PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[BrianTH]

I won't try to defend the aesthetics, but it is an important project in terms of scale and location. As a reminder, it is actually a half-block north of Fifth, just downslope from City View apartments, beyond which is the Lower Hill development site (that's right where Pride Street bends and turns into Crawford, in fact):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pr...7!4d-79.985003

So the plans for Centre in the Lower Hill site are now to have some decent-sized buildings with ground floor retail. And although the City View complex is always going to be in the way, I think between this and the large surface parking lots across Crawford, there is an opportunity to sort of bridge the gap a bit and help create more continuity and flow between the Lower Hill and near Uptown. Potentially ultimately including that highly-underutilized Miller/Reed/Vine/Colwell block.

[BrianTH]

So here is an update on the plans to redevelop the Try Street Terminal building (a 1921 building on the National Register of Historic Places, across from the First Avenue garage and T Station) as "Terminal 21":

https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/city-...s-to-downtown/

Located at 615 First Avenue, the building — officially rechristened Terminal 21 — will bring 205 loft-style apartments to the local real estate market. Speaking with NEXTpittsburgh from Davis’s Boston headquarters, Senior Vice President of Asset Management Gary Hofstetter says the company is hoping to attract younger tenants, particularly those working in the Strip District’s booming tech sector. “The property is really geared towards the demographics that are looking for their first or second jobs and living in the city,” he says.

To attract these coveted, upwardly mobile millenials, Terminal 21 will offer a wide variety of unique amenities, including a coworking space, music practice rooms, communal kitchens, laundry rooms with smart appliances that sync with smartphones, a fitness center, a duckpin bowling alley and a speakeasy-style bar. It will even include a package receiving room with both cold and hot storage, Hofstetter says, “in case you’re getting your groceries delivered.” In addition, there will be a maker space — a room devoted to pursuing hobbies that may be too sprawling or dirty to tackle inside one’s living space. “You can fix your bicycle. You could pot plants. You could do work you don’t want to do in your apartment,” adds Hofstetter.

The building was designed by architects at Strada LLC, with Shannon Construction serving as the contractor. The rental units will include loft studios and one- and two-bedroom layouts. Their costs have not yet been announced. “We are aiming for a phased-in opening beginning on October 1,” says Hofstetter. “They’ll begin pre-leasing in the next couple weeks.”

That reference to the Strip fascinates me because this building is not in the Strip! It is not even particularly close as these things go:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tr...!4d-79.9961868

But I guess that shows the powerful branding the Strip has acquired in tech circles. And hopefully it is also a sign of things to come for that whole underutilized corner of Downtown.

By the way, just looking at the site from above in Google Maps . . . the location is fine, but the REALLY prime locations down there are taken up by the First Side garage and Allegheny County Jail. We're really just beginning to right that wrong of underusing our riverfronts, but to be fair the industrial heritage of these sites provides necessary context.

And this is probably a good example. Here is a nice history of the building, drawn in part from the Historic Register nomination form:

https://theclio.com/web/entry?id=37654

The land on which the Try Street Terminal now sits was first purchased by the Rea brothers in the 1890s and they promptly built a complex for their pork packing business along 2nd Avenue and the Monongahela River. The hogs arrived via railcars, were slaughtered in the company’s abattoir and then the meat was packed in nearby buildings. The operation expanded in 1899, but as the city’s business district grew, certain companies, such as slaughterhouses, were put under pressure to relocate. Due to that pressure, Rea and Company solicited bids for a new warehouse to replace their existing complex that would straddle Gasoline Street and sit near the Panhandle Railroad Bridge in 1919.

The seven and nine story building was designed by little known architect Bernard Prack and the rectangular brick building was constructed with a series of large windows in a grid pattern. The 230,000-square foot building’s interior features reinforced concrete floors (a novel concept for the time) and concrete mushroom columnns. The building was built at a time when the city was in desperate need of warehouses in order to store arriving goods. Its primary tenant was the Keystone Grocery and Tea Company. Hence, for a time, it was known as the Keystone Grocery Building and is still referred to as such even today. However, Keystone Grocery, which was an early American chain store, floundered during the Great Depression and the building was renamed the Try Street Terminal in 1934.

