Category Archive: Downtown Development
-
Implosion of Three Rivers Stadium
PHLF News
February 11, 2001Implosion of Three Rivers Stadium taken from the roof of the Lawrence Paint Building (now gone) at Station Square, Pittsburgh.
-
City officials hope Plan C will lure developers-Mayor says latest effort depends upon cooperation
By Elizabeth Barczak
TRIBUNE-REVIEW 02/04/2001
In the wake of the flood of protest over plans to raze and revamp part of Downtown Pittsburgh, a fresh attempt is turning the torrent toward a path of lesser resistance.
Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy finds himself wooing Downtown business leaders in his attempt to create a Plan C that meets his goal of making Downtown a destination for developers and suburban shoppers.
Plan C is said to stand for compromise as Murphy tries to mesh his vision with the demands of Downtown business owners and pervasive preservationists.
The future of the Fifth and Forbes corridor hangs in the balance as the Plan C task force strives to reach a consensus. The 15-member task force, which includes business leaders and local officials, is expected to make its recommendations to the mayor’s office this month.
After years of controversy over the fate of Fifth and Forbes, the task force’s recommendations could have a profound effect on the future of Downtown.
“I think in two years, maybe in one year, Fifth and Forbes will look different than it does today, and I think Downtown will continue to evolve,” said director of operations at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“There’s a clear indication and a clear understanding that something should happen quickly … a sort of a shoe leather hitting the street, so to speak,” McCollom said. “The idea is don’t rehash, don’t redo, don’t reinvent the wheel but move forward with the task at hand.”
McCollom opposed plans to raze Downtown buildings to make way for national retailers.
Murphy’s initial $522 million proposal called for the demolition of 62 Downtown properties to make way for new development. That plan died in November after upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc. pulled the plug on plans to anchor the project.
A second proposal harkened back to an earlier era with a Main Street approach that preserved many smaller businesses.
Now, Plan C holds the promise of merging the ideas into one cohesive plan.
“Any plan has to be one that moves with market forces … kind of an evolving plan, a living breathing plan,” McCollom said. “In our opinion, it is very difficult and risky to force the market by plopping this plan down in the middle of Downtown.”
The risks involved include investing millions of public dollars into a plan with an unknown return as well as alienating long-standing business owners.
Jeff Joyce, a Plan C task force member, called for a broad plan that reaches beyond Fifth and Forbes. Joyce is the president of the Market Square Association and owner of the 1902 Landmark Tavern.
“If we do the center of the city right, that will bring more investment and continued investment in housing so the business district will be able to grow from there,” he said.
Joyce said many of his customers recognize the need to revitalize Downtown.
“Everyone realizes that the Fifth and Forbes corridor needs change,” Joyce said. “The majority are for dramatic change, radical change.”
Joyce supported the mayor’s original plan but now is committed to working toward a compromise.
“The issues are the same – housing, parking and public transportation. All of these things need to be improved upon,” Joyce said. “I think there is still enough momentum left over from the first plan to build upon.”
Joyce said he expects a plan to be in place within a year with implementation over the next few years.
The question remains if the diverse task force will be able to reach a consensus and whether the mayor will accept its recommendations. Murphy said he would withhold judgment on the task force’s effectiveness until the recommendations are made.
“If the Plan C task force is not able to come up with a working plan and reach a consensus, then I think that the momentum will probably die over the next few months,” Joyce said.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
-
Boston example touted as form of urban utopia
By Elizabeth Barczak
TRIBUNE-REVIEW 02/04/2001
As the two-year tug-of-war over the future of Fifth and Forbes continues, champions of change are pointing north to Boston as an example of urban utopia.
Boston is being touted as a model for Pittsburgh to follow. Although Beantown’s population is nearly twice that of the Steel City, some local business leaders say Pittsburgh officials can learn from Boston’s recent revitalization.
Boston’s Main Streets program has been a topic of conversation at recent Plan C task force meetings.
The 15-member task force is charged with coming up with a recommendation to replace the mayor’s defeated Market Place plan.
“We need to look at Boston. There are lessons to be learned there that can be brought back to Pittsburgh,” said director of operations at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
In the past six years, Boston’s Main Streets program has restored or renovated 120 storefronts. The program helped to create more than 300 new businesses and almost 2,500 jobs.
Boston officials have defined 19 local business districts.
“We know what works,” McCollom said. “We need a sense of district, destination, cleanliness and marketing. … We need a sense of place realized by the retention of historic buildings.”
McCollom said she would welcome large retailers Downtown if they agreed to move into existing buildings.
The concept is one that could be an easier sell to local business owners who balked at Mayor Tom Murphy’s $522 million plan to raze 62 buildings. The plan would have displaced 125 businesses to make way for national retailers.
