Category Archive: City Living
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Bicycling: Hot Metal Bridge plans to be well connected
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Eliza and the South Side. Oh, the talk that was generated by that hot and heavy relationship.
The long separated pair are scheduled to be linked again in 2006 when the Hot Metal Bridge over the Monongahela River is scheduled to re-open for bicyclists and pedestrians.
I can just hear the stoop comments.
“Look, she’s still has her curves — all the way from Downtown to Hazelwood.”
“And did you see his posture coming across the river — straight as an arrow after all those years.”
The re-connection of the pair will permit the wheeled and well-heeled — bicyclists, in-line skaters, runners, joggers and walkers — to cross the Mon and continue on trails — upstream and downstream — on both sides of the river.
Eliza and the South Side were introduced in 1882 when the aptly-named Monongahela Connecting Railroad built a bridge a few feet downstream from its “Mon Conn” bridge.
The new bridge was designed to carry hot metal in ladle cars or torpedo-shaped cars from the Eliza and Soho blast furnaces on the Oakland side of the river to the processing mills on the South Side. Hot metal is freshly smelted, slag-free iron stewing at about 3,000 degrees.
Ferrying the fiery iron in its molten form across the 1,052 foot long bridge saved money for the Pittsburgh Works of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. Otherwise, it would have had to cast the hot metal into ingots and reheat them to make steel.
“It saved J&L a lot of money,” said Walter C. Kidney, architectural historian of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and author of “Pittsburgh’s Bridges: Architecture and Engineering.” In the book, he concluded his comments about the side-by-side spans by saying:
“The bridges are destined to be an important traffic link between the cleared land of the J&L sites [on both sides of the river] as they develop.”
The importance of the Hot Metal Bridge to bicyclists and pedestrians was reaffirmed Wednesday evening at an Open House meeting organized by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.
Instead of a formal presentation, the public had an opportunity to look at a series of comfortably spaced easel-mounted drawings and plans for the bridge and an expansion of East Carson Street from 25th Street to 33rd Street and then speak to the professionals working on them.
Bicyclists were drawn to two renderings of what the Hot Metal Bridge will look like in 2006. They were prepared by Rod Walker, the head of the 3D Modeling and Visualization Department for Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, a major planning, engineering, program and construction management organization.
One rendering shows a curved ramp that bicyclists and pedestrians will use to descend to street level on the South Side of the bridge and connect with the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.
The other shows a new truss bridge that will be built over Second Avenue. It will connect the Oakland side of the Hot Metal Bridge and the Eliza Furnace Trail. The bridges will be lighted and their 14-foot wide bikeways will have picket-style railings.
John Coyne, director of engineering and construction for the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, said the work is scheduled to begin next summer and take about a year. The federal government is paying for most of it, but Coyne pointed out that the Allegheny Trail Alliance contributed about $750,000 to the project.
“I am so delighted with the design work,” said Linda McKenna Boxx, president of the alliance that represents seven rails-trails organizations. “It is sensitive to the nature of the project and is really neat.” The alliance is credited for providing the impetus for the project.
Coyne said the connection from the Hot Metal Bridge to the Eliza Furnace Trail “was important to the biking community.” Yes, it is, especially since it will be heavily used by riders from the city’s three largest biking neighborhoods — Oakland, Squirrel Hill and the South Side.
“This meeting was well done,” said Mary Shaw as her husband, Roy Weil, nodded his head in agreement.
“There was good notice, the description of what they were going to do was based on reality, the [I.B.E.W. Building] was easy to find and there was plenty of parking.”
Shaw and Weil, who have pedaled thousands of miles on bike trails, are the authors of “FreeWheeling Easy in Western Pennsylvania” and “Linking Up: Planning Your Traffic-Free Bike Trip Between Pittsburgh, Pa. and Washington, D. C.” They and other leaders in the biking community were the type of people the meeting planners wanted to attract.
“The people we spoke to were willing to listen to what we had to say,” Weil said.
They singled out Patrick Hassett, assistant director of development, design and transportation for the city planning department, for his “knowledge about the projects, where they were going, what was possible [in terms of any changes] and what wasn’t.”
Although delays are always possible, if not inevitable, Eliza and the South Side should be together again in 2006. It will be worth the wait.
(Larry Walsh can be reached at lwalsh@post-gazette.com and 412-263-1488.)
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Proposals abound for Fifth and Forbes
Compiled By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, February 08, 2004The distinct local businesses in the Fifth and Forbes district cannot hang on forever while PNC and the Urban Redevelopment Authority collect and sit on empty properties and the mayor waits for the perfect retail development to fall into his lap. The city’s Downtown deal-making of the past years has done nothing but plunge the city into debt. Downtown’s real estate market values no longer relate to reality, and no one can make an investment knowing that large-scale property owners are letting large swaths of the Fifth and Forbes district fester indefinitely.
Downtown should capitalize on what it does best: entertainment and commerce. Forget about subsidized big-box retail Downtown! Don’t compromise Kaufmann’s success. It is a destination unto itself, and subsidizing its competition is counterproductive.
Downtown will not succeed in the long term as a one-fell-swoop retail development project. For investment in the Fifth/Forbes district to be sustainable, development must be incremental and market-driven (the antithesis of the recent Lord & Taylor and Lazarus fiascoes). Paying outside developers to fix our city will do little to improve the integrity of our Downtown and will further export future income generation.Ideas for helping to promote a sustainable future for Downtown start with the sale of Fifth/Forbes district URA properties. Proceeds generated from the sales should be used to:
Hire a Main Street manager to market the district’s assets and to connect buildings/available rental space to interested tenants/owners.
Revive the Golden Triangle Community Development Corp. and give small business a bigger voice in Downtown development discussions.
Create an immigrant-recruitment and relocation program to repopulate Downtown and enliven specifically the Fifth/Forbes district.
Target investments to make the district’s buildings easier and more profitable to convert into mixed-use or residential buildings (for example, matching grant programs for the installation of elevators, sprinkler systems and a second means of egress), eliminating some roadblocks to building reuse.
Start a business program that helps local entrepreneurs.
Revive the URA Street Face program. Created to promote the sensitive renovation and rehabilitation of historic building facades, this program was just closed indefinitely, presumably due to the city’s fiscal situation. This was the one program that supported individuals wanting to invest in Pittsburgh’s aging building stock.
At this point, you must be a big-time developer to get support or interest from the city for your projects.
Plans for revitalizing areas:
Market Square is the rundown heart of Downtown. The Fifth/Forbes district cannot be improved without substantial investment in its core. What should be a central gathering place lacks in attractiveness, safety and cleanliness. With prominent empty storefronts at opposite corners of Market Square — the PPG and Murphy’s buildings — the public space feels increasingly vacant and rundown.