The building, which originally faced 2nd Avenue, became hemmed in and partially obscured by the construction of the Boulevard of the Allies in 1926 and the Liberty Bridge/Crosstown Boulevard in 1928. It continued leasing space through World War II as most of its freight began to arrive by truck rather than railcars. After the war it became the headquarters of mechanical engineering firms which began to redesign Pittsburgh’s central business district. It also became home to numerous small businesses and a records storage facility. After it was slowly abandoned as the years passed it was finally acquired by Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1990 and sold to private ownership as a new county jail and courts building went up next door.

The terminal was then reimagined as student housing in 2007.

And here is a cool picture of the building (with water tanks) circa 1927:



OK, not exactly an inviting location that.

Also a cool picture of the aforementioned mushroom columns, from the recent student housing period:



Fortunately that renovated industrial-chic thing is very marketable these days.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I won't try to defend the aesthetics, but it is an important project in terms of scale and location. As a reminder, it is actually a half-block north of Fifth, just downslope from City View apartments, beyond which is the Lower Hill development site (that's right where Pride Street bends and turns into Crawford, in fact):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pr...7!4d-79.985003

So the plans for Centre in the Lower Hill site are now to have some decent-sized buildings with ground floor retail. And although the City View complex is always going to be in the way, I think between this and the large surface parking lots across Crawford, there is an opportunity to sort of bridge the gap a bit and help create more continuity and flow between the Lower Hill and near Uptown. Potentially ultimately including that highly-underutilized Miller/Reed/Vine/Colwell block.

An important thing you left unsaid is since it's a block back from Fifth, the south-facing facade (with the big ugly garage) will ultimately be almost or totally obscured. I mean, the block below is comprised of nothing but empty parking lots and the abandoned Citizen's Bank. And it's in the new, very loosely-zoned "Uptown Public Realm A" zone, meaning you could get something with real height. This means in the longer run the only highly visible facade will be Pride Street - and the building does not look quite as terrible from that angle.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

So here is an update on the plans to redevelop the Try Street Terminal building (a 1921 building on the National Register of Historic Places, across from the First Avenue garage and T Station) as "Terminal 21":

https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/city-...s-to-downtown/



That reference to the Strip fascinates me because this building is not in the Strip! It is not even particularly close as these things go:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tr...!4d-79.9961868

But I guess that shows the powerful branding the Strip has acquired in tech circles. And hopefully it is also a sign of things to come for that whole underutilized corner of Downtown.

By the way, just looking at the site from above in Google Maps . . . the location is fine, but the REALLY prime locations down there are taken up by the First Side garage and Allegheny County Jail. We're really just beginning to right that wrong of underusing our riverfronts, but to be fair the industrial heritage of these sites provides necessary context.

And this is probably a good example. Here is a nice history of the building, drawn in part from the Historic Register nomination form:

https://theclio.com/web/entry?id=37654



And here is a cool picture of the building (with water tanks) circa 1927:



OK, not exactly an inviting location that.

Also a cool picture of the aforementioned mushroom columns, from the recent student housing period:



Fortunately that renovated industrial-chic thing is very marketable these days.

Wait a tick, is that the Blvd of the Allies off in the distance? Also, that looks like the entrance to the Panhandle Tunnel in the lower right corner. To think that they built that hulking mass that is a parking garage and 564 Forbes Ave. in its place.

[MarkMyWords]

I do believe that is the Boulevard in the rear. And is that the old B&O passenger terminal to the right, starting in front of the building with "AMOCO" on the side? Because the 1950's B&O terminal was on the site of the PNC operations building, I thought that their passenger terminal was always in that location, not further north along Grant Street.

[BrianTH]

Yep, that is BoA--finished 1923, I believe, so just a few years before this 1927 photo. And I think that might be the Liberty Bridge (opened 1928) under construction behind it. Modern view for comparison:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pi...!4d-79.9958864

There is a building further away behind the AMOCO building that is where First Side is located today, and I believe in the 1920s that was the B&O freight station.

