News
May 21, 2019 _ news
The Roundhouse: Linking Past to Future
Though Pittsburgh’s LTV Steel Mill was shuttered in 1998, the future of the sprawling, 178-acre site that once straddled the Monongahela River is looking up. Now known as Hazelwood Green, the site is being developed as a “transformative model for sustainable community development that is adaptable and resilient to fast-changing markets and natural conditions.” Plans for the site involve opening 31-acres of public space, thousands of housing units, and millions of square feet of non-residential space (for offices, research and development facilities, entertainment, and commerce).
Only three buildings remain from the massive steel works—Mill 19, the Pump House, and the Roundhouse. We are working to stabilize the old Roundhouse. Built in 1887, the 10-bay Roundhouse and turntable functioned to stabilize train engines for servicing, and to turn them, redirecting the materials they carried through the processes of production, and on to final distribution. The trains that once traversed the space are gone, but the building still stands, connecting past to present.
Stabilizing the Roundhouse has involved replacing half of the roof; taking down an enclosure that was collapsing onto one end of the structure (exposing the structure’s skeleton); clearing abandoned vehicles away from the site; and splicing new steel foundations into the bottom of the old columns within the structure (you could reach your hand through the old ones).
We are also working with site ownership to envision catalytic new uses for the Roundhouse. But as GBBN’s design team member, Matt Conti explains, “the Hazelwood Green group realized that they needed to save the building—to preserve it for a future tenant and to preserve our history.”
Read Building Design + Construction’s story about the Hazelwood Green development here.
Learn more about some of our projects that shape the future while preserving the past at Wigle Whiskey, Cincinnati Union Terminal, Penn State Behrend, and 1301 Walnut.
