Coming
up for final approval of the city planning commission this month is the
Surety Center, a bland name for an unusual project to be built next to
the Hot Metal Bridge on the South Side.
The Surety Center,
designed by architects Pfaffmann + Associates, will be a 325,000 square
foot office condominium building, created as a “home office away from
home” for East Asian businesspeople – especially those from China and
Korea – working in the United States.
The condos will be made
up of 800-square-foot modules, Pfaffmann says, which can be linked
together to form larger office spaces. Depending on how many sub-units
each occupant buys, up 220 office condos could be sold.
The
design is novel, too. Inspired by an East Asian “lucky fish” shape, the
nine-story design incorporates Feng Shui principles. The ground floor
will feature a pan-Asian restaurant and a business club, among other
amenities. Because the developers -- a group of American and Asian
investors -- anticipate that occupants will take advantage of the
pedestrian-friendly Carson Street and South Side Works and will take
public transit to and from the airport, a smaller parking field will be
required, Pfaffmann adds.
“I asked and everybody asks, ‘Why
Pittsburgh?’” Pfaffmann says. “In surveys [of potential buyers], they
tended to be family-oriented. They want an affordable place where they
can raise children, a place less intense than Los Angeles or New York.
Also, they wanted to be near the creative innovations in technology at
Carnegie Mellon and Pitt.”
Construction on the $60 million project is expected to begin at the end of 2006.
Source: Rob Pfaffmann, Pfaffmann + Associates