Pitt to spend $20M renovating University Club

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
By Bill Schackner,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The University of Pittsburgh will spend $20.2 million to convert the historic University Club building in Oakland into a faculty club and housing for families traveling to Pittsburgh for life-saving hospital treatment.

The Pitt trustees’ property and facilities committee, meeting yesterday, outlined planned uses for the eight-story building at 123 University Place that Pitt acquired in 2005.

The work is among nine renovation and construction projects worth about $67 million approved yesterday.

Floors one through four will become a 4,000-square-foot faculty club, 4,000-square-foot fitness center, 18,000-square-foot conference center and banquet facility, 4,000-square-foot kitchen facility, coffee shop and 8,000 square feet of offices, Pitt said in a statement.

The upper floors will be readied for lease to Family House Inc., a nonprofit group offering stays for families of hospital patients being treated for life-threatening conditions.

Also authorized by the committee yesterday:

• $2.3 million construction of a Wall Street-type financial analysis laboratory in the Katz graduate business school’s Mervis Hall.

• A $16.8 million expansion of the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative in the Swanson School of Engineering.

• A $3.25 million conversion of the former Old Engineering Hall second-floor library into modern laboratories for nanoscience research.

• A $5.5 million renovation of Chevron Hall’s fourth floor for uses including teaching labs.

• $4.4 million in improvements to the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing infrastructure for the first floor of Langley Hall.

• $2.3 million in mechanical systems upgrades to the Victoria Building, which houses the nursing school.

• $9.8 million for energy-efficient boilers and related equipment to boost capacity at the Carrillo Street steam plant.

• $2.3 million in electrical and mechanical system upgrades for the university’s computer center at the Regional Industrial Development Corp. park in Blawnox.

Bill Schackner can be reached at bschackner@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1977.
First published on December 12, 2007 at 12:00 am