s and ‘60s the migration was away from cities. “Cities,” Oliphant says, “were viewed as not great places to be. In Pittsburgh, too, the mentality was that there were greener pastures to be colonized farther and farther out.”

Think Southpointe, or Cranberry, which simply did not exist 40 years ago.

“Then cities began to mimic what other cities had done,” he adds, citing the clones of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or Denver’s Pedestrian Mall – both incredibly successful, both widely copied. “We saw a transformation from cities as no place to cities as any place.

“In Pittsburgh,” he says, “we need to take the dialogue from no place to any place to our place. To the unique, distinctive things that make Pittsburgh special – then build on those. You get to where you want by knowing who you are and what makes you strong, then building a city on its unique strengths and assets.

“This is not phony positivism,” Oliphant is quick to add, “but instead focusing on real competitive assets.”

For example:

Green building design. “The rest of the world is waking up to the importance of sustainable systems – but we’re already on the cutting edge. Let’s make Pittsburgh the most exemplary green city in the world.”

Pitt/CMU. “There’s intellectual and entrepreneurial gold in our universities -- more than we’ve even begun to tap. Healthcare, robotics, nano-technology, green chemistry – these are tremendous assets that we need to make the basis for the region’s future economy.”

“There’s tremendous enthusiasm in this town,” Oliphant says, “a sense of possibility. ‘Gee,’ it says, ‘this is a great place. Let’s be this great place.’”

It’s hot jazz in Katz Plaza, Cultural District, Downtown. With guitarist Ken Karsh kickin’ up a storm -- Billy Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge” to Lester Young’s “Lester Leaps In” – the joint is really jumpin’. By any yardstick, it’s a midsummer night’s dream – and that’s the point, Oliphant says.

“We begin by designing places in which people want to live and work and spend time. Places like this,” he gestures, “are spreading through Downtown. They are not products of immutable tectonic market forces. Instead, they are designed to become spaces where a rich urban life becomes possible. This demonstrates the tremendous upside of cities and urban centers. This is how we build a city.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abby Mendelson’s numerous books include Ghost Dancer, a collection of short stories available at bn.com.

BMikeSci

09-03-2007, 04:41 PM

More on the arena

... Patrick Lempka, lead architect for the project, said the building will be 80 feet tall along Centre Avenue and about 130 feet high at Fifth Avenue.

People on Fifth Avenue won't necessarily see the arena looming above them because the facade along Fifth Avenue will be brick and cast stone storefronts that will be about 55 feet high, with the arena set back on a plaza from the top of that base.

The new building will have a corridor around the main level that will run from Centre Avenue to the plaza behind the Fifth Avenue facade. That circular corridor will be faced with glass while the top of the arena will have some sort of metal or painted metal skin, Mr. Lempka said....

This is from:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07241/812912-53.stm

BMikeSci

09-03-2007, 04:52 PM

Sorry to get so far off the topic, but I couldn't resist. A friend of mine sent this:

Perhaps the soon to be former Senator Craig of Idaho should take some lessons from Sir Norman Fry, MP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cQ3Y4OIhgU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF6eRIAA6mE

and finally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ZO6w0rl6Y

As Russell Baker once observed, a politician claiming the high road is like watching a hog take a bath.

EventHorizon

09-03-2007, 05:56 PM

^lol I love little britain! I've got every season on dvd. I highly recommend any American who hasn't seen it, to see it!
I can't wait till the new 'American' version from Matt Lucas and David Walliams comes to HBO. It will have some of the original characters along with new American characters. :tup:

EventHorizon

09-03-2007, 05:57 PM

(double post) Is it just me, or are the forums running slow for anyone else today? Keeps timing out.

hyperion1110

09-03-2007, 07:46 PM

Those folks at Kratsa are busy-bodies. Good for them for looking to invest in their hometown.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07246/814281-85.stm

Harmar company may build a hotel in South Oakland
Monday, September 03, 2007
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A local developer which already has built hotels on the North Shore and the South Side and has more planned is looking to extend its reach to the Pittsburgh Technology Center in South Oakland.

Kratsa Properties, based in Harmar, was one of two companies to express an interest to the city Urban Redevelopment Authority in building a hotel on 1.6 acres at the technology center.

URA officials had issued a request for proposals last month to gauge interest in the potential project, which would be built at Second Avenue and Bates Street at the main entrance to the center. The deadline for responding was Thursday.

The other company to submit a proposal was Acquest Development Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., which developed Erie's Bayfront Convention Center and an accompanying 203-room Sheraton hotel.

