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The face of Pittsburgh is well over two centuries old.

It has changed quite a few times since George Washington looked down on the point for Mount Washington and declared the meeting of Three Rivers a good point for the military.

In the following two centuries, there have been changes brought about by river traffic, commerce and the factories of the Industrial Revolution.

None of the changes were more dramatic than the transition after World War Two.

They called it the Renaissance.

It meant Point State Park, Gateway Center, and later Mellon Square and the new headquarters for United States Steel.

That was no small effort.

Maybe half $1 billion worth of construction.

For the last six years, there has been little building in downtown Pittsburgh.

But that quiet is about to be shattered.

They're calling it Renaissance two.

What they mean by that is about $1.5 billion worth of construction, and that's about three times more than in Renaissance one.

What we're going to get in the next few years is an almost incredible amount of dollars worth of new construction.

They're going to be office buildings, a subway, a busway, a convention center, a convention center hotel, parks, plazas, atriums, and historic revivals.

There's going to be some confusion in all this, because traffic patterns are going to change, and you will want to pay attention, because if you blink your eye, what used to be there may not be there anymore.

Lest you are unimpressed by numbers, let's take a quick look at all that's going to happen.

Most of it in the next five years in downtown Pittsburgh.

There are, in fact, 20 different things that are about to happen.

First, there's the plaza beside Heinz Hall, though they're not sure what it will end up looking like.

The beginning is underway.

The convention center is almost finished.

The grand opening is February 7th, 1981.

Let's hope they make it.

There's a hotel to be built next to the convention center, opening in the summer of 1983.

There are five new office buildings going up downtown.

One of them is for the PPG Industries at Market Square, in what will be a complex of medieval towers, plazas and courtyards.

One Oxford center is the hole in the ground you now see opposite the Grant building on Grant Street, but it will be office towers and substantial retail stores, shops and restaurants to open in the winter of 1982.

Not far away on Grant Street.

U.S.

steel is preparing for Grant Street East.

That will include the new world headquarters for the Dravo corporation in an office tower to open in the spring of 1983.

Grant Street East will also include possibly a luxury hotel and maybe a condominium.

Then there's Riverfront Center, Oliver Tyrone's office tower on Stanwix Street to open late 1981.

There's another office tower farther along than any of the others.

Prudential's two Chatham Center, opening in the summer of 1981.

Underneath Grant Street East will be what they call Midtown Plaza, the main downtown stop for the new subway system under downtown being built by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

They hope it will be done by Thanksgiving 1984 for the new Light Rail Transit vehicle that will speed shoppers and commuters from the South Hills, and it links up with the new East Busway, now under construction.

Meanwhile, the rebuilding of Grant Street itself will take place.

New roadbed, new sidewalks, lights, poles and other street furnishings all to be done as a model of what is hoped can be done on all major downtown streets.

Market square is due for a revival because of PPG, and there is a historic area being preserved of 18th and 19th century buildings up Fourth and Third avenues from Market Square.

First side is an office building, retail and street redevelopment plan for between Stanwix and Grant streets on the river side of the Boulevard of the allies.

Penn Liberty is a redevelopment of the area between the Convention Center and Heinz Hall for office and retail structures, but also a park and other new amenities.

Next to the downtown, there are big plans for the Lower Hill development of the Melody tent site for offices, residential and commercial properties.

It may be done by developer Edward J. DeBartolo, owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who might take over operation of the Civic Arena, which is the hub of Lower Hill development.

Across the Allegheny River from downtown, there is what is to be called the North Shore, which could be a luxury condominium and Marina development for which bidders are now being sought.

Station square, across the Monongahela from downtown, that complex of boutiques, restaurants and shops is getting a new Sheraton hotel right now, and it may be getting a condominium and potentially a lot more shops.

The riverbanks are being considered for many improvements.

One of them possibly is a national park, beginning at Point State Park and going up the Allegheny River.

The Strip District has been and is the subject of many potential developments, retaining the produce markets and adding attractions for what today the planners call commercial recreation.

That is, places where people go to market just for the fun of it.

As for the farthest out plans, there are notions of moving the Greyhound bus station and other transit facilities to the B&O station site, which isn't much developed now.

And finally, there's the Penn Central Railroad station and rotunda, much coveted as a landmark.

Conrail owns it.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority wants to buy it for the city.

The plans are to make it into maybe an office building or hotel or residential structure.

By 1990, downtown Pittsburgh may not be almost heaven, but it will be quite different from what it is now.

And you may be wondering, why is all this building going on at one time?

Well, there was an accumulated demand for office space because after the completion of the US steel building and the gateway and one of the buildings in the plaza, nothing else developed.

