With its aluminum elevators and pinkish marble walls, the lobby of the Alcoa building wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of “Mad Men.”
But it’s clearly a new millennium. Tenants walk their dogs across the black-and-white marble floor as a flat-screen TV plays CNN above a seating area.
When the Alcoa building opened in 1953 at 611 William Penn Place, Downtown, it was a futuristic testament to the material that funded its construction: aluminum. So when PMC Property Group purchased it along with the neighboring building that houses the Allegheny HYP club in 2012, they tried to preserve its unique, 60-year-old character while converting most of the building into apartments.
“We try to use as much of the original materials as we can,” said property manager Carissa Just (www.pmcpropertygroup.com/properties/residences-historic-alcoa-building or 412-227-0959).
As a result, The Residences at the Historic Alcoa Building has some fairly unusual features, including an all-aluminum staircase between the 29th and 30th floors. Ms. Just thinks it once led to an executive suite.
Also remaining are the original mail chutes -- unused, but adding character --Travertine stone walls and the aluminum elevators. Each is decorated with an illustration of Pittsburgh by Philadelphia artist Natalie Hope McDonald.
The apartments themselves don’t suggest too much of their origins, with the exception of the windows. The distinctive, rounded windows originally rotated to allow easier cleaning (some still open). Apartments feature GE appliances, hardwood floors in the living room area, glass tile backsplashes, wall-to-wall carpeting in bedrooms and in-home washers and dryers.
The rents for one-bedroom apartments range from $1,250 to $1,550, two-bedroom apartments from $1,750 to $2,200 and penthouse apartments from $2,200 to $6,000. The Alcoa building also offers three-bedroom apartments, whose rents start at $2,500.
The lobby may be distinctly retro, but the heating and wiring systems are not.
“We basically redid everything in the building,” Ms. Just said.
Other modern updates include a fitness center and a lounge with TV, pool and pingpong tables. Tenants can also apply for membership at the neighboring Harvard-Yale-Princeton Club for $45 per year.
The building is pet-friendly, and feels like it; dogs frequently make appearances on the lobby floor. For bicycling tenants, the former atrium downstairs is now used for bike storage. PMC also plans to add an outdoors seating lounge by the fountain on the lobby floor.
The building is split between residential and corporate spaces. Construction is underway on what will be two Vallozzi family restaurants on the first floor.
“The main thing with the building is to keep as much of the original feel to it as you can,” Ms. Just said.
Libbie Katsev: lkatsev@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1936
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Downtown at a glance
Website: www.downtownpittsburgh.com
Inside out: Many Downtown buildings are a testament to industry — steel, aluminum and glass. Last year, the city finished restoring the facades of 11 structures, including the “Skinny Building,” which at a little over 5 feet wide is considered by some to be the thinnest in the world. The Tower at PNC Plaza, which opened last year, is one of the greenest skyscrapers in the world, exceeding LEED Platinum standards. It was designed to consume 77 percent less water and half as much energy as a typical office building. A chandelier in the lobby monitors energy usage on each floor.
Downtown is home to more than a dozen fountains and water features, including the fountains in Mellon Square Park. In 1955, the park was the first modern garden plaza built on top of a parking garage, making it one of the first green roofs in the country. After a three-year, $10 million restoration, the park reopened in 2014. This summer and fall, hungry locals can buy fresh produce on Fridays at a Citiparks farmers market.
Schools: Pittsburgh Public Schools (www.pps.k12.pa.us). Students are eligible for Pittsburgh Promise scholarships (www.pittsburghpromise.org) and many specialized magnet programs.
Enrollment: 25,003
Average SAT scores: Reading: 355, Math: 365, Writing: 328 (Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12)
Annual taxes on a $100,000 house: $2,178.00
City: $806 (8.06 mills)
School: $984 (9.84 mills)
County: $388 (4.73 mills)*
Earned income tax: 3 percent
*Includes the Act 50 Homestead Exclusion, which reduces the assessed value of a primary residence by $18,000.
First Published: July 22, 2016, 1:58 p.m.