Kratsa is building a 115-room Marriott SpringHill Suites Hotel on URA-owned land on the South Side near the UPMC Sports Performance Complex. It already has built a 125-room Holiday Inn Express and Suites hotel at the foot of the 10th Street Bridge on the South Side.

The proposed Pittsburgh Technology Center hotel would be only a stone's throw from the Hot Metal Bridge, which takes traffic across the Monongahela River to the SouthSide Works complex, where Kratsa's SpringHill Suites project would be located.

Kratsa also built a 198-room SpringHill Suites hotel next to PNC Park on the North Shore. It is working on a 180-room Residence Inn by Marriott at another location on the North Shore, also near the ballpark. It also has developed a number of other hotels in the region.

URA acting Executive Director Don Kortlandt said he is happy with the two proposals. Although some companies inquired about a possible extension in the deadline for filing proposals, Mr. Kortlandt said the URA plans to stick with the two it has received, saying they deserve "first consideration."

He said the agency plans to have further discussions with the two companies, seeking to refine the proposals before it makes a recommendation to the URA board.

If the URA does not find either proposal acceptable, it could ask others to submit, although Mr. Kortlandt said he doubts that will happen.

The hotel is part of a major expansion of the technology center that could include the construction of three garages and as many as five office buildings on about 30 acres of land. The expansion includes the $46 million Bridgeside Point II project, a 150,000-square-foot lab and office building being planned by The Ferchill Group of Cleveland.

First published on September 3, 2007 at 12:00 am
Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.

Evergrey

09-03-2007, 08:02 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07246/814282-53.stm

Polish Hill: A neighborhood being rediscovered

Monday, September 03, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200709/20070903bw_polish2_500.jpg
Bill Wade/Post-Gazette
Ken Brush walks down Flavian Street, Polish Hill, past the naturally returning sunflowers next to his workshop and garden.
Most people know Polish Hill as a short cut with a dramatic church dome. It's almost never in the news because crime is low, almost half the population is over 65 and, other than in two bars, there's no place left to spend your money. It's not even as Polish as it once was.

But Polish Hill's role as conduit between Liberty Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard may be gaining some luster. With the city riding a wave of investment, the tide may be coming back in for the little neighbor of the Strip, North Oakland, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and the Upper Hill.

Contractors are tossing debris into Dumpsters from two buildings on Brereton Street. They're gutting them for redevelopment by returnees to the neighborhood, Tai + Lee Architects and the Jubilee Pantry. Two residents, -- a 20-something newcomer and a 45-year-old native -- are separately scouting for locations for coffee shops and a restaurant. Residents say they're seeing a lot of new, young faces.

Into this mix came Terry Doloughty as the energetic new leader of the Polish Hill Civic Association. The longtime guardian of the community garden on Wiggins Street, he became the first non-Polish president in June, succeeding 12-year veteran Sharon Wolkiewicz.

"We've always been the quiet little neighborhood that never bothered anyone," said Mr. Doloughty, 41, an employee at Equiparts, a household maintenance parts company in Sharpsburg. "But now we want to make ourselves heard."

He has pumped up communication by adding pages to the newsletter, the Polish Hill Voice, and e-mailing alerts about everything from housing opportunities to reports of vandalism. He is consulting with professional advocates of other neighborhoods and has hatched several fund-raising ideas. One is to sell mimosa seedlings he is growing in coffee cans, harvested from a neighborhood tree.

The steep-angled neighborhood consists of two-story worker houses and apartment buildings that used to be rooming houses for mill workers. Many are sided, some are in shambles. Like in many areas of the city, Polish Hill could use a good scrubbing, and its sidewalks are worn down and weedy, but it offers lots of delights, both rustic and urban.

On Flavian Street, Ken Brush, a retired carpenter, can be found in his workshop with a sweeping view of the Strip and North Side. Thousands of sunflowers grow in the adjacent field. "They come up every year," he said. "I didn't plant them."

A country-looking cat wanders out from the foliage and stops to lick its paw.

"It's quiet here," said the Polish Hill native. "It's like living out in the country."

Just three blocks away, buildings line Brereton in rows, with the European touch of arched passageways leading to back yards. Nearly every intersection offers a breathtaking view of the dome of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. On some streets, building after building sits in stair-step fashion, some with upstairs porches and flights of outdoor stairs.

"We still have a lot of the old ways," said Mr. Doloughty. "But we're seeing new people, and we need to be our own scout to get more of them to buy homes and start businesses."

The return of two longtime denizens is a boost, he said.