Murphy’s proposal died in November after upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc. pulled out as the anchor of the project.
The Plan C task force is expected to make its recommendation to Murphy by the end of the month.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
-
Plan C task force has initial meeting-Members still debating if public can attend
By Gregor McGavin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW 01/05/2001
The first order of business Thursday for a task force formed to forge a compromise between competing visions for Downtown was to open the doors to the public – sort of.
The 11 members of the Plan C task force appointed by Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy met for the first time yesterday at the Oakland offices of Bally Design, the company hired to organize the meetings.
The panel includes Downtown merchants and property owners who were vocal critics of the mayor’s failed Market Place at Fifth & Forbes plan, which they said suffered from a lack of openness and public input.
The task force is permitting the media to attend the meetings, said Frank Garrity, president of Bally.
“I wouldn’t go if (the meeting) was closed,” said Arthur Ziegler, a task force member and executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
What they did not work out was whether to allow members of the public to attend, said Wendy Dodd, task force member and marketing director for the Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership.
That came as a surprise to task force member Patty Maloney, who owns a Forbes Avenue gift shop and heads the Golden Triangle Community Development Corp., one of the groups that opposed Murphy’s plan.
Maloney said she had understood the first meeting would focus on organization and general operation of the panel and would be closed to the public and the media. The task force plans to schedule separate public hearings, Dodd said.
“There seems to be some kind of confusion, with me being part of the confused,” Maloney said. “The decision was the meetings are going to be open to the press … I would assume it would be the same thing with the public.”
More importantly, Dodd said, panelists decided that Bally should conduct interviews with Downtown stakeholders, including property owners and arts organizations, to be sure any plan accurately reflects the will of people living and working in the area.
The group also scheduled meetings every Thursday morning through mid-February. The next meeting also will be at Bally Design, 424 N. Craig St., Oakland. The locations of the other meetings haven’t been determined.
Task force members hope to synthesize previous plans from the Downtown Planning Collaborative, the Golden Triangle CDC and other groups into a single plan that pleases all concerned, Dodd said.
“There’s still quite a bit of work that this group will have to do, and it’s only just begun,” she said.
– Gregor McGavin can be reached at gmcgavin@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7844.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
-
Former foes meet to develop plans for Downtown
Friday, January 05, 2001
By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It wasn’t exactly like the Arabs and the Israelis sitting down for Middle East peace talks, but it was close.
Mayor Tom Murphy and his top advisers met yesterday for the first time with former Fifth and Forbes project opponents to discuss how best to revitalize Downtown’s commercial core.
“Three big things are needed: housing, transportation and parking,” said Jeff Joyce, owner of the 1902 Tavern in Market Square and a member of Murphy’s Plan C Task Force on Fifth and Forbes renewal.
“We have plenty of people here in the daytime,” he said. “We have to keep them here after work.”
He listed issues that must be resolved: “How do people get into and out of Downtown? How do they get around once they’re here? How do we make Downtown living affordable?”
About a dozen people attended yesterday’s two-hour session. They said the meeting went well even though little came out of it in concrete terms. Additional weekly meetings will be held in the Oakland offices of Bally Design, which is coordinating the renewal effort.
Murphy brought his top aide, Tom Cox, plus city Planning Director Susan Golomb and press aide Doug Root.
Murphy himself “will be there next week and the week after,” Root said. “It shows his seriousness about this.”
Bernie Lynch, former director of the Market Square Association and an opponent of Murphy’s now-abandoned Market Place at Fifth and Forbes plan, said the geographic area to be improved might end up being larger than just Fifth and Forbes avenues.
Another opponent of Market Place, Arthur Ziegler of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, said the group wanted to get a good idea of what the present and future base of customers is for Downtown in terms of shopping, housing and entertainment.
Once the customer base is determined, the city can decide what shops, restaurants and clubs can be added to the current mix to attract more people, he said.
He and Lynch said previous studies on how to revitalize Downtown would be used in this new effort. Those include a plan done for the foundation by New York City architect Stan Eckstut, and a months-long collaborative effort last year headed by city Councilman Sala Udin.
Root said he’s hoping the group, by spring, will come up with the outline of “a workable plan that everybody can embrace.”
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
Parking woes plagues downtown – Survey finds shoppers attracted to area malls because of free parking
By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW 01/01/2001
Had it been approved, the failed $522.4 million Market Place at Fifth & Forbes redevelopment plan for downtown Pittsburgh would have done little to draw shoppers to the city, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review poll shows.
“I would just never think of going down there,” said Joe Kuhner of Wilkins Township as he shopped at the Monroeville Mall recently. “I have no reason to go down there. It’s just easier to stay out here and go to the mall.”
Only 10 percent of the respondents to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Poll said they would be “very likely” to shop Downtown if the Fifth-Forbes retail corridor was redeveloped. Forty-two percent said they would not shop Downtown even if the corridor was redeveloped.
Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy had wanted to create the Market Place at Fifth & Forbes by demolishing 62 buildings along Fifth and Forbes avenues. Urban Retail Properties Co., the project’s lead developer that bowed out when Nordstrom Inc. declined an offer to anchor the development, had promised an upscale retail district that they believed would have drawn shoppers from throughout southwestern Pennsylvania.
The main reason respondents gave for not shopping Downtown is the often hectic hunt for a parking spot.
Forty-three percent of the respondents said cheaper parking would make them more likely to shop Downtown, and another 18 percent said they might consider Downtown shopping more often if there was better public transportation to get them there.
“We can park for free here,” Kuhner said of the Monroeville Mall.
In November, Pittsburgh City Council voted against diverting money from the Market Place at Fifth & Forbes project to pay for free parking during the holiday season, upgrades to Grant Street and facade improvements for Downtown businesses.
The proposal had been pushed by Councilman Jim Ferlo, but Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Mulugetta Birru said it would be illegal for the city to use the tax-increment financing money for anything other than what it was designated.
Murphy’s thinking for redeveloping Downtown wasn’t completely flawed, according to poll respondents. Seventeen percent said they would be more likely to shop Downtown if there were more department stores. Since being elected in 1994, Murphy has given tax subsidies to build a Lazarus and a Lord & Taylor department store to join the existing Kaufmann’s and Saks Fifth Avenue stores, making Pittsburgh one of the few major cities with four Downtown department stores.
“I don’t go down there now. If it was different than a regular mall, I might go down,” said Shannon Mahoney of Murrysville, Westmoreland County. “The only reason I probably would go down was for shopping, or maybe a concert.”
While 59 percent of the poll respondents said they never shop Downtown, only 4 percent said they shop there on a weekly basis. Those people are more than likely people who work Downtown or live in the city, said Patty Maloney, owner of the Card Center on Wood Street.
“That’s why there are different places to shop – so people can choose where they shop,” Maloney said. “All you have to do is look at our transactions and you can see that people do shop here. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be in business.”
Another criticism of Murphy’s plan was the lack of residential development that could have provided a customer base for the envisioned “24-hour Market Place.”
Shadyside resident Karen McClellan said she prefers to shop at the stores on Walnut Street, within walking distance from her apartment.
“It’s so much easier to walk down the street. That’s where I do most of my shopping,” McClellan said. “I haven’t been to a mall since I moved here, and I’ve never shopped Downtown.”
With Murphy’s plan in shambles, he is looking to his former opponents to help develop a new Downtown revitalization program based partly on the National Trust For Historic Preservation’s Main Street program.
Murphy has tapped the Golden Triangle Community Development Corp. and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation – two key critics of his original proposal – to work on “Plan C, for compromise.”
Main Street has been used throughout the country to revitalize business districts while preserving historic buildings. In addition to revitalizing buildings and fostering existing businesses, Main Street relies heavily on promoting the district as a destination for shoppers and tourists. Pittsburgh’s South Side was one of the first urban areas to adopt a Main Street program.
–
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.
-
New Clemente Bridge lighting ready to glow
By Tom Barnes,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 20, 2002Downtown Pittsburgh is about to get significantly brighter, as new lighting bursts onto the scene tomorrow and Friday nights.
For 10 minutes starting at 6:45 p.m. tomorrow, fireworks will explode from the Roberto Clemente Bridge, marking the debut of the long-anticipated lighting of the span that links Sixth Street with PNC Park.
The bridge will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow. It won’t reopen until midnight. The span will be closed so workers from Zambelli Internationale can set up the fireworks display. Motorists and pedestrians are advised to use the Seventh or Ninth street bridges.
The lighting project, which has been in the planning stage for a year, is being funded by a $500,000 grant from Duquesne Light Co. It covers the cost of electricity and includes $50,000 for ongoing maintenance and replacement of light fixtures.
Installation of the lighting started in August and includes five types of fixtures, most with white globes accented by blue lamps that echo those at PNC Park.
There will be four new “portal” light fixtures, two on each end of the bridge. Each fixture contains five large white globes 13 feet above a stone pier.
There will be 32 fixtures, each with a single white globe on top, stretching down each side of the bridge.
There will be 74 smaller blue lamps attached to the curving upper portions of the bridge structure to outline the top of the bridge.
Floodlights will illuminate the vertical cables and towers. Floodlights also will shine on the piers.
Tomorrow night’s ceremony includes speeches by government and Duquesne Light officials, beginning at 6:15 p.m and leading up to the fireworks.