I believe the platforms closer than the AMOCO building might be 4th Avenue Station, on the PCC & Stl RR line, aka Panhandle Route, hence Panhandle Tunnel and Panhandle Bridge.

The Morgue used to be right next to it, until they built the Allegheny County Office Building and the Morgue was literally moved across Fourth Avenue (a crazy story and set of pictures):

https://newsinteractive.post-gazette...e-on-the-move/

I believe this plaza is what is right over the entrance to the Panhandle Tunnel, which starts right under Forbes, then comes out behind the U.S. Courthouse on 7th:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4380...7i13312!8i6656

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

And here is a cool picture of the building (with water tanks) circa 1927:

I had to look at this picture for some time to figure out where it is. Finally realized it is looking due south at the Blvd. of the Allies as was mentioned. What threw me was just how amazingly different the landscape was back in the 1920's. Had no idea a rail yard existed there. That's a section of town that's confusing given how dense and tangled the streets and buildings are today. Like an ancient city that keeps building over that layers of the past.

[BrianTH]

It is amazing looking at historic maps from the late 19th and early 20th Century--SOOOO much land is taken up by massive railyards and associated terminals, warehouses, and so on.

[photoLith]

I must be an idiot, I can't figure out where the hell that is.

https://goo.gl/maps/p1maD2wbdFP9k9XG8

I'm guessing this is roughly the location.

[BrianTH]

That intersection in the front left, with the trucks and streetcar tracks, is the intersection of Forbes and Sixth Avenue, which today is under the I-579 ramps:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4382...7i13312!8i6656

Given the height and the angle, I think it may have been taken from 600 Fifth Avenue, the former Robert Morris building now a Duquesne University building, or a predecessor to that building.

I think this is pretty close:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/60...!4d-79.9943649

It is tricky working with Google 3D in this environment, but if you compare the buildings back behind the concrete wall along the bluff, I think I got the angle about right.

ETA: Must not be 600 Fifth, because this 1928 map says it did not exist yet:

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islan...02e1928/viewer

There are a couple buildings just northeast of the Fifth and Sixth intersection--maybe one of those? But then maybe the jail would start getting in the way, but it all depends on the lens and cropping and such--I don't know.

[bossride]

This may have been posted before, but this is also a good source for historic maps.

[themaguffin]

Was this discussed?

Terminal 21 project is bringing lofts with a ton of cool amenities to Downtown

Located at 615 First Avenue, the building — officially rechristened Terminal 21 — will bring 205 loft-style apartments to the local real estate market.

[BrianTH]

Supposedly the renovation of the former Frank & Seder store on Smithfield--a fairly modest but still pretty nice historic building--will finally begin within six months or so:

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/201908120020

For more than two years, the proposed redevelopment of the former Frank & Seder department store on Smithfield Street in Downtown has languished in the shadows with no signs of life. Now Stark Enterprises, the Cleveland developer behind the $63 million rehab that had been called the “Icon on Smithfield,” says it has a new name for the project and a new timetable for beginning the work. . . .Stark is changing the name of the office, residential and retail development to “Smith & Fifth,” according to Stacie Schmidt, the company’s vice president of marketing and communications. It plans to begin construction at the site within the next six months, she said.

The new timetable is being advanced even as there were indications in the real estate community that Stark might have been having second thoughts about the property — or at least entertaining the idea of selling it. At least one developer apparently was approached recently about buying it. Stark bought the seven-story building at 441 Smithfield from Oxford Development Co. in January 2017 for $10.4 million. Nine months ago, it received approval from the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on a proposal to transform the property into three floors of offices; two floors of apartments, about 40 in all; and 25,000 square feet of retail.

But since then, there has been no apparent activity at the location, which sits at a strategic spot between Forbes and Fifth avenues in the heart of Downtown.
Stark has applied for various building permits with the city, including ones relating to interior and exterior demolition, a commercial HVAC equipment, and sprinkler and fire alarm systems. It got tentative approval for some last month, said Tim McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto. “There’s a little bit more paperwork to do, then they’ll be approved for the rehab work,” he said.

Asked why it has taken so long to get the project started, Ms. Schmidt replied, “We are doing our due diligence to make sure the property is a great addition to the future of Pittsburgh.”