Meantime, the corporations in Pittsburgh and general business interest in Pittsburgh.

They simply expanded and required more and more office space.

First quality.

The demand was there, but the supply didn't exist.

Now, all of a sudden, the supplies come aboard.

What's your feeling about the possibility of being overbuilt in terms of office space?

I think that historically that usually happens, that in every city there will be a pause and a period which nothing very little is built.

Then there's a period when theres a great demand and everybody comes in to meet a demand.

And somebody often gets to be Taylor and Charlie and is lost at the end of it.

But after a year or two that usually is absorbed.

New York City not too many years ago, had 19,000,000ft of office space un-rented.

Well, it's all gone.

And rents in New York and demanded are all time high.

Do you think this term renaissance two is overdoing it a bit?

No, I like it.

Well, naturally I like it because first I was around when the so-called first renaissance came through.

I've always joked a little bit about the phrase it's a little pompous, a little overdone.

I once said, what would they think about it in Florence or Rome?

They wouldn't think very much.

But it's a pretty good phrase, and it's what it does.

It conceptualizes a great many things, and it spurs people, really.

It spurs people on to do more than they otherwise would.

Oxford Center is betting that this town needs a whole lot more of both office space and commercial outlets in the downtown, but how do they know that?

We make that determination as developers by conducting our own studies, which include canvasing of the market.

Canvasing of the market would include discussions with major users of space.

It's not a precise science, but the consensus of opinion ours and others was there was a need.

Now on the building itself.

What were you looking for in the architecture?

Once we decided to have the multi-use and mixed use, the commercial and the retail, it was necessary to to to have the retail in the building appropriate to the building.

And with that, we decided the most appropriate use would be an atrium.

The the likeness that it gives you, as you can see from the sky lighting, balconies, looking down.

You also in the retail space you can see where we have the restaurant uses the shops along the side here.

On the lower level plaza will be dining facing on a restaurant.

On the inside.

This plaza where the major sculpture is would be the more passive plaza where people would enter the building, mostly for the office use.

One of the unique factors of this building will be the large amount of retail operation.

What are you looking for there?

We're looking to attract stores that will be new to Pittsburgh, but not new and named.

Familiar names that are of retailers that are presently in New York and other major cities.

We hope to have boutique shops.

It'll make this the shopping place in Pittsburgh in terms of restaurants.

Therell be from a fancy restaurants.

Tablecloths.

Full menu.

Cordon Bleu restaurant of unusual ethnic restaurants we hope to have in a building with the athletic facility that we have plan which will complement the the rest of the retail.

I believe it will be bring new vitality to downtown Pittsburgh.

To me, it's the most exciting building in the city.

Only a few blocks down Grant Street from Oxford Center, the United States Steel Corporation is making exactly the same kind of bet about downtown for what is called Grant Street East.

At this particular point, we are standing on the corner of fifth and Grant looking into the main entrance of the building.

This is the main entrance.

This is the main entrance to the building, and this is a 54 storey tower with a 16 story low rise addition to the main tower.

This is designed specifically to serve the major tenant which is the Dravo corporation.

This is a painted steel exterior skin, approximately of the same color tones as you can see in this model.

It is a functional part of the building in that it does participate with a structural steel frame in resisting the design forces required for this particular 54 storey tower.

Nearby, next to that included in the master plan is a 450 to 600 room hotel.

This is an enlarged scale model of the main entrance to the Dravo building.

Again, we're standing on the corner of fifth and Grant, looking into the main lobby.

It is glass enclosed on the front up to three levels.

The escalators that you can see inside serve the second level of the building.

There is a third level which also overlooks the main atrium of the building.

And over here this is a fountain I gather.

- It is a water fountain feature.

In addition to the exterior fountain, there will be a smaller fountain inside the main lobby of the building.

Lots of water.

Lots of water.

Perhaps the most stunning architectural innovation for this city will be the medieval or Gothic plans for PPG Industries at Market Square.

We're standing in the middle of Market Square, looking southwest at the project area here, which includes six structures.

The main tower, which is 42 stories high.

The South Annex, 13 stories.

And then the other ancillary buildings here are six stories high.

They all surround the main plaza, which is approximately an acre in size.

These buildings act as a new shopping and business neighborhood.

The main focus of the project, of course, is the big tower.

That's correct.

And it is a 42 story high building with the towers on the top that are another four and a half stories high.

The building is 155ft square, and there's 190ft of glass curtain wall.

The folding of the curtain wall is the result of the corporation's interest in taking standard company products, and utilizing them in a different manner than last year.

Yes, the glass will be the same as is here on this model.

