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Bigger Dinosaur Hall, new Forbes entrance, offices, parking in plan

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Officials of the Carnegie museums and library presented city planners yesterday with an ambitious expansion proposal for their campus in Oakland.

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The master plan calls for expanding Dinosaur Hall in the Natural History Museum, creating a new entrance pavilion on Forbes Avenue, building two new entry roads, adding 17 short-term parking spaces in front of the library and building a six-story office structure atop a new 750-space parking garage at the rear of the property overlooking Panther Hollow.

The plan, expected to take 10 years to complete, was unveiled before the city planning commission and received a largely favorable reaction. If formally approved in two weeks, the plan then moves on to City Council, where approval also seems likely.

Then, Carnegie Museums representative Craig Dunham said, all that's needed is to raise the millions of dollars that will be necessary to implement the plan.

"What this does is create a development envelope for individual projects, which would then be brought forward for review and approval," he said.

"From this master plan, the city, other institutions in Oakland and our neighbors can understand what the Carnegie is planning."

Even if City Council approves the overall concept of the museums' expansion, each individual project must later be brought back before the planning commission for approval before any construction can start.

Dunham didn't have an overall dollar figure for the plan, other than the $37 million price tag already put on a proposed expansion of Dinosaur Hall. That project also includes a four-story building to provide more space for the collections and research departments of the Natural History Museum.

One of the more striking aspects of the 10-year plan is construction of a three-story, 26,000-square-foot "entrance pavilion" facing Forbes Avenue.

It would go where a grove of trees now stands in front of the Sarah Scaife wing of the art museum. The building would be a consolidated entranceway for both the art and natural history museums.

However, John DeSantis, chairman of the Historic Review Commission, urged the planning commission to be cautious on that project, saying the Scaife wing is one of the few local examples of work designed by noted architect Edward Larabee Barnes.

DeSantis said his agency doesn't have jurisdiction in this instance because the location of the Scaife wing is just outside the boundaries of the Oakland historic district. But he said he doesn't want to see the Barnes-designed building marred by the new pavilion.

"To desecrate the facade of that building would be a shame," he said.

Planning commission Chairman Tom Armstrong objected to another aspect of the master plan -- carving 17 short-term parking spaces out of a lawn on the western side of the complex, in front of the Carnegie Library.

"It's an exciting plan, but I discourage you from this ugly little parking lot," Armstrong said.

The area -- near the museums, the University of Pittsburgh and Schenley Park -- "is a dense urban area and we should preserve green space as much as possible," he added.

Additional parking should be limited to the five-level, 750-space garage included in the plan, he said.

Dunham said library patrons don't like to use the nearby Schenley Plaza parking area, or the existing parking garage off Forbes and Craig streets, when dropping off books.

Armstrong noted the city is talking about turning the Schenley Plaza parking area into a park, while retaining some of the existing parking. Dunham said those plans possibly could be used to provide some short-term library parking.

"There is a strong relationship between the Schenley Plaza plan and what we do" for library parking, Dunham said

The master plan also calls for shifting the existing motor vehicle entry to the museum, now located at the congested intersection of Craig Street and Forbes Avenue.

It would be moved slightly to the east, closer to Carnegie Mellon University, with a new entry road off Forbes being created into the Carnegie complex. Moving the driveway would create a triangular piece of land that would be used to reconfigure the loading dock for the art museum.

Besides the new entry road off Forbes, another new road is proposed in the back of the facility, off Schenley Drive. No additional traffic would exit onto Boundary Street, however,

The biggest element of the master plan is an office building atop a new five-level parking garage, which also would go toward the rear of the property, overlooking Junction Hollow.

The Carnegie museums would pursue this as a joint venture with Carnegie Mellon University. They have already formed an entity to do the project, called the Panther Hollow Development Corp.

Dunham said the building would provide "incubator" office and research space for high-tech, start-up companies, some spun off from work being done at Carnegie Mellon.

He couldn't say which project in the master plan would be taken up first, or how much the entire list would cost.

"It's all driven by the availability of funding," he said.

Dunham formerly worked for the Pirates and oversaw construction of PNC Park from 1998 to 2001. He currently works as "owner's representative" for the Carnegie museums and library, and is also involved in planning a $90 million expansion of the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore.

Correction/Clarification: (Published Nov. 22, 2002) A new office building/parking garage, proposed as part of the Carnegie museums expansion in Oakland, would overlook Junction Hollow, not Panther Hollow, as was incorrectly stated in Wednesday's newspaper.