The Murphy’s building would be perfect for a market place. Downtown employees could use a supermarket with more inventory than a convenience store, where they could pick up dinner on the way home. A deli-style take-out counter would be a welcome addition to the lunch opportunities around Market Square. Surely the college students and residents of Downtown would appreciate being able to walk to get groceries.
At Warner Center, pair up each of the food court vendors with an empty URA property and a business plan. Activate the streets with diverse businesses. Turn Warner Center back into a movie house with more mainstream box-office draws to complement but not compete with the Harris Theater.
Forbes Avenue, full of smaller storefronts, could become the destination for a variety of ethnic restaurants and smaller-scale nightclubs and entertainment, particularly as the Cultural District empties certain tax-paying businesses from Liberty Avenue.
Finally, encourage Downtown living, including more dorms for Point Park and Duquesne students.
Start small, build green
Gary Saulson, Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Real Estate, The PNC Financial Services Group
As owner of the largest group of properties that could be developed in the Fifth/Forbes corridor and one of the city’s largest employers, PNC has a vested interest and deep commitment to the revitalization of Downtown, which has tremendous benefits for the city and our region overall. Clearly, the “big bang” approach has not worked, so my three main recommendations are:
Think big, start small: Greater emphasis should be placed on Downtown’s residential population to help draw small businesses back into the district. There should be larger residential developments that appeal to a diverse range of residents, from the recent college grad to empty-nesters who are all drawn to the amenities and conveniences that could be offered. This will create the critical mass that a large, national retailer covets, and generate interest in the Lazarus and Lord & Taylor buildings. Now is not the time to get discouraged and overreact.
To complement any incoming “destination”-type retailers, we must pay equal attention to filling the spaces between those stores with the right mix of street-level businesses that will attract shoppers. Any mall developer will tell you the “anchor” stores rely on the smaller stores and vice versa. Go slow to grow big — accept steady, incremental growth and give entrepreneurs a chance to make a difference, along with the time to make it happen. It will take longer, but the benefits will be far more lasting.
Get connected: This city has already proven an ability to succeed with public/private partnerships, such as the Cultural District. Let’s build on the success of this nationally renowned redevelopment and expand its look, feel and vibrancy into central Downtown and extend it to the First Avenue area, where improvements are already being made. We can create “connectivity” so that residents and visitors alike can walk from river to river and appreciate the continuity, cleanliness, safety and vitality of our historic city. Responsible development that includes modern, appropriately priced housing attracts residents and will, in turn, drive demand for a wide variety of retail and service businesses.
Build responsibly: Think “green.” Pittsburgh is a national leader in environmentally responsible construction, with more than 30 registered or certified “green” buildings, including the two largest in the world — the convention center and PNC Firstside Center. We can continue to reinforce our region’s evolution by applying environmental principles to the revitalization of Downtown. A deeper commitment to water and energy efficiency, open “green” space, pollution control and traffic planning all will serve us well. It also will make Pittsburgh more attractive to potential businesses, residents and tourists.
Embrace market economics
Bernie Lynch, former executive director of the Market Square Association
Here’s how to do it:
Repeal the Fifth/Forbes redevelopment plan and “lift the cloud on the title” of these properties, allowing them to be free and clear for resale for what the market will bring. Stop our government from using eminent domain by taking property from one private owner to give to another of its choice.
New development: Ask PNC chairman Jim Rohr to develop PNC’s dozen or so properties on Fifth Avenue.
Force the URA to sell its Downtown properties (including Lazarus), valued collectively as high as $50 million. Sell them in an open, transparent bidding process (banks need not apply). Open the pools and recreation centers this summer with the first proceeds of the property sales, which should use up about $4 million, leaving us $16 million to $46 million to help fix that budget problem we keep talking about.
Disband the URA. Overhaul the whole idea of “authorities” that take our revenue streams for their purposes and leave the city economically dry to operate. No RIDC, no county development agency. Encourage the private sector to do this work. Re-evaluate market-manipulation funds like tax increment financing, the Strategic Investment Fund, the Pittsburgh Development Fund and others. Realize that “big bang” doesn’t work long term.
Embrace entrepreneurs, businesses, mom-and-pop shops, the owner-occupied merchant, the immigrant business owners who can’t work in corporate America but whose drive can’t be stopped.. Embrace the yet-to-be-revealed, next-generation business gurus.
No more handouts. No business privilege tax for anyone. Spread a regional business tax that is palatable to all across five or six counties. Let’s not keep driving everyone out of a core that will collapse if it isn’t supported.
Build on strengths
Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh; Dan Holland, founder
The association embraces the message of CMU professor Joel Tarr’s new book, “Devastation and Renewal: An Environmental History of Pittsburgh and Its Region”: Let us not repeat mistakes of the past.
We think Downtown doesn’t need too much tinkering to enhance its strengths, which include architectural diversity, pedestrian-friendly streets, a transit-accessible location and untapped potential for housing.
Creative and flexible taxation and zoning mechanisms combined with existing preservation laws, new state legislation and time-tested preservation techniques can ultimately generate a successful mixed-use residential, office and retail environment for the Fifth/Forbes corridor.
We have three recommendations:
Expand the Downtown historic districts. You can’t have too much of a good thing. Pittsburgh must maintain the historic integrity of our Downtown buildings, including historic interiors. We want to keep our architectural landscape as distinct as possible so that our Downtown is unlike any other urban center in the country. The current historic districts — Penn-Liberty and Market Square — are the most vibrant and economically successful parts of Downtown. We must build upon this success.
Consider a third Downtown historic district along the Fifth/Forbes corridor, to include other notable structures, such as the Park Building and Warner Theater. Nominate Fourth Avenue, between Smithfield and Wood streets, which borders the Market Square district, as a city historic district.
Amend the Historic Preservation Code to create a special historic interiors provision for Downtown. The gutting of the marble interior of Mellon Bank was a travesty that could have been avoided if preservation of historic interiors had been codified into law.
Allow for flexibility. The YPA is not flatly against demolition or alteration of historic structures; some compromises may have to be made. But these are options of last resort Progressive new architecture should be encouraged where appropriate, but not to replace a historic structure.
Create a competitive program that rewards innovative, quality commercial design with incorporated living spaces and sound business plans with low- or no-cost land, plus new/upgraded infrastructure to the site. An Urban Business & Residential Homesteading Program would encourage a mix of housing, retail and office space. The agency would help negotiate the sale of buildings and make the property available to the highest evaluated rehab/development/small business plans within established guidelines and rehab standards.
