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Old 03-16-2011, 09:18 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 33,003,811 times
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Here is the article:

71 new apartments to be built for Liberty Park Phase II in East Liberty

As explained in the article, the first phase with 124 rental units is fully occupied. This phase would add 71 more units, in a combination of townhouses and apartment buildings.

Pop City also had some details on the pending Highland/Wallace project in East Liberty:

Will East Liberty's historic Highland Building finally get a second life?

Quote:
Last year, the Urban Redevelopment Authority approved . . . plans for a $23 million conversion of the Highland Building and neighboring Wallace Building into 129 one-bedroom apartments, a new parking garage, fitness center, and small retail storefronts. "They'll be loft style apartments with oversized windows, stone counter tops, stainless steel appliances, high ceilings, and a washer and dryer in each unit. The Highland Building is going to have the great views," says Jerilyn Donahue, underwriter for the project. . . . TKA Architects drew up the preliminary design, which essentially calls for a total gutting of the interiors, while leaving the historic façade structurally intact.
Sounds nice, but it all depends on financing from HUD coming through. Hopefully that happens soon.
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:28 AM
 
Location: Atlanta
894 posts, read 1,324,573 times
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people need to start moving back into the city; people who actually work in the city should live there makes sense to me.
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:29 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
382 posts, read 1,053,452 times
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I hope the Highland Building gets kick-started. East Liberty has nice architecture and establishments, but at the same time, it still has an inhuman, banal, car-oriented sense to it. I think the years of government/urban renewal intervention did a lot of harm to the neighborhood in the 60s - 70s. The Highland Building would inject ~200 residents smack-dab in the middle of EL. With further infilling, the area will return to having a more pedestrian sense. The dilemma is however, urban scale takes time- it can't solely be a couple large developments, it has to be the private development of multiple business and property owners/renters...
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:40 AM
gg
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,957,812 times
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Glad they seem to be higher end stuff and not section 8. Great to see and hopefully that place will be a nice place again as it was many years ago. Not sure where all the crime will go, but hopefully just not there. I was on Penn Ave. and Negley area yesterday and I couldn't believe how fast Penn Ave. it becoming a nice place. That area used to look much worse than most third world countries. Much of it still does, but it is coming back pretty fast. Keep it going and the working people will take the city back.
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:46 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ann_Arbor View Post
I hope the Highland Building gets kick-started. East Liberty has nice architecture and establishments, but at the same time, it still has an inhuman, banal, car-oriented sense to it. I think the years of government/urban renewal intervention did a lot of harm to the neighborhood in the 60s - 70s. The Highland Building would inject ~200 residents smack-dab in the middle of EL. With further infilling, the area will return to having a more pedestrian sense. The dilemma is however, urban scale takes time- it can't solely be a couple large developments, it has to be the private development of multiple business and property owners/renters...
They've got a good overall plan in place. Along with these various big developments, they redid the library, they are converting the streets back to a two-way grid, they are planning to add more green spaces and trees, they want to turn the area around the church into a "cathedral square" sort of space, and so on. The hope is that as the neighborhood transforms a lot of small projects will get on board, and to a limited extent that is already happening (e.g., the proliferation of new restaurants with upgraded facades).
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:48 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by h_curtis View Post
Glad they seem to be higher end stuff and not section 8.
Sorry to disappoint the gentrification-segregation advocates, but the new developments include a mix of subsidized and market-rate units, and some of the people who used to live in the highrise projects are now moving back into these developments.
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:56 AM
 
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The Highland ought to be a slam-dunk if the economy picks up - great location, at the intersection of several up-and-coming neighborhoods, good access to public transport (or what's left of it). The article mentions one-bedroom apartments, but I hope they'll include a few larger units.
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Old 03-16-2011, 10:20 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 33,003,811 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squarian View Post
The Highland ought to be a slam-dunk if the economy picks up - great location, at the intersection of several up-and-coming neighborhoods, good access to public transport (or what's left of it).
The EBA would probably be the last route they would cut. Not that Corbett et al aren't pushing for that.

Anyway, I have long felt that the Target and the street conversions are really the last key pieces of the puzzle. Once those are done, you really have all the basic needs covered within a short walking distance of places like the Highland/Wallace. Of course a lot more can and should be done, but all the bones would be in place.

Quote:
The article mentions one-bedroom apartments, but I hope they'll include a few larger units.
They were originally talking about some bigger two-bedrooms as well. I got the impression those would be in the Wallace building (I don't know for sure if that is correct).
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Old 03-16-2011, 07:04 PM
 
398 posts, read 701,891 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
Sorry to disappoint the gentrification-segregation advocates, but the new developments include a mix of subsidized and market-rate units, and some of the people who used to live in the highrise projects are now moving back into these developments.
It will also disappoint the people who know that Section 8 just doesn't work.
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Old 03-16-2011, 07:15 PM
gg
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,957,812 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
Sorry to disappoint the gentrification-segregation advocates, but the new developments include a mix of subsidized and market-rate units, and some of the people who used to live in the highrise projects are now moving back into these developments.
Then this won't be very good. You saw what happened to the buildings with those people in them before. Looked like a third world country at best and honestly there are probably much better third world countries. You shattered my view of the place. Section 8 kills a lot of places. It is killing Verona.
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