North Shore Project - Continental Real Estate Companies - Design Competition Submission
Pittsburgh, PA

Size: 150,000 SF Office | 30,000 SF Lobby, Retail

Urban Concept

Infill buildings are customarily seen as smaller scale projects. The North Shore land is large enough to be a town in itself, much as Allegheny was a town on the North edge of a young Pittsburgh. Key urban concepts are:

• Respond to distinctly different edges.

• Create a strong sense of place along the urban waterway.

• Make a positive use of vehicular traffic flow through the site.

Architectural Context

The site imperatives are dramatic in their scale, use and position. Huge stadiums, highway overpasses and the convergence of three major rivers are all part of the architectural context. The key contextual ideas are:

• Respect the edges of the site because the views inward and outward are significant.

• The scale of space inside the site is dramatically smaller than the scale of spaces around the site.

• The historic echo of buildings along the rivers is used to create a familiar, local imagery.

Building Architecture

Pittsburgh’s heritage of river town architecture informs the design of these buildings. Masonry, punched windows, storefronts and arcades compose themselves in a way creating both an urban street scale and a riverfront presence. Key building architecture concepts are:

• Echo the heritage of river towns.

• Strong buildings of steel and masonry.

• Human scale but simple shapes that can be understood from a great distance.