Encourage banks to adopt a Location Efficient Lending program –innovative underwriting standards by private or public lenders who recognize the significant retention of disposable income to people who are living where they work.
Urge swift passage of the proposed Historic Rehabilitation and Economic Revitalization Tax Credit Act (Pennsylvania Senate Bill 820 and its companion bills, House Bill 951 and 952). The House version passed unanimously in 2003. In short, this legislation provides a 20 percent tax credit on eligible redevelopment costs. The proposed historic tax credit empowers local redevelopment authorities to designate those buildings that are most important to the community and most economically viable for consideration.
Adopt meaningful transit changes to increase Downtown’s accessibility without compromising its historic integrity. This would mean no more surface parking lots. Consider creating a free (or low-fee) shuttle that would service suburban communities to bring people Downtown. Create common-sense ways to navigate the archaic Downtown bus routing systems. A commuter rail system from the north and east should be strongly considered, eliminating the current strain on Route 28 and the Parkway East.
Word by word
Eve Picker, President, no wall productions
It’s like a crossword puzzle. You can’t solve all the words at once. They intersect and need each other. But you know that it is solvable. If you start in one place, with one word, and then another, it gets easier and easier.
The Fifth and Forbes project is no different. We have tried to solve it all at once. We need well-sequenced, small, achievable steps that get us there in the end. And here they are:
The G.C. Murphy Block:Develop the upper floors of as much of the G.C. Murphy block as possible. Forget about the missing pieces. If property owners want to be holdouts, so be it. A lot can be done right now. And I will shamelessly add: Let no wall productions do this project. We’ve been working on it for months now, with the continued support of the URA, and we know how to make it fly.
Market Square: Police Market Square 24 hours a day and clean it up. It must be a joy to visit, not a threat. Chase away loiterers. Encourage others to program more there in the summer. Solicit the help of the Market Square Association and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. Sweep it, clean windows, keep it free of litter, and do it every day.
Market Square District: Pull the charm of Market Square up the street, along Forbes Avenue. Create a Market Square District. The entire block of Forbes from Wood to Market Square would feel as if you have entered a neighborhood. The effect is easy to achieve. On the north side, the G.C. Murphy building will be ready with tenants and a gorgeous facade. The URA has control of a lot of land on the south side of the street — here’s an opportunity to build a smaller-scale housing project; maybe this one can be for sale. There’s enough land for parking here, too.
Build great retail spaces, and now you have three spaces ready for retailers: the G.C. Murphy building, the Lazarus building and the south side of Forbes. Now let’s think about improving the sidewalks and lighting, too.
Fifth Avenue: The toughest block to develop — it’s a great location for a future larger and denser housing and retail project but will need parking, and it is very, very expensive to build. It looks hard now but will become easier as the rest takes off. It’s the hardest word to solve in the crossword puzzle. But we have a powerful ally there: PNC Bank.
Retail: Keep looking for a retail partner to implement the retail plan. Make it as enticing as possible. We have a significant site assembled. There’s something to be said for staying with Downtown Works — they have such a thorough understanding of the city by now; we may lose too much time starting over. It will set us back another year.
A market house in Market Square
Arthur Ziegler, President, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation
Take any available funds, publicly held land and suitable buildings and make them available for housing.
Support a great market house in Market Square. If Market Square must remain open space, use the G.C. Murphy building. A stunning new building would symbolize a positive Downtown renewal and answer the No. 1 question of potential residents: Where can I buy groceries?
Do not limit the housing to the Fifth and Forbes area, but encourage it, preferably with its own parking, everywhere Downtown, especially on the riverfronts.
Adopt the excellent plan prepared by Stan Ekstut that Landmarks submitted three years ago as a guide. [It would have cost about the same as the mayor’s plan, but saved more historic buildings and added housing to the mix.]
Blend the bold with the old
Arthur Lubetz Associates Architects, Oakland
The Fifth/Forbes corridor is the core of the Golden Triangle, and as such it should be the core for the city and the region. This Pittsburgh Core should both underscore and amplify the dynamic and strongly dense urban quality of the Triangle. Moreover, the Pittsburgh Core, like the core of the Earth itself, should be a vital, vibrant place. How can we accomplish this?
Restore and re-use existing buildings almost exclusively for housing — dense, impacted housing that attracts a variety of people and income levels. A good deal of this housing should also have access to adjacent parking. In restoring the existing buildings, render them lively and arresting, from brilliant new paint to exciting textures, aromas and materials.
On the cutting edge: or “in-fill” buildings to be erected on empty lots, chose leading-edge, 21st-century architects, commissioning them to design striking, visionary, exciting places that are simultaneously seen and experienced.
In this way, the Pittsburgh Core could be transformed into one of the most thrilling urban settings in the nation, a place that attracts people with a series of dramatic episodes. The end result would be a memorable experience for the participants — achieved by engaging all the senses, stimulating the body, evoking powerful responses. This total experience of colors, sights, signs, sounds and materials would render the Pittsburgh Core a unique place.
A place to go, a place to be. We can distinguish this city with an urban center where visitors feel the great density of a city while gazing past the rivers and to the green hills beyond. What other city can say that?
Back off, Mr. Mayor
Pat Clark, founding member, GroundZero Action Network
Get out of the business of Downtown shopping center development. Until the city steps away from this strategy, the depressed real estate and retail business environment Downtown will continue to degrade. Redevelopment will never occur in an uncertain and speculative environment, an artificial economy where the city and the URA continue to buy up property for the sake of a misguided vision that is not working. Free-market forces can and will be able to begin the kind of incremental redevelopment that will prove to be lasting and effective, but not until the city restores some stability to the district.
Don’t try to do it all. Leadership doesn’t mean running the whole show; it means partnering and empowering others toward shared goals. Encourage, support and embrace a more diverse strategy of housing and business development Downtown, letting retail take its logical, more secondary role. Retail will naturally follow population and business. Funds and support of retail are better directed toward our neighborhood business districts.
Young entrepreneurs should lead the way. There’s a lot of talk in this town about attracting and retaining young people. There’s a simple solution to turning that talk into results: Support their ideas, empower them and fund them. Create a development fund, managed by young people, to support creative young entrepreneurs in developing businesses in the Fifth/Forbes district. A few key businesses founded by young entrepreneurs were instrumental in helping to turn around South Street in Philadelphia and Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C., during the 1980s, downtown Bakersfield, Calif., in the 1990s, as well as our own Carson Street. Perhaps PNC Bank could help fund this type of initiative and, in the process, transform all those empty retail properties PNC owns along Fifth Avenue that have sat vacant for years.
Stop focusing on building $500,000 luxury condos Downtown. The best target market to repopulate Downtown quickly is young people, homesteaders who aren’t bothered by vacant night-time streets but would actually be attracted to a bohemian-style district — if only there were affordable housing in the upper floors of Downtown properties!
