PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

^ Integrating them into the base somehow could be cool

That would definitely be an improvement over using the kind of bland stone that's at the bottom of 3 PNC.

Also, I checked the diagrams page and not only is PNC Tower up there but so is 3 PNC and even the Trimont which had been mysteriously absent until now!

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

That would definitely be an improvement over using the kind of bland stone that's at the bottom of 3 PNC.

Also, I checked the diagrams page and not only is PNC Tower up there but so is 3 PNC and even the Trimont which had been mysteriously absent until now!

I thought the Trimont was apartments/condos. I guess I thought wrong...

Also, I looked over the finalists for the Point portal project, and I like MAYA and SCAPE's design proposals. I especially like the fields of light. I'd like to see both of them kinda integrated into each other, given that Scape wants to have a reflecting pool that you can wade into during the summer months.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by Jonboy1983

I thought the Trimont was apartments/condos. I guess I thought wrong...

Also, I looked over the finalists for the Point portal project, and I like MAYA and SCAPE's design proposals. I especially like the fields of light. I'd like to see both of them kinda integrated into each other, given that Scape wants to have a reflecting pool that you can wade into during the summer months.

Trimont is mixed-use. A lot of the condos are really 80s-dated and shitty. It never lived up to its billing as a development that would transform Mt. Washington into the city's most desirable address. Views are great... other than that, kind of a pain in the ass to live there.

Yeah, I think Scape's looked pretty cool. Integrating the natural environment and offering an educational component scores points with me. MAYA's proposal is probably cool too, but it was tough for me to really tell what they were doing from the info on that site, besides making some Tron-looking light-up walkway.

[TBone7281]

Lot 24 - 3/1/2012

They've been drilling holes/filling them with concrete with this the last couple days.

[markson33]

Demo Underway at the Tower at PNC site. I think I read that the entire site should be cleared by late April.

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by markson33

Demo Underway at the Tower at PNC site. I think I read that the entire site should be cleared by late April.

Either something went awry or you took the smallest picture, ever.

[JakeLiefer]

What's the status with One Grandview Ave? I haven't heard anything in awhile regarding progress or expected completion.

[markson33]

They recently got a loan to keep the project going. Its unlikely that it will ever get built, but its still alive.

[Jonboy1983]

Here's an article from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review regarding the latest projects for Downtown and Mt. Washington. Apparently, One Grandview isn't dead... yet...

Pittsburgh skyline might be in for an upgrade
By John Conti, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 4, 2012

It doesn't take a "Renaissance" to change a skyline.

Three large building projects in various stages of development -- two Downtown and one on Mt. Washington -- promise to dramatically change views from around the city. And all three should end up being appealing.

The three are:

• PNC Financial's plans for a new 33-story headquarters building on Wood Street between Fifth and Forbes, designed by Gensler, a firm headquartered in San Francisco that is one of the best-known designers of tall buildings in the country.

• A new 17-story hotel, office and retail complex on Forbes just up the street from Market Square. This is being designed for Millcraft Industries, real estate developers from Washington County, by Arquitectonica, a Miami-based firm that has been doing elegantly modern architecture around the world for the last 35 years.

• A 25-story hotel and condominium project to be called One Grandview Avenue, overlooking the city from a site next to the Monongahela Incline, with an imaginative design by Desmone & Associates, a well-respected local firm.

The most prominent of the three, from the perspective of how Pittsburghers might view these changes from the ground, is the PNC plan. Their proposed new headquarters -- due to be finished sometime in 2015 -- is one of a new breed of skyscrapers showing up around the world that will introduce to our city the idea that even the tallest of buildings can dare to have curvy facades, in this case with a lot of glass.

The $400 million structure will not just be an adventuresome one for architecturally staid Pittsburgh, it also is intended to be a highly energy-efficient one, as well -- a big accomplishment for a skyscraper. PNC, in fact, says this building aspires to be the "greenest" skyscraper anywhere.

Another adventuresome building is the one planned for Mt. Washington. It may be a surprise to one day see a 25-story building next to the Mon Incline sloping up from east to west in the shape of a huge white sail. But that's just one thing that guarantees that this hotel and condo project will be a fascinating conversation piece if built as planned.

Besides the sail-shaped tower, plans include a large plaza that will extend the promenade of Grandview Avenue, overlooking the city, another 200 feet beyond the Incline. This will be in line with the existing sidewalk along Grandview's city-side edge. The tower, with 160 hotel rooms and six to eight luxury condos, will sit back about 120 feet from this edge, creating the plaza.

Then, below and around the edges of the plaza's platform, the designers propose about 50 condominiums that will resemble the village-like clusters of turn-of-the century millworker houses that cling to the South Side Slopes. (Thus, with expensive modern condos, will 21st-century Pittsburgh honor its past!)

Unfortunately, condos are harder to finance than hotel rooms, and as the Chicago-based developers piece together financing they may find the condos expendable. We'll have to wait to see how the financing goes before we know how this approximately $80 million project is going to turn out. But, we can probably sum up the architects' plan with one short word: Fun! This could bring a playfully exciting addition to the city if and when built.

The biggest worry about structures on Mt. Washington is height. The steep cliffs of the ridge rise about 400 feet above Downtown, and buildings even half that height can diminish the dramatic setting that nature provided for our city. But it's likely the tower in this project will be far enough from the edge that we won't feel that it has unbalanced our view.