We'll see, but it would be VERY nice to see this project (and of course the former Macy's renovation across the street, also discussed in the article) completed some day.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by photoLith

I must be an idiot, I can't figure out where the hell that is.

https://goo.gl/maps/p1maD2wbdFP9k9XG8

I'm guessing this is roughly the location.

That's actually along the on-ramp to I-579 North from the inbound Boulevard of the Allies. When I click on that link, it has you looking back toward the Boulevard.

So the BoA has been around since at least the '20s. Isn't that the project that basically destroyed Chinatown?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Jonboy1983

So the BoA has been around since at least the '20s. Isn't that the project that basically destroyed Chinatown?

That's actually a complex story.

It is true BoA is usually credited with being a big blow to Chinatown, which was located along both Second and Third Avenues between Ross and Grant.

But if you look at actual historic maps, that's obviously inaccurate at least in large part. And that's because Second Avenue between Grant and Ross was actually a park before BoA was constructed. And so while changing the park to the BoA ramp would have been an aesthetic blow, it did not actually destroy buildings in use.

And in fact, if you read contemporaneous records, there were still many Chinese businesses in that location well after BoA was constructed. Indeed, during that late-1920s/early-1930s period, you will see the news stories about the competing Tongs, and other activity which only gradually died off over the next few decades.

In other word, the timeline blaming it all on BoA seems wrong.

So what really happened?

Well, in 1875, the U.S. government began enacting a serious of increasingly restrictive anti-Chinese immigration laws that eventually basically ended almost all legal immigration from China during the first part of the 20th Century. Starting in WWII, there was a little loosening, but it did not really fully end until 1965.

Now there was still some illegal immigration, and also because of anti-miscegenation laws, discriminatory housing and employment laws, and all sorts of other discriminatory laws and practices, the unassimilated Chinese American population declined but did not entirely die out during this period. Still, without new immigration, many Chinatowns like the one in Pittsburgh, which had been established back in the 19th Century, declined and often died out during this long "exclusion period".

So why all the focus on BoA? From what I can tell, this story about BoA was being told at least as soon as an often-cited 1942 report. But from what I can tell from actual 1920s and 1930s sources, that story was inaccurate.

Nonetheless, it became the widely-accepted account anyway. And to be blunt, the true story of how Chinese were treated in this period of American history is still not something we talk about enough, such that I am not so surprised a "whitewashed" version of this history has dominated in recent decades.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by photoLith

I must be an idiot, I can't figure out where the hell that is.

https://goo.gl/maps/p1maD2wbdFP9k9XG8

I'm guessing this is roughly the location.

Exactly!

[Brentsters]

The SPC presented draft findings for the 885/2nd ave study, though I don't think it's been added to their funding plan so

https://spcsecondavenue.com/july-25th-public-meeting/

[eschaton]

In outside the city news, PBT is reporting (behind paywall) that a developer is pursuing a new 251-unit apartment project at the Waterfront. The location is here - actually the best possible location, because it's right across street from the little fake downtown "lifestyle center." There's even a pedestrian bridge so the residents will not have to cross the (terribly designed high-speed) road. While a series of bad choices, this is basically the first step into turning the area into a neighborhood.



Bland design, but it will help Homestead/West Homestead considerably.

In other news, the Rivers Casino Hotel broke ground today.

[pj3000]

I love how they now throw kayaks in any rendering that includes water.

[highlander206]

Originally Posted by eschaton

In outside the city news, PBT is reporting (behind paywall) that a developer is pursuing a new 251-unit apartment project at the Waterfront. The location is here - actually the best possible location, because it's right across street from the little fake downtown "lifestyle center." There's even a pedestrian bridge so the residents will not have to cross the (terribly designed high-speed) road. While a series of bad choices, this is basically the first step into turning the area into a neighborhood.



Bland design, but it will help Homestead/West Homestead considerably.

In other news, the Rivers Casino Hotel broke ground today.

Good call for that spot to add apartments to it, as cruddy as the design is. I am sure they will sell well too with how close they are to any shopping one would need and the East End of the city. It is well served by transit as well.