Developing this kind of housing will take subsidies, but I’d wager that the luxury condos would, too, and on a much larger scale. The difference is that young people would actually be inclined to live down there right now if there were housing, even without an upscale grocery store or a Crate & Barrel.
Middle-class Pittsburgh is the solution, not the problem. Five years ago, a big part of the reason that we had a lively retail environment Downtown was that its stores served two important customer bases: Downtown workers as well as the working- and middle-class shoppers who relied on public transit. The Nordstrom/Lord & Taylor retail mirage aimed to upscale the district, shooting for attracting the affluent shopper at the direct expense of the more value-minded traditional shopper. Now the empty storefronts serve neither, but chances of redeveloping the district will most logically succeed if based on the customers who have long supported the district.
Sell everything immediately
Terry A. Necciai, former Main Street manager in Charleroi and Somerset, presented a Main Street plan for Fifth/Forbes to City Council in April 2000. He is currently a project architect with John Milner Associates, Alexandria, Va.
Divest the city its financial interests in Fifth/Forbes corridor commercial properties. Government involvement in property ownership and development is a disincentive to businesses. The Fifth and Forbes area is an excellent example — as soon as the city decided to give up on the business people already in place and acquire real estate and seek and financially support outside investors, local business owners began to posture themselves either to sell to the city or go out of business.
From the sale of buildings, set aside some of the proceeds to establish a new “public-private partnership” office aimed directly at helping existing business and property owners to “grow” their businesses and improve their buildings and their marketing strategies. Focus a large percentage of the marketing resources and energy available on creating visible events targeted at making the office workers and various individuals who commute to Downtown feel like the place is “people friendly” and fun.
Create an aggressive, positive-minded program that works with existing property owners. This program should be only on a “technical assistance” basis. The technical assistance should include highly specialized, highly qualified and highly motivated staff people who know how to work with property owners, large and small, and who know how to deliver good and useful advice about marketing, aesthetics, advertising, and so on. Such a program can be budgeted (and staffed) at about $200,000 a year or less.
Undertake many small- and modest-scaled projects rather than concentrate on “big fix” ideas. Revitalization is almost the complete, categorical opposite of “redevelopment.” To revitalize means to make something “vital.” Vitality comes with diversity and not with top-down “site control.”
Treat historic buildings as assets and gradually upgrade them. That includes all the old quirky stuff found in the district, Any additional funds the city has available should go toward carefully crafted matching grant programs — the city should give no money to private businesses unless matched by the business owner or property owner who is benefiting from the program.
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A Fifth/Forbes TimelineSeptember 1996 — Demolition begins on nine buildings that will be replaced by a Lazarus department store and underground garage.
October 1998 — The May Co. announces it will buy the Mellon Bank headquarters building for $9 million and spend another $27 million converting it to a Lord & Taylor store. Of the $36 million total, the Urban Redevelopment Authority will provide $11.75 million in a “soft loan.” Repayment won’t be triggered until the store generates sales of $259 per square foot.
November 1998 — $78 million Lazarus opens with $50 million in public subsidies, including $18 million in loans from the Pittsburgh Development Fund, $15 million in tax increment financing and $14 million for the 520-space parking garage.
August 1999 — Mellon Bank’s historic marble interior is demolished.
October 1999 — Mayor Murphy announces a $480.5 million plan by Chicago developer Urban Retail Properties to demolish 62 buildings and replace them with 40 new shops, restaurants, an 18-screen movie theater and Nordstrom store. The plan includes $53.5 million in public funds. The city would acquire 64 buildings, by eminent domain if necessary, and sell the land to Urban Retail.
November 1999 — Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and Preservation Pittsburgh propose a redevelopment plan by New York architect Stan Eckstut that would cost about the same as the mayor’s plan but save more buildings and add housing to the mix.
April 2000 — The newly formed Golden Triangle Community Development Corp. presents its plan to City Council, based on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s incremental Main Street approach.
November 2000 — Lord & Taylor opens. With Nordstrom expressing only lukewarm interest in the Urban Retail project and property owners threatening lawsuits, Murphy drops the Urban Retail plan.
December 2000 — Murphy forms Plan C Task Force, a coalition of city officials, building and business owners and preservationists.
March 2002 — Murphy releases details of Plan C: $363 million for a new hotel, office building, indoor public market, two retail buildings and two residential developments.
March 2003 — In a speech at the Rivers Club, Murphy reveals portions of a plan by Kravco. Co., in which the block containing the old G.C. Murphy store would stay intact; parking would be built underneath a Fifth Avenue block controlled by PNC Financial Services Group; and housing would be built along a stretch of Forbes anchored by Market Square and Wood Street. By summer, Murphy says, Kravco will produce a more detailed plan. By early fall, demolition or renovation work could start on the first buildings.
July 2003 — Lord & Taylor announces it will close its Downtown store, which could remain open until its lease expires at the end of 2005.
January 2004 — Kravco drops the Pittsburgh project after merging with Simon Properties, a mall developer. Lazarus announces it will close its Downtown store in May.
— Patricia Lowry
(Post-Gazette architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.)
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Retail will follow the residents
By George Aspiotes and Maggi Newhouse
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, August 1, 2003When it comes to retail, planning officials from cities nationwide have this advice for Pittsburgh: Quit trying so hard.
Despite receiving $11.8 million in public money to open a Lord & Taylor in Downtown Pittsburgh, May Department Stores announced Tuesday that the location is one of 34 stores it plans to sell or close.For Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, the news further proves the strategy he has used in his city for years — fewer taxpayer subsidies means more success when it comes to business and residential development.
“You shouldn’t feel bad about Lord & Taylor,” Norquist said. “I’d feel bad about having bribed them to come in the first place. If you have patience, retail will develop.
“My feeling is the city should make it easy to convert buildings to housing. If more people lived Downtown, then the retail would follow.”
Norquist said his city has one department store, a Boston Store — and he’s fine with that. Since 1999, Milwaukee has added more than 3,000 residential units downtown — without any subsidies.
As a result, he has seen Milwaukee’s downtown area buck the national trend and grow in population.
In Pittsburgh, the population of the Golden Triangle (everything west of the Crosstown Boulevard) is approximately 2,000, according to the latest Census figures.
Milwaukee isn’t alone in its strategy. Across the country, cities of approximately Pittsburgh’s size are finding that retail becomes secondary in the larger goal of luring residents to downtowns.
Denver has not had a department store in its downtown since 1995. In the early 1990s, officials decided the city could not maintain a solid base for downtown department stores, said Ben Kelly, director of communications for the Downtown Denver Partnership.
