Colin McNickle At Large

Frank Lloyd Peduto

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

As thinking people are wont to say when such intellectual incongruities arise in matters of public policy: “Well ain’t this rich!”

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is panning the design of a proposed 21-story office tower in the Strip District. And his architectural sensibilities are so offended that he’s threatening to withhold public subsidies or variances if the design isn’t changed.

The building would replace the non-descript Federal Cold Storage warehouse on Penn Avenue. The latter, a quite ugly concrete behemoth, had for years only one saving aesthetic grace — the lighted “Smilin’ Fish” sign on one side.

But Frank Lloyd Peduto considers its proposed sparkling successor – a rather elegant glass and steel building whose windows will reflect everything from the Downtown skyline to the west to the surrounding hills – a dud, and a too-tall, out-of-scale dud at that.

He told the Tribune-Review that the design “doesn’t match the Strip District” and reminds him of the “Brutalist” architecture of the 1950s and ‘60s. And he told the Post-Gazette that it’s “big footprint” will change the character of the Strip.

Such a building, which would meet current height rules, should complement the “historic architecture of the Strip,” he says.

More akin to how the cookie-cutter, imagination-bereft tall buildings between PNC Park and Heinz Field complement none of the architecture anywhere on the North Side, Mr. Mayor?

Those designs were the product of a sweetheart land deal that spawned a central plan to, predictably, produce, architecturally, absolutely nothing special.

And, come to think of it, how does any of the newly planned, approved or built architecture of the Lower Hill District, former home to the Civic Arena, complement any of the district’s demolished architecture of, say, 60 years ago?

Now, Peduto tells the P-G he won’t oppose the $245 million Strip District project but neither will he be party to public subsidies or  variances unless the developers change their tack and offer a new “design that enhances the historic nature of the Strip, and not one that is in conflict with it.”

By that standard, Peduto wants a new and perpetually charming-less concrete warehouse erected.

Make no mistake, this is no endorsement for public subsidies for the new building. And, as the P-G also reports, developers say they might seek tax abatements for their new tower.

But it would be a gross perversion of the marketplace for taxpayers to help bankroll a building that will add about a dozen floors and more than half-a-million square feet of new office space in a climate in which premium Downtown office space vacancies are at a 10-year high.

And neither are we swayed by the developer’s claims that this one building will “drive economic and community development in the region” and be a massive economic generator for the Strip District.

Seriously, we’re surprised the developer didn’t also claim the new building will raise our children’s IQs by 30 points, negate the need for teeth-straightening braces and stop bullying, all in one deft swoop.

If JMC Holding of New York, the developer of this project, really wants to build its new office-retail tower complex, it should do so risking its own capital, not the public’s. It should compete for office tenants in an office-space marketplace not juiced by taxpayer subsidies.

As for any variance stonewalling, all we can suggest is that JMC should fight Mayor Peduto’s quixotic architectural misgivings. That said, neither would it hurt to slap that old lighted “Smilin’ Fish” sign somewhere on the side of its new building.

It would be an apt reminder of how government interventionism too often smells.

Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Colin McNickle
Colin McNickle

Colin received his B.G.S. from Ohio University. The 40-year journalism veteran joined the Institute in October 2016. That followed a 22-year career with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 18 as director of editorial pages for Trib Total Media. Prior that, Colin had a long and varied career in media — from radio, newspapers and magazines, to United Press International and The Associated Press.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Weekly insights on the markets and financial planning.

Recent Posts