It will reflect the blue of the sky, the red and gold, of the sunrises and sunsets, and it will reflect the moonlight and take on a very silvery hue.

Okay, we're looking at the winter garden.

Bill, tell me what goes on in there.

The principal purpose is that of an entry as well as a congregational area.

Can you reach in there and take the top off and show us what it looked like inside?

-Yes indeed.

Now, this is a very elementary model, but it will show you how the space becomes a people oriented space.

We anticipate that people will use it to gather in the bad weather.

Okay.

Why a medieval sort of architecture?

Well, Philip Johnson, being a historian, first and an architect, second in his career, was very conscious of the history of the city of Pittsburgh here.

And it was their concept to make this project a bridge between the historical aspects of the city and the contemporary.

They've been very conscious of integrating the project into its neighborhood and surroundings.

We're standing on the plaza of gateway four, for instance, and right across the street, people can enter our area, flow through the winter garden, into the arcades, and on over through the shopping areas, into Market Square.

And those stores there or on Uptown.

The office tower builders also believe that Pittsburgh needs a lot more atriums than it already has.

So there will be in all these buildings enough atriums or is it atria to satisfy anybody's need to see glass enclosed lobbies, upside down plantings, and people moving around on escalators and in glass enclosed elevators.

There will be a three story atrium.

-The atrium, the light.

A year round plaza area.

- With heavy use of glass.

The glass being three story high.

It will be heated and cooled to approximately the Richmond, Virginia climate.

The inside lobby, which leads to the security level, which is the second level with four escalators.

- And the escalators all the way through.

- Semi-Tropical type of foliage If you are really anxious to see an atrium right now, there is this one in the David Leo Lawrence Convention Center.

In addition to having given us a lot of natural light through the skylights that extend all the way to the ground over here.

All these rectangles you see above us will be outlined in neon to add some esthetic value.

This is the most well-known of all the new buildings because of decades of publicity and controversy.

Now, at long last, it may well be ready to open.

Right now we're in the main exhibit hall of the convention center.

This hall is about 104,000ft of exhibit space.

And this is where we'll run the bulk of our trade shows.

All the exhibits will be set up here.

This is a complete facility.

It has.

All utilities are in the floor.

The the floor itself has a as a floor load so that we can drive tractor trailers on this floor to unload heavy machinery.

People have said there's there's been a problem about eating and dining facilities.

How have you solved that?

Well, in addition to our four concession stands and our two restaurant and liquor lounges we have built or are in the process of building a 3000 square foot kitchen in that upper north corner of the building.

From that kitchen, we can we can accommodate a banquet of up to 5000 people.

Okay.

And when will that be ready?

That should be ready in early March of next year.

Tell me about the skywalk.

This skywalk is 20ft above the exhibit floor.

The center of the skywalk is a 30 square foot room, which gives us also glass enclosed, which we'll have a lounge, a liquor lounge there.

And it's a it's a ramp way between the north and the south meeting rooms.

In fact, it is the main way you get from one end of the building to the other.

It's the main way.

That's right.

So this will get to be fairly familiar to people.

That's right.

It's also quite an attraction.

It's very interesting.

The entire roof weighs about 600 tons.

And the whole idea here is that these strange looking shapes are now holding up this roof.

Yes, this.

This roof is designed much like a bridge deck.

In it the four columns hang the roof from it.

The roof is actually hung.

It's not held up.

It's hung.

We need the minimum columns in this building to to make the exhibit space as flexible as possible.

So we end up with a 130,000ft of exhibit space with four columns.

Where will the Convention Center hotel be?

The hotel has been proposed on this site, which is a 100,000 square city block immediately across the street from us here, and it'll connect just below us via a bridge so that you can get over here without going outside.

You know, in this business, we compete heavily with the southern Sunbelt cities, and we need to have areas where the complexes of buildings that are interconnected without going outside, oftentimes to compete.

And this will help us in that area.

On February 7th, 1981, the convention center is scheduled to begin a nine day and nine night extravaganza to mark its formal opening with huge industrial exhibits and songs, dances and lectures, including some of the world's most prominent people.

Okay, now as you look around this building, the question naturally comes to mind are you going to be ready for your grand opening?

February 7th of 81?

Absolutely.

We we're in a position now where we can just about in a position where we can use the building.

I think there'll be some finished work that will have to go on in the spring.

But but basically the building will be functional and we'll be able to use it as we planned.

It wasn't easy to build a convention center.

It won't be easy to build the subway either.

Sixth Avenue is going to be closed for almost two years.

No parking for those limousines in front of the Duquesne Club and Liberty Avenue from six to Gateway Center will have reduced traffic.

