Unidentified buyer acquires two Downtown properties for $8.35 million (garden, architecture)

[BrianTH]

Yeah, they have been popular in DC lately, with mixed results at best.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Yeah, they have been popular in DC lately, with mixed results at best.

the one I linked I think is a pretty good example. there's a pretty awful one on the same street, 500 block. that said, the better buildings are on the west side of the block no?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

the one I linked I think is a pretty good example.

Yep, that looked decent.

that said, the better buildings are on the west side of the block no?

Do you mean on the west side of Wood Street? If so, then definitely, with the very important exception of the corner building at Forbes.

The facades that concern me are the ones along Forbes (also including the corner at Wood). That's as nice as any set along Forbes, and in fact it is part of their value that they work in concert with the other nice buildings along that side of Forbes, and across Forbes on that block, and across Wood.

So basically, if you started by keeping all of that nice, narrow corner building at Forbes and Wood, and then just sliced back along Forbes (approximately the width of the red brick facade in what you showed us), you could probably preserve the good stuff and still leave a nice big parcel.

Of course all this is subject to there being no positive surprises with respect to the other buildings. In an ideal world, I would also add the Rite Aid facade on Fifth to the list, but for various reasons I could accept losing that one as long as the stretch on Forbes was saved, and the overall project was well done.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by AaronClark

I think it's an iconic part of Pittsburgh now. Personally, I love it. I realize many do not.

Yeah, I'm a "not." I couldn't believe it when I found out it had been designed by Philip Johnson. It's not modern, except it is modern. It makes references to older architecture (Cathedral of Learning), but it's so new you might miss the reference. At least they remembered to make it from glass.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

The biggest mistake they made was building the County Jail on river front property. Building a jail on prime river front real estate?

I thought that was a Duquesne dorm for a couple of years after I moved here. Who puts a prison there?

[jay5835]

I would love it if they'd put up a building downtown like the Cira Centre near 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.

[jay5835]

I would love it if they'd put up a building downtown like the Cira Centre near 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. I love the light show, and walk or drive by there anytime I can when I'm in Phila.

Cira Centre, Philadelphia

[BrianTH]

Do people really miss the Gothic notes in PPG Place?

You may or may not connect that to the Cathedral of Learning specifically, but it seems like an almost in-your-face reference.

Speaking of which, this is a highly amusing ripoff of PPG Place in Korea, which is actually a church:

Immanuel Methodist Church, Seoul's PPG Place.

Edit: not bad scores and commentary in this thread/poll about PPG Place, but certainly a range of opinions:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=139758

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Do people really miss the Gothic notes in PPG Place?

When I first saw it, it struck me as some ugly 1980s building with a glass skin, and I really didn't pay any attention to it. I saw it at ground level. I didn't think much more about it, frankly.

The spires I probably noticed for the first time after I'd been here a couple of years, and a friend and I drove downtown and parked near PPG, and then got into a whole conversation about it, and I think that was the first time I noticed the Gothicness of it. It was then that I heard Philip Johnson was the architect.

[BrianTH]

Wow, interesting.

I'd been to Pittsburgh a couple times as a kid, but don't really remember it, and I'm not sure we even saw Downtown. When I came here fo the first time as an adult--for grad school--I remember seeing PPG Place and instantly thinking "castle!"