2012 Honor Award
National Trust for Historic Preservation
2012 Honor Award in Regional + Urban Design
AIA Pittsburgh
2012 Finalist, Global Awards for Excellence
Urban Land Institute
2012 Sustainability in Historic Preservation
Preservation PA
2012 Honor Award - Regional & Urban Design
AIA Pennsylvania
2011 Gold Award - Mixed-Use Development
10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania
2011 Mixed-Use Restoration
Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Journal Retail Design Competition
2010 Preservation Award
Historic Review Commission of the City of Pittsburgh
LEED Gold
Core & Shell
Market Square Place
Pittsburgh, PA
Client: Millcraft Investments
Located in Pittsburgh’s retail core, Market Square Place is a collection of seven historic buildings that were plagued by neglect for decades. Strada along with Millcraft Industries led the project team’s decision to restore these structures rather than demolish them. The team worked together to renovate the disparate buildings as a single mixed-use complex that now includes residences, retail storefronts, and a YMCA, all with facades that have been restored to their 1930s appearance.
While the renewed exterior of this project is easily appreciated, the most technically demanding aspect of the project was stitching the buildings together from the inside. The former G.C. Murphy Department Store formed a continuous space spanning part of the block, but its floor plates and structure still needed to be connected with those of adjacent buildings. To achieve this, the team worked to reconcile code requirements between multiple construction types (e.g., wood framing, structural terra cotta, concrete-encased steel, solid masonry, and steel-frame). A key benefit of renovating the buildings as one complex, however, was that the space could be re-partitioned according to the needs of various tenants.
The shining success of Market Square Place and the renovation of the adjacent public square are fueling the momentum of development in downtown Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has been documenting new investment in the area around Market Square since 2007. Read more about this here in our news section.
See before-and-after photos of Market Square Place in this pdf.
Photography by Dennis Marsico