Sister Liguori Rossner, executive director of the Jubilee Pantry, has bought the building her organization rented for 15 years, a three-story with double storefronts. The pantry had been distributing on the sidewalk after losing its lease. The pantry would use one storefront.

"There's a woman who wants to put a coffee shop and deli" in the other half, she said. "We're now in a capital campaign to raise money for renovations."

When architects Stephen Lee and Yoko Tai re-roof and rebuild the former VFW lodge across the street, "sometime next year," said Mr. Lee, they will be moving their firm back after five years in the Strip. They had left for more space, which they will now have, just a few doors down from where they live.

Mr. Lee's firm has built several homes in the neighborhood and is building three now on Herron Avenue. He said he is working with deans at Carnegie Mellon University, where he teaches, and consulting with the Lawrenceville Corp., to help artists buy affordable properties.

"In the 30-plus years I have been here," he said, "I am more optimistic about the future than I ever have been."

Although irresponsible landlords and irresponsible tenants are a big headache for the neighborhood, there's good news on the home front.

Edward Three Birds, a native of Monroe County, W.Va., restores old homes and has a friend here who told him about a $40,000 house available on Melwood Street. He bought it last November and has since bought the one beside it. They belonged to elderly people whose families sold them.

"The first week I was here, people threw a 'welcome to the neighborhood' party," he said. "They brought me food, and when I'm out of town, they mow my lawn for me. These are not people who have nothing else to do. They're really loving."

When Sarah Miller, 23, bought her house on Melwood for $24,000 almost two years ago, she said, "there were tons of properties for sale, and all of them have been bought" by owner-occupiers, most of them young.

A mosaic artist, Ms. Miller is now looking for a property in which to open a coffee shop.

So is Stephanie Tecza, 45, a native of the neighborhood.

"I'm a little cautious about it, because you don't know if people would really come," said Ms. Tecza, an employment specialist for people with disabilities. "But we need a gathering place."

She said she was encouraged to see new faces at a recent civic association meeting.

The association exists on the rent of two upstairs tenants and about $22,000 in state community development block grants. It has a part-time staffer on Sundays and on Monday nights.

Mr. Doloughty has consulted with Neighbors in the Strip and Lawrenceville United, both of which have paid staff, on aspects of community improvement.

"We don't have anywhere near the chance of getting what they get," he said of community development nonprofits in general, "but what we have is love of neighborhood. If I put a notice on the door that we're having a Sunday clean-up, a dozen people will turn out with their own gloves, bags and rakes."

First published on September 3, 2007 at 12:00 am
Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazete.com or 412-263-1626.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1420/625763751_32b7669c52_b.jpg

Evergrey

09-05-2007, 02:19 PM

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/09/03/story7.html?f=et177&b=1188792000%5E1513848&ana=e_vert

Shuttered churches will be snapped up, real estate pros say

Pittsburgh Business Times - August 31, 2007by Ben Semmes

Nine closed Pittsburgh-area Catholic churches may soon hit the market in a region with no shortage of creative ideas for reusing surplus religious properties.

And local real estate professionals and developers say the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, which owns the properties located in six western Pennsylvania parishes, likely won't have trouble finding buyers.

"They are good deals," said Jim Kelly, a commercial broker with Downtown-based Grubb & Ellis Co. who is presently marketing two church properties purchased from the diocese last year by New York-based The Follieri Group. "Most of them are older buildings. You have a lot of value in the shell. You are getting a lot of infrastructure."

Most of the nine churches, which will officially close Sept. 8 and are located in Clairton, Bridgeville, McKeesport, New Castle, Ellwood City and Daisytown in Washington County, had been largely unused for the better part of a year, according to the Rev. Ron Lengwin, a diocesan spokesman.

While the properties are expected to be sold, Lengwin said the individual parishes must first seek two sets of approvals from the diocese -- one to market the buildings and another for their actual sale.

Lengwin said between the mid-1980s -- when the local steel industry collapsed -- and 1994 alone, 38 area parishes closed. Forty-two church buildings have closed since, as congregations lost members.

"There was almost a quarter of a million people who left after the steel mills closed," he said. "As population continues to decline, we would rather use our funding to help people ... than keep a building going that we really don't need."

From Angel's Arms Condominiums in the South Side to The Church Brew Works in Lawrenceville, obsolete church properties in the Pittsburgh region have been converted into a wide variety of new uses in recent years.

Leonard Cefalo purchased Carnegie's Christ United Presbyterian Church in 2004 for $652,500, with plans to convert it into a nightclub and restaurant.

