PNC Tower Preserved Facades Sketch (zoning, offices, business)

[BrianTH]

Here again is the before and after of the Penn Avenue Fish Company building:





Edit: I just noticed you can see one of the facades in question reflected in the windows in these pictures.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I might I actually quite like the building entrance they designed (facing Wood).

perhaps, perhaps not. not sure how green it will be with 400 parking spaces

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Unless I am missing something, your pictures are just of the bottoms of the buildings.

I was showing what the buildings look like at street view, i.e. what everyone walking past them would see. It seems silly to judge a building by what is multiple stories up unless it is something very unique. The Rite-Aid building is ugly yellow brick, the one to the right of it is plain, and the one to the left of it is slightly better, but still nothing special. And again, at street level (which is what previously everyone was talking about, i.e. what one sees when walking past it) none of these buildings are especially interesting at all (and the one to the left of the RA is especially bad looking), to justify spending millions to save them when something new and nicer architecturally speaking could be in their place.

Again I am all for saving historical structures, and am a big fan of the old and new that our city offers, but I do not support saving something just because it is old if it offers no other reason for being saved.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I was showing what the buildings look like at street view, i.e. what everyone walking past them would see. It seems silly to judge a building by what is multiple stories up unless it is something very unique. The Rite-Aid building is ugly yellow brick, the one to the right of it is plain, and the one to the left of it is slightly better, but still nothing special. And again, at street level (which is what previously everyone was talking about, i.e. what one sees when walking past it) none of these buildings are especially interesting at all (and the one to the left of the RA is especially bad looking), to justify spending millions to save them when something new and nicer architecturally speaking could be in their place.

Again I am all for saving historical structures, and am a big fan of the old and new that our city offers, but I do not support saving something just because it is old if it offers no other reason for being saved.

This is a put on right? An attempt to highlight what you view as the absurdity of this thread or something?

[groar]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I don't think you are in the minority at all. I think many people feel it looks stupid with an old bottom and a cutting edge top.

The building you posted looks very progressive from top to bottom. I don't see that they saved facades. The entrance is modern. There are old buildings next door to my eye.

you might not SEE that they saved facades. but they did incorporate existing facades and an entire historic building into the complex. they just incorporated them well. in fact it's from the same architects who designed the hearst tower.

Foster + Partners

"The scheme continues the practice’s investigation into contemporary interventions within historic structures, explored previously in a high-rise context with the Hearst Tower in New York."

Jameson House Vancouver

"The Jameson Tower project involves restoring the A-listed 1929 Ceperley Rounsfell Building, retaining the facade of the B-listed Chamber of Mines, and adding a new tower with 10 storeys of retail, restaurant and commercial accommodation, and twenty-five storeys of residential accommodation with subterranean parking. "

it was also designed to LEED gold standards, btw.

this is pretty much how pnc tower would look if they followed brian's idea - the section of the building where the facades would be is low and in the end it would just look like a row of older buildings next to a skyscraper. it wouldn't be like the hearst tower, which does look like a skyscraper popping out of an older building.

the hearst tower looks weird in total but when you consider the fact that in real life people will mostly see it at street level or from a distance over other buildings, it works just fine (except that the top is pretty ugly anyway, in my book).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

perhaps, perhaps not. not sure how green it will be with 400 parking spaces

I meant the pedestrian entrance, not the car park.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I was showing what the buildings look like at street view, i.e. what everyone walking past them would see.

When you are walking down the block or across the street, you will see all of the stories. The only way you would not see those stories is if you somehow managed not to look at the buildings until you were about to enter them.

Otherwise, I don't want to argue aesthetics, because that is a matter of taste. I'll just point out the Rite-Aid building is an interesting Art Deco design, and generally one of the things I love about Pittsburgh architecture is its eclecticism--that is four different styles in a row.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I meant the pedestrian entrance, not the car park.

fwiw, I'd guess that it's easier if they can incorporate large chunks of the buildings into the design rather than leave just the facade...or keep the entire corner building. using just the facade would present problems keeping them stable. the st james you mentioned, they kept a sizable chunk of the old psfs headquarters rather than just the facade. I think they just took off the back half of the building.

[BrianTH]

By the way, the PHLF walking tour for Market Square has a little section involving three of these buildings:

http://www.phlf.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/market-square-walking-tour.pdf (broken link)

7 2T Jewelers
305 Forbes Avenue

Formerly occupied by Bolan’s Candies, this is one of the finest examples in Pittsburgh of the Beaux-Arts style. This small but imposing building of c. 1905 looks like a jewel box. Compare the Ionic pilasters (flattened columns) with those on the Neo-Classical building of c. 1915, next door (Penn Wig & Fashions), originally the F & W Grand 5 to 25 Cent Store, Inc.

8 Rite Aid Pharmacy
313–17 Forbes Avenue

In 1937, the J. C. McCrory Company had its architect
(name unknown) apply this up-to-date Art Deco geometric
buff brick façade to what was originally the Olympic
Theatre building.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

fwiw, I'd guess that it's easier if they can incorporate large chunks of the buildings into the design rather than leave just the facade...or keep the entire corner building. using just the facade would present problems keeping them stable.

What I did for the sketch is keep the whole corner building, then keep the same width (approximately 15 feet) of all the other buildings. So that is a little more than just a facade--basically it would be creating a new little row of buildings. You could go a little wider than that, and even vary it by building, but if you went too far back on the other buildings you might really start interfering with the rest of the design.