“It was decided that much more effort would be put into bolstering downtown housing,” Kelly said. “We worked under the idea that rooftops would bring retail.”
Since 1995, downtown Denver has become an entertainment-oriented location. Anchored by Coors Field, the downtown development has focused on theaters and restaurants. City officials hope to attract 25,000 residents to the downtown in the next two decades, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
Downtown Denver has seen more than 6,600 residential units built since 1990, with 1,800 more under construction as of April, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership.
Tampa, Fla., a city of 303,000, saw its last downtown department store depart 15 years ago when the Maas Brothers Department Store closed after 100 years in the city.
As in Denver, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has made boosting the downtown’s residential population a priority.
“In Tampa, the return of the department store is unlikely,” said Paul Ayres, director of marketing and business development for the Tampa Downtown Partnership. “We are working to add residential to the area. Then you’ll see other services come along that are more retail-oriented and geared toward the residential base.”
Downtown Columbus, Ohio, has two department stores within an urban mall. Bill Burns, a spokesman for the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, said the stores, including a Lazarus that has been in the city for years, are only one part of a successful city.
“A downtown setting has to have housing, jobs, recreational opportunities; they all make up a successful downtown,” he said.
Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy’s spokesman, Craig Kwiecinski, said that is also the mayor’s strategy — to focus on commercial, entertainment, retail and housing.
One example is the latest plan for the Fifth and Forbes corridor, to be developed by Downtown Works, a division of Philadelphia-based Kravco. It calls for a combination of new and renovated buildings for retail and residential use.
“We are fortunate to have several major retailers anchoring our downtown,” Kwiecinski said. “We believe that is what we can build on to make downtown a vibrant retail destination.”
“Pittsburgh has tried too hard (on retail),” Milwaukee’s Norquist said. “Try to work more with the real estate market. You don’t have to subsidize.”
Still, the city will have three department stores after Lord & Taylor is gone — and that’s three more than Cleveland.
George Aspiotes and Maggi Newhouse can be reached at gaspiotes@tribweb.com or 412-320-7982.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Homeowner wants to make sure Heathside Cottage will outlive her
By Gretchen McKay,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Saturday, July 12, 2003Anyone who’s ever fixed up a neglected old house knows it takes more than time and money. It takes some of your soul.
Judith Harvey in the “urban garden” at her Fineview home. She restored the dilapidated Gothic Revival cottage then bought the abandoned house next door, had it torn down and created the garden. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)
Just ask Judith Harvey. She spent close to five years restoring Heathside Cottage, a six-room Gothic Revival cottage in the North Side’s Fineview neighborhood. Snow White herself would feel at home within its rounded walls and fanciful gingerbread trim.
“Some houses talk to you,” says Harvey with a delicate shrug of her shoulders. “I knew the moment I saw its chimney from the street up above that I had to have it.”
What one person loves, however, another might surrender to the wrecking ball. So soon after the meticulous restoration was complete, the former librarian began worrying about her tiny house’s future. What would happen when she was gone?
“It really troubled me,” she recalls. “It was important that I find a way to protect it.”
A member of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, Harvey said her first thought was to simply leave it in her will to the historic preservation group. It didn’t matter if it used it as an art gallery or a study; all she wanted was peace of mind that her 165-year-old house — which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and bears a Landmarks plaque — would survive intact for years to come.
But while gifts of property provide Landmarks with much-needed cash to support its mission, “we’re not in the real estate business,” says Jack Miller, director of gift planning. Besides, even though Landmarks would get the proceeds from the eventual sale of the house, buyers would be able to do anything they wanted with the property. So he suggested protecting it first, then making a “retained life estate” gift.
Here’s how it works: Harvey granted a facade easement to Landmarks that guarantees no one could ever change the exterior of the house. She then deeded the house to the foundation but retained the right to live in or rent it for the rest of her life. She would also be responsible for property taxes and maintenance.
Heathside Cottage sits on Caroma Street in Fineview. Owner Judith Harvey is making sure that the house and all the work she put into restoring it will outlive her by making a “retained life estate gift” of the property to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)
“Nothing changes until the day she dies,” Miller says.
But what about taxes? Harvey is entitled to a charitable income tax deduction. Also, the property is no longer part of an estate that could be attached — by a nursing home, for instance — if Harvey could no longer care for herself. The best part, however, is that Harvey’s home and handiwork will be preserved for future generations.
Built around 1855 by bridge engineer James Andrews, the brick cottage is so unusual that it was featured in Rick Sebak’s 1997 documentary “North Side Story.” It is a model of Early Victorian design, with lacy bargeboard, a steeply pitched roof and diamond-paned sash windows. And its location on a hilly outcrop gives it a mighty fine view of Downtown, hence the neighborhood’s name.
Harvey bought the dilapidated house in 1992 as a weekend “playhouse,” then moved in permanently after her husband died in 1996. She also purchased the abandoned house next door and then had it torn down to create an urban garden (the stone foundation serves as a wall).
The largest rooms in the two-story cottage measure just 14 feet square, though the 11 1/2-foot ceilings on the first floor –many with beautiful wallpaper — lend an airy feel. Antiques and collectibles reflect Harvey’s love for anything old.
But there are some modern touches, as well. A large mirror above the mantel in the “futon” room is an inspired background for several smaller mirrors; Harvey herself designed the dining room’s enormous rosewood sideboard, which was handmade in Pakistan.
A narrow staircase leads to the light-filled second floor. Here, slanted walls and a whimsical diamond-shaped window in the bedroom (it’s held up by a chain attached to a hook) add to the cottage’s storybook feel. A slender, pointed “lancet” window in the bedroom-turned-closet room reminds visitors of the home’s Gothic roots. Harvey couldn’t bear to think of it in ruins.
“It’s protected as much as it can be,” she says. “It’s where people can see history and be a part of it.”
“Judith obviously cared very much about the property, so it worked out well,” says Miller.
Many people are not aware that they can give their house or farm — or in the case of one donor, a pizza manufacturing plant — to a charitable organization.
Miller says such “planned gifts” work best for people who want to do something for the community and, in some cases, receive income from an asset that is not normally an income-producing property. With a planned gift, donors find that they are able to contribute more than they thought possible while still providing for their family. Miller is quick to note that no one should enter into one of these agreements without the advice of a lawyer and/or financial consultant or accountant.
Harvey’s retained life estate gift of Heathside Cottage, the first gift of its kind to Landmarks, is only one way to go, Miller says. A charitable gift annuity, for instance, allows someone to give a gift of property in exchange for fixed income payments for life that are based on the age and number of beneficiaries. An added benefit is an upfront tax deduction.
