With apologies to Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin, this standard has nothing to do with football.

Rather it has all to do with bringing more housing to the city’s Uptown neighborhood. The Standard on Fifth is a 51-unit apartment complex being proposed at 2120 Fifth Ave., just blocks from the Birmingham Bridge.

The $26.7 million project, a joint venture between Beacon Communities and the Uptown Partners community organization, could get a financial shot in the arm Thursday when the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority board convenes to consider a $1.6 million loan for the endeavor.

It is one of three pieces of public financing the development team is seeking for the project, according to a report to the URA board.

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Beacon and Uptown Partners also have requested $1.7 million from the city Housing Authority through its project-based voucher gap program and $4.7 million from the state Housing Financing Agency through its development cost recovery program.

All three represent key pieces of financing for the proposed four-story complex, which would feature 40 affordable units and 11 market rate. The URA loan will be interest free for a term of 40 years.

Of the affordable apartments, seven would be reserved for households at or below 30% of the area median income, or $30,100 for a family of four; 19 at 50% of the AMI, or $50,200 for a family of four; and 14 at 60% AMI, or $60,240 for a family of four. Of the 51 units overall, 31 will be one bedroom, 9 two bedroom, and 11 three bedroom.

The complex, which would border Moultrie Way and Watson Street, would be located on the proposed bus rapid transit line linking Downtown and Oakland. Part of the site is vacant. The developers also are planning to demolish two existing structures while keeping three others.

Neither representatives from Beacon nor Uptown Partners could be reached for comment.

Based on a proposed timeline included in its Planning Commission presentation, the development team would like to get started on the project by the end of the year.

Beacon currently controls more than 1,500 apartments at eight locations in the Pittsburgh region. Overall, it oversees more than 18,000 units at 150 locations in 13 states and Washington D.C.

The development team already has secured 9% low-income housing tax credits and a Pennsylvania Housing Tax Credit to help finance the project.

Also on Thursday, the URA board will consider awarding nearly $1.3 million in Avenues of Hope grants funded through federal American Rescue Plan dollars.

The largest grants include $200,000 to Salem’s Market and Grill as it prepares to open a new grocery at the former Shop ‘n Save site in the Hill District; $190,000 to the Onion Maiden restaurant on East Warrington Avenue for dining room renovations and bathroom/kitchen updates; and $89,000 to Wilson’s Bar-B-Q on Perrysville Avenue for the installation of a commercial kitchen hood system.

Ascender, an East Liberty startup incubator, also is set to receive $200,000 in funding for six-month entrepreneur cohorts in Larimer, Hazelwood and Homewood.

In addition, the URA board will consider awarding another $1 million through its Neighborhood Initiatives Fund, including $70,000 to help with the restoration of the Tito house in Uptown.

Among those set to receive $100,000 awards are Pittsburgh Musical Theater in the West End for entrance redesign and exterior improvements; Pittsburgh Struggling Student Association for a mini-grocery in Manchester; the Reformed Presbyterian Home in Perry Hilltop for nursing community renovations; and the Hill Dance Community Theatre in the Hill District for a Sustaining Black Arts in the Hill program.

Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com 

First Published September 14, 2023, 9:30am

It’s truly the stuff of science fiction, from the drone cage to the wheel wash for robots.

Carnegie Mellon University presented plans Tuesday for its new Robotics Innovation Center at Hazelwood Green, the old mill site that for decades helped to feed America’s appetite for steel.

It soon could be fueling its imagination with a 215,500-square-foot complex that CMU sees as a way of “carrying on Pittsburgh’s tradition of making things” while supplementing its cutting-edge on-campus robotics research.

“It really is intended to be space where robotics research is done, especially robotics research that may not fit on campus,” CMU architect Bob Reppe said during a briefing before the Pittsburgh Planning Commission.

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One goal with the new center is to “ultimately commercialize and take to market” much of the robotics research that is being done at CMU, he said.

The Hazelwood Green robotics center will feature a three-story 150,000-square-foot indoor space where robots will be developed and built and a 65,500-square-foot outdoor space known as a “running room” where they can be tested.

One side of the running room will feature the two-story-high netted drone cage, where flying machines developed by CMU researchers can be tried out without fear that they will wander away.

Other elements of the running room include an “agricultural zone” and a large open area where the terrain can be altered to test robots in all types of conditions.

“This is an area that is going to change. It might be a little messy at times because the robot folks are going to be out there and they might be having the robots working in mud or they might be building rock piles for them to climb over and things like that,” Mr. Reppe said. “And so it’s going to be constantly changing. However, we think that’s a really exciting thing to do.”

So much so that CMU plans to create two “significant” viewing areas with seats around the fenced-in running room where members of the public will be able to watch the robots at work. A walled section will include peep holes for the same purpose.

The indoor part of the complex will include a central high bay space for research, development, and testing along with a wet lab, a motion capture lab, a fabrication shop, and offices. There also will be a wheel wash station for robots for use before and after testing.

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“This is not intended to be a traditional academic classroom building. The research that takes place in here is really scrappy and requires extensive volumes of space ... and really allowing the researchers to build and test different prototypes,” said Jennifer Askey, associate principal of the Perkins Eastman architectural firm. “So we’ve designed the building and its architecture to accommodate this research and to really carry on Pittsburgh’s tradition of making things.”

In conjunction with the outdoor viewing spaces, CMU is proposing to dress the building with large storefront windows that will allow the public to see what’s going on inside. It also has plans for a cafe.

The complex will be built along Second Avenue next to Mill 19 where Carnegie Mellon’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative and the nonprofit Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Institute are located.

It is being funded in part through a record $150 million grant the Richard King Mellon Foundation awarded to the university in 2021. Of the total, $45 million has been earmarked for the robotics center.

At the time of the award, CMU President Farnam Jahanian said the building was needed to help the university deal with the massive growth in robotics innovation and technology development in the past decade and to “do certain things that we’re not able to do because we just don’t have the facilities to do it.”

He noted then that work at the complex could include the development of agricultural robots to help optimize breeding and plant growth in the face of climate change and food production challenges; “Triathlon robots” with adaptable shapes and skills that can run, fly, and swim; aerial robots that can collect environment measurements autonomously; and personal robots designed to help the elderly and disabled people living in their own homes.

During the planning commission briefing, Mr. Reppe said the university hopes to start construction later this summer, with completion targeted for May 2025.

The project, commission member Becky Mingo said, “definitely speaks to sort of our fantasies about robotics and about what they mean.”

She urged CMU to be more creative with the look of the drone cage, one that will “pull at the strings of the intellect of the little kiddos that are in the neighborhood nearby, like you can be a robotics person, you could grow up and do robotics.”

Also Tuesday, the commission approved plans for:

• A new $62 million, three-story “heart-centric institute” to be built by UPMC at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The 50,000-square-foot facility will be erected on top of a parking garage at 45th Street.

• A project advanced by Mercer County-based Hudson Properties that includes 234 apartment units spread over two six-story buildings at 2929 Smallman Street and 6 30th Street in the Strip District.

In addition to the robotics center, the commission was briefed on:

• The Standard at Fifth, a 4-story, 51-unit apartment building to be constructed on a site bordered by Fifth Avenue, Watson Street, and Moultrie Way in Uptown. The project is being developed by Beacon Communities and Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh.

• The first phase of the redevelopment of the Bedford Dwelling public housing complex in the Hill District. It will feature 123 units spread over eight buildings, including townhouses. Trek Development Group and the city housing authority are partnering on the venture.

Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com 

First Published July 11, 2023, 11:31pm