Hotel plan for Mt. Washington still a "Go." (Pittsburgh: condo, restaurants)

[nuwaver88]

Originally Posted by greg42

Yeah, in more reading about this one the other day it seemed it wasn't a community group that was opposed; more just the few residents that would end up right behind it. Whatever Mt Washington community group that was quoted then (in May I think it was) seemed to be all for it.

In the Bloomfield case, the opposition appeared to have seeped into not one but several community groups. The developers still said the project was not done, but they haven't come back with revised plans or anything yet.

Financing is a problem, though, even if it may not have been *the* problem in some of these cases. Article in the Biz Times that I received today says this is an issue. The biggest example is The Chelsea, the big apartment building planned for Craig and Centre in Oakland. They've pushed groundbreaking back a year. This is just another case of lenders being broadly stupid and not taking local conditions into account because we know apartment vacancy in Pittsburgh is only about 1-2% compared with 7% or more on average.

I guess those few residents prefer it to be kept a haven for drugs, prostitution and illegal dumping.

[slamont61]

Originally Posted by Doowlle34

Just happenned to have a recent photo of the area. We took a walk up this staircase about 6 to 12 mos. ago and there were still some homes (some actually still seemed occupied) along the left side of the staircase. As you can see, the area is now all cleared and there are some survey sticks in the ground.

In order to orient yourself, this staircase ends at Sycamore St. and you can make out the abandoned restaurant at the top right of the photo.

Wow that's a really sad photo of the City Steps there. I used to use them quite regularly, when they weren't in dis-repair as such. Yes there are houses along those steps with no street. I always thought it would be awful to live there when shopping having to carry everything.

[nuwaver88]

Desmone & Associates

These are still the only rederings that I can find. I am not sure how accurate they are. I am sure these are mostly conceptual, but with many similarities. I am really intrigued by this project. It is such a unique urban project that cannot be duplicated in any other US city. That is why I keep coming back to it. I will continue to search for links because as was mantioned, this can be a new icon for the city.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by nuwaver88

It is such a unique urban project that cannot be duplicated in any other US city. That is why I keep coming back to it.

Excellent point. Along the same lines, while the main building is fine, the parts I find most intriguing are the plaza and scattered condos below, which really are possible only because of the dynamic topography of the site.

[gallacus]

There are some good renderings in this pdf availabe on the Pittsburgh City Planning website:

One Grandview Avenue - Project Information

[gallacus]

I'm not sure why exactly, but I find the main tower extremely ugly. I absolutely despise the shape of it, and would personally rather it was shaped more rectangularly like your every-day tower. The rest of the development is stellar though.

And as for the steps, if you refer to the pdf I posted in the link above, it looks like they aren't even planning for the steps in Phase I. They do not appear in most of the renderings.

[BrianTH]

Great link--thanks!

By the way, I actually like the stepped main tower, in part because I think it will look cool when looking at Mt. Washington from the Downtown side (particularly at night). But I could see how someone would hate it.

[BrianTH]

So after posting the above I drove into Downtown from the east, and I tried to visualize what the hotel would look like as The Edge came into view. I am still reasonably hopeful it will look kinda cool from that angle.

[nuwaver88]

Thanks gallucus for the link. Reps for you. Desmone's website was not offering that.

[sky329]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biz...hotel.amp.html

Million dollar grant secured.. project may be a go