Speakers include Gov.-elect Ed Rendell; Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey; City Councilman Sala Udin; Tom Cox, Mayor Tom Murphy’s executive secretary; Morgan O’Brien, chief executive officer of DQE, parent company of Duquesne Light; John Craig, Post-Gazette editor and co-chairman of the Riverlife Task Force, a privately funded group that seeks to beautify and enliven city waterfronts; and Arthur Ziegler, president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which lit the Smithfield Street Bridge in 1984.
The Clemente Bridge lights will be turned on right after the fireworks display.
The bridge, built in 1924, was called the Sixth Street Bridge until a year ago. It will be lit from dusk to dawn, 365 days a year.
Officials from the city and the Riverlife Task Force are hoping that corporate sponsors can be found to light other bridges, especially the Clemente Bridge’s two sister spans, the Seventh and Ninth street bridges.
The lighting extravaganza will continue Friday with daytime and nighttime activities that are part of the annual Light Up Night, marking the start of the Christmas holiday shopping season.
Downtown buildings will keep their lights on and newly installed “snowflakes,” 5-foot-wide fixtures containing small white lights, will decorate streets in the commercial core Downtown, including Fifth Avenue, Wood Street and Market Square. The snowflakes, which will be turned on at 5:10 p.m., are also sponsored by Duquesne Light.
Murphy will return from a trip to China in time to light a 48-foot decorated holiday tree at the Grant Street entrance of the City-County Building. The lighting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Friday.
Duquesne Light will also sponsor its annual tree of lights near the fountain in Point State Park.
Another fireworks display will mark Light Up Night at 9 p.m. A complete list of activities is available at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s Web site, downtownpittsburgh.com.
The Port Authority said it will expand service Friday evening for Light Up Night activities. Extra light-rail vehicles and buses will be in service and shuttle buses will be added between the upper and lower stations of the Monongahela Incline.
Port Authority officials noted some Downtown street closures Friday night that will affect bus routes, beginning as early as 8 p.m. Routes affected will include those on Liberty, Forbes, Penn and Fifth avenues and Stanwix and Smithfield streets.
-
Rebuilding needs input, not secrecy
Wednesday, October 06, 1999
By Sally Kalson
Pittsburgh Post GazetteThere’s never been any question that something must be done about Pittsburgh’s Forbes-Fifth corridor, a grim expanse with too many indications of a center-city in decline.
But now we’re seeing what happens when the plan for “something” is hatched in secret, by a few people, with no input from those most directly affected, and without consulting any of the myriad local experts who could have helped shape the project and build community support.
Without that kind of participation, Mayor Murphy’s newly unveiled plan for Market Place at Fifth and Forbes feels like it’s being done more TO us than WITH us. And that’s a shame.
I, for one, would love to get behind a major Downtown revitalization project. But as it stands, this one gives me the willies.
It feels out of balance, both too much and not enough — too much demolition, not enough preservation; too much commercial development, not enough residential (none, actually); too much emphasis on national chains, not enough on retaining homegrown business; too much telling how it’s GOING to be, not enough conferring on how it OUGHT to be.
The plan has its merits, to be sure. Of the $480.5 million package, about 89 percent will come from the private developer, Urban Retail Properties of Chicago, and the prospective tenants. The buildings are to be in scale with Downtown’s current proportions, and all the stores are to have street entrances instead of inward-facing, mall-type corridors.
But — and this is a very big but — the plan calls for the city to acquire 64 buildings and demolish 62 of them. Only 10 facades are to be saved and incorporated into the new designs.
That’s not revitalization; it’s clear-cutting. And even if the new buildings that take their place are nicely designed, will there be anything distinct about them? Anything that says Pittsburgh, as opposed to Cleveland, Denver, Atlanta or Fort Worth?
How many structures that are worth saving could have been kept in the picture if Murphy and his point man on the project, Deputy Mayor Tom Cox, had invited Pittsburgh History and Landmarks and Preservation Pittsburgh into the process, instead of holding them off?
Having been excluded, they’re now working on alternative plans of their own. How much time, energy and expense could have been saved if they’d all worked together from the get-go?
And how many Downtown business owners could have been won over, fired up or, at the very least, assuaged if the mayor’s office had found a way to include them? Now they’re angry as hornets, vowing to dig in and hold out, threatening lawsuits.
It was all so predictable, and so unnecessary. Sure, some opposition is inevitable in a project of this scale. All the more reason to accept the help of potential allies when it’s offered instead of shutting them out.
Arthur Ziegler of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks summed it up, saying he was “most disappointed that the city has ignored all those people and organizations that want to help. There was an opportunity here to encourage terrific local community energy and commitment through broad participation.”
This, I think, is one of the most unfortunate characteristics of Murphy’s tenure. I believe he loves this city and cares deeply about its future. If only he could recognize that other people do, too.
Sally Kalson’s e-mail is:skalson@post-gazette.com