A charitable remainder trust, by way of contrast, permits someone to transfer a property to a trust, avoid capital-gains tax and receive a fixed or variable payment each year for up to 20 years or the lifetime of the income beneficiary. Like the annuity, the gift also carries a federal income tax deduction for the donor.
Lucille Tooke chose the charitable remainder trust option when she donated her historic property, Hidden Valley Farm in Pine, to Landmarks in 2001.
Tooke and her husband, Jack, bought the farm in 1954 and spent the next 40 years raising their three daughters on its 64 acres. After Jack died in 1993, it became increasingly difficult for Tooke to take care of it on her own.
“It got to be more than I could handle,” says Tooke, a longtime Landmarks member who now lives in Chambersburg, Franklin County.
So in 2000, she asked Landmarks officials if they knew anyone who might be interested in buying and preserving the property. Most of the land surrounding the farm, which was built in 1835 by Lewis Ross and his wife, Temperance, had already been developed. The thought that it, too, might one day become part of the ‘burbs “made me shudder,” says Tooke.
Unlike Harvey, Tooke was ready to sell the house so she could move closer to her daughters. However, she also needed an income to meet living expenses. Landmarks helped her work out a plan.
She avoided capital-gains tax by turning the farm over to the trust and received a charitable deduction for a portion of the property’s value and a percentage of the trust’s value each year.
When the trust put the farm up for sale, Landmarks had the right to match the highest bid and ended up buying it.
Before reselling it, Landmarks added deed restrictions that required owners to get prior approval from Landmarks before altering the house’s exterior. They also stipulated that the land could not be subdivided or used for non-agricultural commercial purposes.
Even though the restrictions lowered the selling price and made it more difficult to find a buyer, it helped preserve a historic landmark.
“The land and building will be there forever,” says Miller. “And one day, when urban sprawl takes over, the public will be able to see what an early 19th-century farm looked like.”
OK, you’re thinking, a property has to be of historical or architectural significance for Landmarks to be interested in it. Not so. Mary Ann and Tony Kopczynski recently donated the buildings that housed their pizza manufacturing business in McKees Rocks in the form of a charitable gift annuity. In exchange for the 5,000-square-foot warehouse and adjoining office building, the couple receive fixed annual payments for as long as they live.
They also got a sizable federal charitable income tax deduction for the gift portion of the property transfer.
“It gave them an opportunity to retire without having to worry about selling the property,” says Miller.
For more information on the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s Planned Giving Program, visit http://plannedgifts.phlf.org/or call Jack Miller at 412-471-5808, ext. 538.
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Landmarks Supports Fifth/Forbes Plan
The City’s selection of Kravco as the developer for the Fifth/Forbes retail effort together with a commitment to recommendations made by the Plan C Committee and those of the consultant Don Hunter are being supported by Landmarks.
Kravco has promised to weave the Fifth/Forbes leasing effort into the total fabric of downtown utilizing the existing anchors of the Cultural District, office workers, department stores and buildings. No wholesale obliteration of buildings will occur as were proposed under Urban Retail Properties’ plan.
“ Kravco has adopted an incremental development approach, respecting the historic buildings and adding appropriately designed infill construction, as well as starting with a marketing base of the people who are already shopping in the area,” said Arthur Ziegler, president, “and we believe such an approach has the best chance of success. The developer respects the uniqueness and strengths that Pittsburgh has and builds on them”
The effort will be to secure retail tenants for Fifth/Forbes Avenues without requiring massive demolition for expensive movie theatres and more department stores. Housing will be a vital ingredient as well.
The development concept is much more in the tradition of Jane Jacobs’ analyses of both the growth and the revitalization of cities, an approach that has been proven to work and is outlined in Roberta Gratz‘s Cities Back From the Edge.”
“This developer realizes the anchors we already have in the downtown community in terms of demographics, buildings, retail stores and architecture. The first step in revitalizing a downtown is to recognize its own qualities and see them as strengths and seek retail appropriate to them, retail that will enlarge the market and be successful financially in the long term at the lowest possible taxpayer cost”, said Mr. Ziegler, “and we congratulate Mayor Tom Murphy on his selection.”
Landmarks will make its studies of the buildings in the area available to the developer during the four month preliminary period and has offered to work closely to help bring the project to success.# # #
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City gets some tips on getting a leg up on others
By Patricia Lowry,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 05, 2002Real estate and economic development consultant Donovan Rypkema thinks he knows what it takes to be a competitive city in the 21st century, and it has a lot to do with creating a distinctive sense of place.
“In economics it is the differentiated product that attracts a premium,” Rypkema told 144 people gathered for lunch yesterday in the newly restored auditorium and former banking hall of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on Grant Street.
Rypkema, who heads Washington, D.C.-based Place Economics, has consulted for state and local governments as well as nonprofits like the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center.
Cities with an edge, Rypkema said, will be cities that develop the five senses — sense of place, ownership, identity, community and evolution or history.
“Begin with a sense of place and find ways to be public that fits that place,” he said.
Rypkema, who has traveled to cities in 48 states, described his own special talent as that of note-taker and list-maker, “seeing what works in communities.”
The list in progress he shared yesterday, titled “The Qualities of the Competitive Place in the 21st Century,” included:
Economic globalization. “Your competitors will not be Boston, Mass., but Bilbao, Spain.”
Continuing education for adults. People who haven’t been in a classroom for the past 24 months, he said, are falling behind.
* An understanding that economic growth and population growth are not necessarily the same.
* Human diversity.
* Arts and cultural activities.
* An inventory of affordable housing for people working in the millions of new, lower paying service jobs that will be created in the next 10 years.
* Partnerships: “More and more issues will be addressed locally through partnerships.”
* A vision and a long-term perspective: “We should think as far into the future as the age of the oldest building still in use.”
* A strong, healthy, vital downtown: “A city that has a rotten core will ultimately become a rotten city.”
* Restored and renovated historic buildings, especially downtown.
* A local culture that is valued.
Rypkema’s audience comprised developers, architects, representatives of community and preservation groups, and municipal government leaders and staffers, including 48 people from Fairmount, W. Va. The event was sponsored by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette -
Questions surround Plan C
By Stephanie Franken
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, June 23, 2002Damian Soffer has big dreams for the South Side: art films, new sidewalk cafes, loft apartments and an outdoor theater for concerts or Shakespeare performances.
The developer behind the SouthSide Works, the $170 million entertainment, housing and office complex under construction on the former LTV Steel site, Soffer said, “Everything that will happen in Pittsburgh will start or finish or run through the SouthSide Works.”But what about Downtown, wonders Landy Benaquista.