But eventually there will be a new way around downtown.

Underground.

We're standing right now at Gateway Center, which will be the terminal station of the downtown subway system.

Across the street from us here, right in front of gateway four, is where the main entrance to the station will be.

There will also be connections from across at gateway two and the colonnade and the existing tunnel.

That tunnel network that exists here under Gateway Center.

The line will be coming in Liberty Avenue, coming from the South Hills, and it will be making a loop directly under where we are standing, and then turning direction and going back up Liberty Avenue.

It will continue up Liberty Avenue to Sixth Avenue, where there will be a station at Sixth and Wood.

From there, the line continues on up Sixth Avenue up to the vicinity of where the Carlton House hotel used to be, and the Bigelow Garage is now in that area.

It will be completely reworked in conjunction with the Dravo United States steel development.

In that area we will have our Midtown station.

At that point, the line splits.

One of the lines will continue over to Penn Central Station, over near where the convention center is now being constructed.

The other line will continue through existing tunnels out of downtown Pittsburgh, and join up with the Panhandle Railroad Bridge to make a new river crossing across the Monongahela River, down along Carson Street, and then on out into the South Hill communities.

We plan to start actual excavation of the main portion of the subway.

I'm talking specifically Sixth Avenue and Liberty Avenue in January of 1982.

We estimate that it will require 23 months to complete that work, so that we can be finished by November of 1983.

The width of Sixth Avenue, which is only 36ft and we need 35ft for our subway box, requires that we close the entire street from Liberty to Grant in its entirety for the 23 months.

We will maintain all of the cross streets by decking.

The sidewalks will maintain, however, and I think you'll agree that Pittsburgh is primarily a pedestrian town.

On Liberty, we will be able to maintain, for the most part, two lanes of traffic.

It's going to be a problem.

There's no question about that.

I think that everybody is taking a realistic approach, that there's no easy way to build a subway system.

How much difference will it make?

Actually, that there will be no more trolleys on the surface?

First of all, on a good day, right now we use 40 45 minutes just looping a trolley on the surface streets.

We'll be able to make the same maneuver in about 8 or 9 minutes.

And through the AutoBus and pedestrians and truckers and everyone else, you're going to be taking very large vehicles off of surface streets, which I think is a very positive benefit because the street space that is there will be now more devoted to our busses.

Vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic.

I think it will benefit everybody involved.

There's one small problem in all of this.

How do you move around downtown while they're tearing it apart?

Everybody will have to learn some new ways to drive, to walk, to get to where you want to go.

People are saying that all this construction is going to make an incredible mess of the traffic pattern downtown.

True or not true?

Well, it's not true.

I don't think actually people are saying that there is, of course, concern, but I think that the concerns really been raised by a limited number of parties.

Isn't there some concern, though, that with Sixth Avenue being closed and Liberty at least partly closed when they build the subway and all this other construction, that it may discourage a lot of people from coming downtown who want to shop on a short.

This is because the perception would cause them to stay out of town.

The reality would be that you could still get into downtown, you can still park, you can still shop, you can still do business.

And that's the thing that we're very concerned about making people aware that despite this monumental construction program, that the city will still be fully accessible.

What about parking spaces?

Are there going to be a lot fewer parking spaces as a result of all the construction, or what's going to happen there?

We have approximately 25,000 parking spaces in downtown.

Less than 10% will be affected.

We do have on the outskirts of the city and the fringe of the city, 5000 available spaces that people could and should be using right now.

Garages in the city have adjusted their rates to favor short term parkers such as shoppers.

The all day parker has been moved gradually out from the downtown into these fringe lots, such as Melody tent site by the Civic Arena and the South Side.

Part of this process is redoing of the major streets downtown, physically redoing them beginning with Grant Street.

Describe what you're going to do here.

Well, Grant Street is the grand boulevard of Pittsburgh, and we want to dress it up and rehabilitate it so that it really looks like that.

We will be starting next year, we hope widening the sidewalks, removing the trolley tracks and the trolley islands, giving it a special kind of dress up treatment with bricks, street trees, special lights, so that Grant Grant Street becomes the street that that that it should be.

We'll be taking the trolley tracks off of the other surface streets in downtown Pittsburgh and rebuilding those streets.

But that's a little bit later in the decade.

There it is.

It's all coming in the next ten years, most of it in the next five years.

But when it's over, Pittsburgh should have a downtown that's easier to get to and nicer to be in.

And that's saying a lot for a city that managed to save its downtown when others were losing theirs to the pressures of urban decay.

Before that happens, there's going to be some confusion and some aggravation.

But then nobody ever said that a renaissance was easy.

I'm Herb Stein.