The long-awaited demolition of the O’Hara Parking Garage and the LRDC building, both on O’Hara Street, will begin after all of Pitt’s spring commencement ceremonies have been completed, David DeJong, senior vice chancellor for Business & Operations, said this week.
The demolitions, which were approved at an estimated to cost $12 million by the Board of Trustees Property & Facilities committee in February 2020, were originally planned for May of last year, but restrictions on construction because of the pandemic and other budgetary concerns have delayed the work.
The two buildings will eventually be replaced by the new Recreation and Wellness Center outlined in the Campus Master Plan unveiled in late 2018.
People from the Learning Research and Development Center moved into leased space in the new Murdoch Building on Forbes Avenue in January.
Last year, Pitt officials said that most of the nearly 400 parking permit holder that use the O’Hara Garage will be relocated to the OC Lot above Petersen Events Center or the Soldiers and Sailors garage.
3500 Forbes project approved
According to the Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on March 23 cleared the way for a 10-story apartment building on Forbes Avenue at the former Marathon Gas station lot.
At its meeting last month, the commission told developer CA Ventures and the nonprofit Family House, which owns an adjacent property on McKee Place, to “go work hard, come back to us with something that’s amenable.”
The deal reached with Family House includes reducing the height of a section that juts out at the back of the building by two stories, and in principle will allow Family House to use excess parking spaces in a proposed parking garage and to share the use of a pedestrian passageway between the two sites.
— Susan Jones
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