The sail shape of the tower, by the way, is not an architectural stunt, but something worked out carefully to preserve views of the city for the houses behind it. Let's hope this project works.

The third building, the "Gardens at Market Square," is the $77 million hotel, condo and retail complex to be built by Millcraft. While "The Gardens" is not as glamorous as what designers Arquitectonica usually produce -- and is in no way a risk-taker -- it is a solid solution to a difficult site. Although part of the building faces and will sort of loom over Market Square, it will be set behind a line of existing buildings that define the edge of the square. The main entrance will be on Forbes.

It's essentially a building made up of three cubes. The cube facing the square will be a Hilton Garden Inn, while two cubes stacked behind it will constitute the office tower and parking. Several features of the design may make it ultimately a winning one for Pittsburghers. The hotel has been intentionally placed facing the square, insuring a lively lit facade in the evenings. And the hotel's public spaces -- meeting rooms and restaurants -- will overlook the square as well. A garden-like courtyard between hotel wings and set about four stories above and overlooking the square could be another attractive feature.

Designs for all three projects may change, of course, before they are built. (Today's plans for the Millcraft building, for example, are far more sophisticated than a preliminary rendering published last year.) But all three buildings should be positive and even exciting additions to our city.



Read more: Pittsburgh skyline might be in for an upgrade - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt...#ixzz1oBu9wvlc

[PGHFan]

Check out the web site for Arquitectonica, the firm that the article says Millcraft will be using to design its hotel/parking/office building overlooking Market square. Would that Pittsburgh could land something similar to those wonderful designs.

[BrianTH]

Not to be negative, but I'm not going to consider One Grandview back in the pipeline unless and until it gets financing.

Edit:

They fixed the awful hotel part!

Old:



New and Improved:



Edit #2: And the Chrysler 300 is no longer trying to ram the building at full speed.

[Urbana]

I was just checking out the website for the Tower at PNC Plaza and found that they have set up a live video webcam of the site! Additionally, they have taken down two of the renderings they had up previously, so hopefully we will have some new ones coming our way!

http://www.pncsites.com/pnctower/

[Minivan Werner]

The second rendering is MUCH nicer.. And good eye on the Chrysler 300, lol.

[AaronPGH]

Man, once all these buildings are complete, standing in the middle of Market Square will feel like being in the middle of Futuretown. I dig it.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Not to be negative, but I'm not going to consider One Grandview back in the pipeline unless and until it gets financing.

Yeah, it sucks... I haven't been too optimistic about this project from the get-go. A cool vision, but I never thought it was very realistic -- especially not the large scale of the hotel tower and condo "village" built on the slope -- given the nonexistent track record of the developer.

Having to recently take out a $1.5M loan to continue the planning stages... not very encouraging.

It happens so often with projects like these (difficult sites that have great potential and see failed attempt after failed attempt at redevelopment by inexperienced real estate developers)... that the main thing they end up accomplishing is demolition of old structures and basically what amounts to site prep/groundwork for another developer with deeper pockets to come in and put up something far less appealing and site appropriate.

This very "strategy" has been used a lot in older, development-hungry industrial cities by such unfavorable urban players as grocery/convenience/discount store chains, car dealers, etc. They pretty much sit back and let someone else go through all the hassle and pay for all the demolition, environmental, and infrastructure costs, wait for them to throw in the towel/go broke, and then buy the land with all types of incentives and build something shitty that serves their interests.

Now I don't think that is particularly what is going to happen with this site, obviously... but I wouldn't be surprised to see another developer come in, buy the property, and put up a condo building or something that is much more mundane than this current proposal.


And, thanks for the updates on the Gardens project. Looks much better.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Not to be negative, but I'm not going to consider One Grandview back in the pipeline unless and until it gets financing.

Edit:

They fixed the awful hotel part!

Old:



New and Improved:



Edit #2: And the Chrysler 300 is no longer trying to ram the building at full speed.

Uhh, yeah overall it looks better especially the lower half that doesn't look like a Best Western anymore, but I liked the top part better with just glass and no lines. Oh well, it remains to be seen what the final product will look like.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Man, once all these buildings are complete, standing in the middle of Market Square will feel like being in the middle of Futuretown. I dig it.

Yes, I agree with the new market square design + 3PNC on the left, the classic PPG towers on the right, the new PNC Tower straight ahead and this sleek mixed use design to the right, it's gonna be a beautiful site. Very exciting.


Maybe it will look like this: Ireland from many years ago before the invention of whiskey:

• Video Link

[Austinlee]

I can't wait till PNC Tower starts rising and I can take a shot of the Buhl Building in the foreground, built in 1913 with the tower rising in the background in 2013, 100 years apart. One ornate, one super modern and glassy; What a great Juxtaposition!


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08186/894670-438.stm



http://www.pncsites.com/pnctower/

[BrianTH]

In addition to the neat grouping of design (all of Three PNC, PNC Tower, the Gardens, and even PPG and Four Gateway should play off each other), I think the sense of Market Square being embedded/enclosed should increase significantly.

[themaguffin]

I don't see much difference in those 2 pictures. Mostly street level. What am I missing?