Adapting Preservation: Lessons Learned from Challenges and Opportunities in Two Large-Scale Pittsburgh Projects

Abstract

Abstract:This article focuses on the adaptive reuse of two industrial-era structures in Pittsburgh, reviewing the resulting designs and the process to better understand transformative adaptive reuse projects in the conceptual and regulatory context of historic preservation's policy and practice. The 1,200-foot-long Mill 19 at Hazelwood Green, a former steel industry site on the Monongahela River, inserts new offices and labs into a massive steel frame built in 1943, the first project on a 179-acre site planned for a very high level of environmental performance. The 1920s Produce Terminal, formally known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Fruit and Auction Building, is a 1,500-foot-long structure at the historic core of a center for wholesale distribution. After more than a decade of planning, debates, and consultation, the Terminal, located in the National Register–certified Strip Historical District, has been recast as a center for retail, restaurants, and commercial use. While distinct in their settings, relationship to their historic structures, and design development process, the mill and the terminal pose issues for balancing urbanism and preservation, potentially informing the development of improved models for an expanded, adaptive management response to respecting history while meeting sustainable urbanism imperatives for buildings and cities and regions.