Proposed apartment building in Pittsburgh’s Bluff would feature local art on facade
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A proposed six-story apartment building in Pittsburgh’s Bluff neighborhood would prominently feature 10 large panels of artwork on the building’s façade.
Pittsburgh-based GSX Ventures has proposed the 211-unit apartment building on a 1.4-acre site that occupies nearly an entire city block bounded by Forbes Avenue and Watson, Marion and Van Braam street.
Pittsburgh’s Planning Commission is now evaluating the proposal, which is being called Phoenix on Forbes.
“We think it’s going to be quite an interesting building and quite a memorable piece of architecture for the city of Pittsburgh,” said GSX President Jon Grant.
The developer would designate 10% of the units as affordable housing for households making up to 60% of the area median income. According to the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the area median income ranges from $70,300 for an individual to $132,600 for a family of eight.
“We know it’s important to house people at all (income) levels,” Grant said.
The building would include studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, Grant said.
Grant said the development also would include a fitness center, office space, a courtyard area and a pool.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the building would be 10 panels of artwork placed on the outside of the building. The plan is to work with a council of local art advocates to select work from local artists to display on the panels. Those panels could be changed out for new artwork from time to time.
The building will “evolve over time” as new artwork is put in place, Grant said.
Planning Commission Chair Lashawn Burton-Faulk voiced concerns about the artwork, questioning how the art will be chosen, the durability of the artwork and whether the panels could eventually be converted into advertisements.
“The art mural piece is a little bit of a challenge for me,” she said. “That’s a significant amount of artwork that becomes interchangeable, and not really understanding what that’s going to look like even from the onset, I’m grappling with that a good bit.”
She called for oversight on how the artwork would be selected and managed.
The proposal is scheduled to come back before the Planning Commission for further discussion, public input and possibly a vote in January.