Here’s an update on some Hill District projects:

YMCA: This is going in 2 blocks from my house on Centre Avenue. It is currently slated for an early 2012 completion. Should be awesome to have an indoor basketball court and pool so close! Also, it’ll be one of the city’s largest green certified buildings. Post-Gazette

Grocery Store: Shop ‘n Save has committed to putting in a full service store (FINALLY!). It is scheduled to be completed in November of 2011. This is going to be 3 blocks from my house. Post-Gazette

Consol Energy Center: The new home of the Pens will be opening with Paul McCartney on August 15th. On my walk to work, it’s looking just about done from the outside. still some paint, shrubs, and lights to finish though. It’s on its way to being the highest LEED certified sports center in the nation. http://www.consolenergycenter.com/

Connelley School: At the upper corner of the Mellon Arena’s top parking lot, there’s this old school that has been closed due to asbestos. Now, there’s money to convert it into a place for green start ups and research facility for Pittsburgh Green Innovators. Seems like a pretty cool thing.Post-Gazette

Pharmacy: Duquesne has announced they’d open a pharmacy in the Hill. I’m not sure exactly which store front it’s going in, perhaps the old Carnegie Library Space? That might be too large though. It is slated for later this year. >Post-Gazette

Cambria suites Hotel: The hotel in between the Washington Plaza apartments and Consol Energy Center is close to being structurally done. It has all the blocks in place, now just time to brick it up and put some windows in and finish the interior. Looks like it will open in December 2010. More & pictures

Kaufmann Auditorium: Right next to the Hill House, they’re making a bunch of modernizations and upgrades to this auditorium. Plans also include an outdoor amphitheater. link

Dinwiddie Street: Not sure what all is included here, but they are tearing down a bunch of abandoned houses and blight. I think they plan to build new houses, but maybe it will be apartments. I’m watching the HDCG for updates.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ slogan this season is "defy ordinary".  Might not be all that great of a sports team promotion, but this little video they put together is a pretty good ad for Pittsburgh life in general.  CMU, Andy Warhol, South Side Works, Consol Energy Center, and a bunch of other key landmarks are highlighted.

I had been wondering if Pittsburgh was going to find a way to fix the fountain at the Point for the G20 summit.  It turns out Alcoa is stepping up to fix it.  http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/news/news_detail.asp?pageID=20090825006056en&newsYear=2009  Sweet.  It had been on slate to get repaired in 2010, but with the G20 coming to down, it really created a need to see the fountain this year!

2 other cool plans are coming into the Hill District too.  An arist has been commissioned for 2 works, one in the hill and one for the walkway by the new Consol Energy Arena.  Apparently, there was some sort of stream that used to flow in the hill that was visible in old maps, so he’ll look to tie that into his designs.  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09243/994368-53.stm?cmpid=newspanel0

With every week that goes by, I get so excited to see what Pittsburgh is going to look like in 2 years, or in 5 years, or even in 10 years.  There’s just so much going on, and I love to think about where my house is situated in all of it.

Point Park University is now the second largest realestate holder in the city, right after the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.  There have been tons of performance arts graduates that have gone on to Hollywood.  They most recently purchased the Honus Wagner sports store to keep in line with their plans to bring down the playhouse from Forbes Avenue in Oakland to their downtown campus.  They have so much going on at that school.  They’re converting the YMCA to a student center, they’re planning on building a new sports arena, and multiple theatres for shows.  What a site downtown will be when it’s tied all together with the market square development.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09041/948106-53.stm

I had mentioned the New Granada renovation plan in a previous post.  Shortly after that, they had 2 huge dumpsters lined up outside, lighting wired up inside, and they’re gutting the place pretty good it seems.  One night they had left the lights on, and I could see inside the large room just enough to be excited about one day being able to go in there.  They’ve also lined up all the financing they’ll need for the Kuhn’s super market too.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some movement on that land in the next month or so.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09041/948030-52.stm

Another project recently in the news was the Forbes and Fifth Avenue corridor that connects downtown and Oakland.  The new Consol Energy Arena is showing a lot of progress.  They have about 1/4 of the steel frames in place, and sections for the seating can be seen as well as the tubing for the glass framework side.  here’s a webcam link:  http://penguins.nhl.com/ext/html/webcam4.html   A local family owns a lot of property all around the area, and have been making waves since they’re just using it for parking lots.  they seem to be cooperating now, but they apparently have a history with the mob… http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09032/946197-52.stm