Old Iron City Brewery Redevelopment Plan (Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville: lofts, houses, neighborhoods)

[goliath]

Old Iron City Brewery Redevelopment Plan | Essential Public Radio

Lawrenceville Corporation and Collier Development Sign Agreement to Pursue Master Planning Process for Iron City Brewery Site | Lawrenceville

Interesting comments about it becoming a potential "transportation nexus."

[BrianTH]

I'll be interested to see the plan. It is a neat property with lots of potential.

[Evergrey]

Lawrenceville preservation committee wants answers on Iron City Brewing demolitions - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

...


Portions of the former Iron City Brewing Co. site in Lawrenceville that were protected from demolition by the city of Pittsburgh more than two years ago have seemingly been torn down, leading neighborhood preservationists to ask for the city's intervention.

Collier Development Co. of Presto bought the site in February. Their representatives have not responded to calls for comment.

...

[h_curtis]

Time to tear it down. The old icon is toast.

[eschaton]

My wife's firm (she works for Rothschild-Doyno) was involved in a study to see about converting the site into other uses. The problem is, except for a few buildings near the front of the site, most of the warehouses are huge open spaces with no windows, which makes them really poor for conversion into offices, lofts, or any other mixed-use development. They actually argued only some of the buildings, not the entire site, should be dedicated as historic. I'm not sure what ultimately happened.

[BrianTH]

More information about Collier's proposal, with a map:

$100M redevelopment outlined for former Iron City brewery | TribLIVE

I forget which thread we discussed it in, but they did include steps up to Herron over the railroad tracks. I also didn't realize the parcel included everything along Sassafras. At a glance there is only one really cool building along there, and it looks like that is the one they intend to preserve (as offices).

[alleghenyangel]

I noticed a tone among some of those interviewed in that article, and perhaps the article itself, that downplayed the importance of historic preservation. Why have laws protecting a historic building from demolition, if they won't be enforced?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

I noticed a tone among some of those interviewed in that article, and perhaps the article itself, that downplayed the importance of historic preservation. Why have laws protecting a historic building from demolition, if they won't be enforced?

I agree the developers should be held strictly to the procedures in the historic preservation laws, and their overstepping those rules has probably done a lot of damage with the community.

That said, the historic preservation laws on a substantive level are designed to be somewhat flexible and to encourage reuse. So in theory it should be possible for the developer to work with the community and also comply with the laws and still do most, or indeed all, of what they are proposing. But they can't just leap to that endpoint on their own.

[aw_now_what]

Here is the latest news on this:

Iron City Brewery developers' plan hits resistance - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

And the strongly worded letter to the city from community groups:

http://www.phcapgh.org/documents/Iro...etterFinal.pdf

[SteelCityRising]

I can safely say as a Polish Hill resident who lives walking distance from this property that while I welcome the addition of much-needed commerce to our oft-forgotten neighborhood I can also say it should NOT come at the expense of salvaging historic treasures in our city. If the buildings that are potentially going to be razed are a legitimate safety hazard and can't be restored then raze them. With that being said I have a hunch every precaution is NOT being taken by this developer to ensure these buildings are being carefully considered for rehabilitation. Collier is going to have an uphill battle on its hands now that they've shirked the confidence of residents of both Lawrenceville and Polish Hill.