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May 29, 2003

BST3 construction closes Fifth Avenue lane

This week, Oakland traffic and transportation changes on and around Fifth Avenue commenced, as workers started staging and construction of Pitt’s Biomedical Science Tower 3 (BST3) at a site between Darragh and Lothrop streets.

The north lane of Fifth Avenue will be closed from west of the entrance to Children’s Hospital — starting at the Falk Medical Building (3601 Fifth Avenue) — to Darragh Street until spring 2005. For the time being, construction will not disrupt two-way traffic on Lothrop Street.

Also, the Fifth Avenue bus stop between Lothrop and Darragh streets has been shifted west of Darragh Street to the front of UPMC Montefiore.

Traffic signs alerting motorists to the construction zone are expected to be installed this week along Fifth Avenue and side streets, running from Bigelow Boulevard to Darragh Street.

The new BST3 will be a 10-story, limestone-and-glass building, housing about 50 research groups in some 330,000 gross square feet of space. The cost is projected to be $188 million.

Designed by Boston’s Payette Associates Inc., BST3 will house the laboratories of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, along with state-of-the- art biological research laboratories and specialized laboratories for structural biology, synthetic chemistry, computational biology and genomics and proteomics facilities.

Initial occupancy of the building is scheduled for spring 2005; the entire tower is expected to be occupied by winter 2005.

Plans also call for constructing connecting pedestrian bridges from BST3 to Victoria Hall and to the Biomedical Science Tower.


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