“There is no life. There are no shoppers here on Saturday. There’s nothing Downtown to draw anybody,” said Benaquista, gesturing across the street as she stood outside Candy-Rama, the 50-year-old Fifth Avenue store owned by her husband and brother-in-law.
With six new development projects planned or under way, Pittsburgh’s urban core will see substantial changes over the next decade. The projects promise trendy stores and restaurants, plus new office space and housing. If successful, the developments could enrich the neighborhoods they border by drawing more visitors and residents.
In a city lacking the population growth that often drives real estate development, however, gains for some mean losses for others.
Most developers, economists, city officials and store owners agree that Pittsburgh consumers will embrace newer developments at the expense of the old.
Among the vulnerable could be Downtown itself, sleepy past 6 p.m. and awaiting its third, $363 million redevelopment plan for the Fifth and Forbes area.
Candy-Rama’s Benaquista said she is optimistic that Plan C could give the area the boost it needs — once it gets under way. But during the wait, she said, area stores are moving on or dying off.
BIG PLANS
Meanwhile, developers outside Downtown are trying to seize their own share of Pittsburgh’s market, proposing more than $1 billion in new development.
Less than five miles up the Monongahela from the SouthSide Works, The Waterfront — a massive $300 million retail, office and housing complex — holds court. It is a mature development, now complete with the exception of eight acres adjacent to Loews Theatre. Farther down East Carson Street at Station Square, a hotel expansion, plus more stores, bars and restaurants are cropping up in a $71 million expansion.
On the other side of Downtown, an expanse of parking lots on the North Shore is the proposed home for another new urban neighborhood with $200 million in facilities for living, working and playing. On 25 acres near Mellon Arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins are devising a $500 million plan of their own that could include retail and entertainment space and a new hockey arena.
Circling the urban core are more than 20 shopping areas — enclosed malls and strip malls — such as The Waterworks Mall in Aspinwall and The Mall at Robinson.
In a market analysis that assesses the viability of Plan C, author Hunter Interests Corp. said the region’s declining population was reason for concern to developers.
“In the simplest sense, these two trends — decreasing population and increasing retailing — cannot continue indefinitely,” the study said.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
The Plan C task force devised a plan to help the project succeed: add nearly 600 new apartments to the Downtown mix.
To History and Landmarks Foundation President Art Ziegler, that’s why the proposal surpasses two previous Downtown redevelopment plans.
“It’s not about malls. It’s about housing,” he said.
But the fundamental issues raised by the Plan C market study remain: Unless Pittsburgh’s population booms unexpectedly, new developments will compete for the same pool of customers.
Experts disagree on the effect these new stores and office buildings will have on Pittsburgh’s economy.
Bob Gleeson, a Duquesne University professor who specializes in urban planning, said real estate development can spawn economic growth.
As private developers — especially those from other cities or states — build new developments, they have a big incentive to see them succeed, he said. As a result, they would pump up Pittsburgh and perhaps succeed in bringing new businesses here, in order to make their own projects succeed.
But Columbia University urban planning professor Elliott Sclar, in New York, disagreed. “It’s industries that drive growth, not real estate development,” he said.
“Whenever you get a new scheme for real estate development, it’s not going to change the basics. Entrepreneurship, industry growth, education, access to capital … they have nothing to do with a pretty store front.”
To Elizabeth Deakins, a professor of city and regional planning at the University of California at Berkeley, the outcome of a new development is a clearer win for the private developer than the city.
“A developer can tell you he can make a viable development and often, he’s right. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to do it by moving the market from Downtown or from older shopping centers to newer ones.”
With so many new projects under way, Pittsburgh may see older, locally owned stores lose out to new, national competition, Deakins said.
Whether or not that harms the city is a matter of opinion, she said.
Mulugetta Birru, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, agreed, saying new developments probably will weaken the city’s more obsolete restaurants and stores — even some old favorites.
They also may alter plans for Downtown.
“I feel all these developments will have a negative impact on the entertainment potential for Downtown,” Birru said. “At the end of the day, there is a limit to how much entertainment the area can support.”
While that reality might force a revision of expectations for the area, it doesn’t necessarily crush them.
Birru cited a feasibility study conducted by CB Richard Ellis for Deer Creek Crossing, a new shopping center proposed for Harmar Township, which found Pittsburgh has less shopping space per capita than the national average. While the national average is 19.6 square feet per capita, Pittsburgh averages 16.6.
Birru said there is no reason to intervene as outmoded establishments lose ground to newer ones. “It’s a natural market situation.”
University of Pittsburgh professor Edward Muller had a similar view.
“This is the nature of American Capitalism, to constantly have entrepreneurs — in this case often developers and large corporations — try to find their niche and boot others out of business,” Muller said.
“This kind of eating up of ourselves — cannibalism — that is the nature of the beast.”
LESSONS FROM DENVER
Whether or not each development succeeds, and whether or not local businesses find success along with them, is partly a matter of proximity.
Some local store owners are readying themselves for two possibilities: Either they will be close enough to new developments to gain from increased pedestrian traffic, or they will be too far away from those developments — and lose customers.
Downtown Pittsburgh might take a few lessons from Denver, another city that recently confronted blight and undertook massive new projects for renewal, said UC Berkeley’s Deakins.
Over the past decade, downtown Denver has undergone a renaissance. Infusions of taxpayer funds led to new housing and entertainment complexes in the heart of the city. A pedestrian walkway now cuts a swath through Downtown, encouraging foot traffic and giving rise to sidewalk cafes and stores. The city’s new baseball stadium, Coors Field, also is Downtown, adding to the area’s buzz.
Compared to Denver, Pittsburgh’s new developments aren’t as concentrated.
“They surround but do not reinforce the Downtown as one would hope,” said Thomas Clark, professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Colorado at Denver.
That means those new developments could compete against — not complement — each other. And local business could be caught in the crossfire.
Benaquista fears her store will be too far away from new developments on the two shores across from Downtown. She’d like to see a few big, inexpensive national retailers such as Target or Costco come Downtown, because she believes they would give people a reason to make the trip to an area where parking is inconvenient.
On the South Side’s East Carson Street, however, some shopkeepers say they are close enough to the SouthSide Works and optimistic that it will bolster an already lively area.
“We depend on foot traffic. Lots of businesses here depend on the numbers of people who come to see the South Side,” said Anne Oates, co-owner of Spotlight Costumes Co. At her 13-year-old store, visitors are greeted with South Side’s signature quirkiness: an array of colorful wigs and costumes, plus two chubby dachshunds named Kiwi and Brownie.