Cefalo said he faced initial challenges, including damage from a flood and opposition to his liquor license from a nearby church. Still, Cefalo's Restaurant & Lounge opened in March 2005 after between $1 million and $2 million had been invested in its conversion.

"We have probably the nicest nightclub in the city," Cefalo said.

Last year, the Pittsburgh Catholic diocese announced plans by The Follieri Group to bid on 10 closed church properties.

So far, only two -- those being marketed by Kelly -- have sold. Follieri closed earlier this year on St. Clement's in Tarentum for $252,000 and St. Stephen's in McKeesport for $60,000, according to Allegheny County property records. In both cases the sales price was about half of the assessed value.

Follieri CFO Ron Shaver said there are other sales pending.

Lengwin said not all church reuse projects have been successful in the eyes of the diocese.

"We attempt to find a buyer with an appropriate use of the building," Lengwin said. "That is what we would prefer to happen. We are not so much interested in selling buildings as banquet halls or restaurants. There are situations when you sell a building, and then you have waitresses dress up with short dresses as if they were Catholic school students."

bsemmes@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3829

Evergrey

09-11-2007, 12:30 PM

yay!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07254/816495-52.stm

Panel rejects huge garage at casino site

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The massive parking garage to be built behind the North Shore casino is coming under fire from the gaming task force appointed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

Pat Ford, co-chairman of the group and the city's top development official, said yesterday the garage would be "more visible than ever" from Mount Washington and the Fort Pitt Bridge, in part because of design changes that reduced the height of the Majestic Star casino itself.

"Quite frankly, we aren't pleased. We need to work more diligently to come up with a design that's satisfactory to our design experts and the community and the task force," he said.

The gaming implementation task force is the second group to raise concerns about the height and look of the garage, which would sit directly behind the steel and glass casino on the bank of the Ohio River.

Members of the city's Contextual Design Advisory Panel also have voiced objections. On behalf on the group, acting zoning administrator Susan Tymoczko said in a letter last month that the 119-foot height of the garage -- nearly twice that of the casino -- and the structure's "untreated" south facade combine to present "an awkward appearance" that detracts from "an otherwise high quality design."

The issue was created in large part by design changes that reduced the casino's height from 85 to 60 feet and a 110-foot drum atrium, the building's centerpiece, to 90 feet.

Mr. Ford said after yesterday's task force meeting that he is concerned about the impact the huge block-like garage, with more than 3,800 spaces, could have on views of the city skyline from Mount Washington and the Fort Pitt Bridge.

"We probably have one of the most scenic vistas and gateways into our city in the entire country. I don't want a garage of that size to be plopped on our landscape to be visible now for the next 50 years. That's something that is unacceptable," he said.

"We've got world-class facilities over there. We don't want any of those to be obstructed or detracted from by a 3,000- or 5,000-space parking garage."

The city planning commission will hold a public hearing on the casino design next week, with a vote scheduled for Oct. 2. Mr. Ford said the task force will be making its own recommendation to the planning commission during that process. Casino officials need the commission's approval to proceed with the design.

The Contextual Design Advisory board, which works under the city planning department, has recommended increasing the height of the drum atrium and extending the perforated metal screening that is to be used elsewhere on the garage to the south side to draw attention away from the massive structure.

In a response, Michael Stern, a principal with the Strada architectural firm, said the casino developers could not afford the proposed changes, which he estimated would add at least several million dollars to the project budget.

The height of the casino, being built by businessman Don Barden and his company, PITG Gaming LLC, was reduced in part to fit the 17-acre North Shore site just west of the Carnegie Science Center and the $450 million budget.

Bob Oltmanns, Mr. Barden's spokesman, said yesterday casino officials are willing to meet with city and task force representatives to try to accommodate the concerns. He said, however, that the casino already has exceeded its budget to reach an agreement with the Carnegie Science Center on traffic and other issues and is facing appeals filed with the state Supreme Court by the Pirates and the Steelers over planning commission approvals.

"So I'm saying there is not some blank check that pays for this project. We have to be responsible developers ... But at the end of the day, we have a budget we have to meet."

He also said reasonable people can disagree on "subjective design issues."

"However, I don't think anyone involved in this process wants to see design by committee or design by consensus," he said.

Mr. Oltmanns has said increasing the height of the drum atrium would take it out of proportion with the rest of the building and make it look "like a silo next to a barn instead of a glass feature as part of our casino."

First published on September 11, 2007 at 12:00 am
Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.