whiskey barrel flats
Construction will start on the Whiskey Barrel Flats this fall.

City Design News and Notes

  • The Whiskey Barrel Flats, which went up for sale several weeks ago and will offer uncommon luxury and amenities on Pittsburgh’s South Side, will meet tax abatement criteria, according to the building’s owners who will apply for abatements soon. Tours of the space are available upon request.
  • Homewood Station, the new $11.5 million senior citizen apartment complex from Oxford Development, will provide 41 new mixed-income housing units when it opens at the corner of North Homewood Avenue and Susquehanna Street later this spring. Along with access to the East Busway, Homewood Station will offer a public plaza, supportive services and ground-floor commercial space for local businesses.
  • Village Green, a Michigan-based developer, will establish its presence in Pittsburgh with Morrow Park City Apartments — a 213-unit rental community in Bloomfield on the site of the former Don Allen automobile dealership. In keeping with its name, Village Green plans to build using energy efficient lighting, windows and other materials. The apartment complex will include everything from a modern fitness center to shared space suitable for both business and personal needs. Construction on the building has already begun.
  • Hot Metal Flats, the 115-one- and two-bedroom apartment complex from Oxford Development between the Spring Hill Suites Southside Works and IBEW Local No. 5, will break ground in June. The complex will offer apartments ranging from 570 to 1,200 square feet, and most units will offer views of the city, the Monogahela River or the South Side Slopes, according to Oxford marketing coordinator Megan Stearman. Dallas-based Humphreys & Partners is designing the building while PJ Dick will handle the construction. Once completed, Walnut Capital will manage the properties and leasing.
  • Michael Rubino, a developer with three generations of ties to the Strip District, is one of the many developers to submit a plan to the Urban Redevelopment Authority that would fulfill Mayor Bill Peduto’s goal of saving the entire Smallman Street produce terminal. According to a press release sent out last week, Rubino’s plan would preserve the entire 1,500-foot terminal while creating passages for cars, cyclists and pedestrians at 17th Street, rather than extending 18th Street as the Buncher plan calls for. Under Rubino’s plan, 18th and 20th Street would become pedestrian-only roadways between Smallman Street and the Allegheny River.

Matthew Wein is a local writer, editor, blogger, storyteller and proud native Pittsburgher. Once described as "a man of things," he covers city design, spirits and craft beer for NEXT, where he keeps all of the editorial meetings light-hearted and interesting. His interests include sorting books, looking at old things and candles which smell like old-growth pine forests.