QUALITY WINS
For developers and retailers alike, it’s important to remember that customers will be faithful to places they love — new or old, said Bill Kunkel, manager of the Carlton Restaurant Downtown. “Our feeling is that there’s a piece of the pie for everybody. We’ve always felt that way. We’re a good restaurant, so we get our regular customers,” he said.
“I don’t know if that’s the case with everybody.”
Beyond stores and restaurants, however, what Pittsburgh needs to fill the gaps is stronger economic growth, said James Starman, managing director of L.J. Melody & Co., a real estate banking firm.
And when the future of new development projects is pondered, the health of the local economy represents the greatest unanswerable question.
But time is on the side of area developers. Most projects won’t be complete for several years. SouthSide Works, for instance, is under way now, but it is being completed one building at a time and won’t be finished until 2004.
It’s the time span for completion of new projects that increases their likelihood of success, said Mark Schneider of the Rubinoff Co.
“Do I think the markets are here for 750,000 square feet in one year? No. Do I think the markets are here for 750,000 square feet over seven years? Probably.”
Stephanie Franken can be reached at sfranken@tribweb.com.
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Preserving, improving Pittsburgh with Art Ziegler
By Bill Steigerwald
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 11, 2002Four decades ago, Arthur Ziegler was a grassroots activist fighting to preserve Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods from the rampaging bulldozers of urban renewal.
Today, as president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, he is a major player in the city’s development and preservation scene.
In addition to developing Station Square into the city’s premier tourist draw for out-of-towners in the late 1970s, his group has been nationally acclaimed for preserving architectural landmarks and for restoring inner-city neighborhoods without dislocating their residents.
Ziegler played an important role in challenging — and ultimately improving — Mayor Murphy’s original, primitive plan for redeveloping Fifth and Forbes avenues Downtown. And this week his group joined with Preservation Pittsburgh to nominate the Mellon Arena for city historic designation, a move which, if enacted, would make it difficult to demolish the 41-year-old landmark. I talked to Ziegler by telephone Wednesday.
Q: Knowing what you know about the historical preservation business in this town, what are the odds that the Mellon Arena is going to be standing five years from now?
A: The odds I can’t predict. What we are asking for is simply time to see if any feasible new use can be found for the arena. If none can be found, I don’t think it will be standing. But if we can find good uses, I think it will be.
Q: What, realistically, can it be used for without competing with a new arena next door?
A: I’m assuming that it has to be uses that do not compete. That the Penguins need their new arena and they need it exclusively, so we have to find altogether different uses for this building.
We proposed one already to be studied, having it as a maglev stop for downtown Pittsburgh. If maglev is built, it would make a fantastic train station and intermodal center. It could have two floors that could be developed for restaurants or entertainment, themed perhaps — African-American or nationalities.
Q: Could it end up being used for a sports museum, a jazz museum, shopping?
A: Yes. It could end up being anything. We think the people from the Hill District should be deeply involved in leading this effort, and it should involve all the surrounding land, to weave the Lower Hill and the city back together. Maybe this building could be the principal address.
Q: Fifty years after the city wiped it out. I guess there’s irony there — also indictments there, but that’s another story.
A: I’d agree with all of that.
Q: So in other words, the arena could be changed considerably inside and still hold on to its historical value.
A: I’m assuming it cannot be a sports arena, that we have to find altogether new uses for it. But it is an incredible structure. It’s unique.
Q: It’s almost like a work of art now.
A: It’s interesting also that Edgar Kaufmann, who really was the proponent behind moving the Civic Light Opera there (in the 1960s), is represented. His legacy to Pittsburgh is two fabulous early-modern buildings, Fallingwater and the Civic Arena.
Q: Switching over to Station Square, which you once had quite a hand in, is it still healthy and evolving in a good way?
A: Yes. It has had a transition here, as the hotel was totally renovated and had another 100 rooms added. The new buildings are going in and will open I think in July or August.
There’s going to be a new food court in the shops building and hopefully a direct connection from the shops right to the incline – right from inside the building, up an elevator and across Carson Street into the incline. I think you’re going to see a great revitalization there.
Q: What about Plan C in Downtown at Fifth and Forbes? Are you optimistic that it is going to be done in the right way?
A: I think everyone is together on the plan – the city, the merchants, us. I have heard no dissents from the plan.
Q: Not counting eminent domain?
A: Right. Eminent domain has been put to the side.
Q: Does the plan lack anything?
A: I think the plan is really good.
Q: And it includes residential, retail, keeps the local merchants there?
A: It has all the residential we proposed in our plan (three years ago), both new buildings and loft buildings. It has a market house, which we need Downtown, and new retail and restored retail.
Q: What’s your synopsis of what has gone on over the last three or four years at Fifth and Forbes?
A: I think the winners are all of us, because we now have a plan that all of us believe in. I think the problem was that so often Pittsburgh planning is not grassroots in origin. It tends to be top-down. And here, I think that top-down and grassroots finally came together and we have a good, solid plan.
Q: I’m looking here at an article that says that big malls are dying – super malls, anyway – and that American shoppers are seeking more offbeat, unique shopping options. Have we lucked out. Is Plan C going to appeal to this new trend?
A: I think it’s very timely. People are back looking at downtowns as they have existed in the past. That’s what they seem to want. They’re back to main streets like Carson Street. Carson Street is an enormous success, without any public subsidy and, in fact, without any real planning.
Q: I always say that the places people would want to live in are the places that planners have not touched – South Side, Bloomfield, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside … .
A: That’s right. It’s all the places that are grassroots, that respond to a genuine market … . And they all have residential all around them.
Q: You started out as a grassroots guy. Are you still a grassroots guy? You’re more of a player now.
A: Well, I know that what we try to do is play on behalf of the community. It’s the same with the Civic Arena. What we’re saying is, “Let’s not have the Penguins or Landmarks lead this thing. Let’s have the interests of the Lower Hill lead this, and Downtown interests, and come together on a plan that we all think will work.”
Q: So you are obviously learning from the mistakes of the past.
A: That’s right.
Q: If you could turn the clock back 40 or 50 years, what’s the most important thing you could have done to stop or change some decision that would have kept something around that isn’t here now?
A: I wish we could have started 10 years earlier and stopped the urban renewal plans of the ’50s and ’60s, including the Lower Hill, Allegheny Center, East Liberty.
I think that those demolitions wiped out potentially vital ingredients in the city and did a great deal of permanent harm. They focused on the cores, and removed the hearts of these areas.
I think we’ve got to address — and we have the opportunity with the Lower Hill — how to get them going again. There’s good work going on in East Liberty now to get it back into the physical configuration it once was.
Bill Steigerwald is the Trib’s associate editor. Call him at (412) 320-7983. E-mail him at: bsteigerwald@tribweb.com.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © The Tribune-Review Publishing Co