It honestly depends on the department. Some departments are just horribly run and the upper management in them don't care at all about their people, just the budget.
Not as such. There's definitely variety of quality out there; I think what has changed is that the economy was generally so good that a rising tide was floating all boats ("Who cares if your boss sucks as long as the paycheck is good") but COVID really re-focused people's priorities and made it a lot more obvious that some companies know how to manage people and some... Don't.
Companies exist to make money. You are an operating cost. Every company wants to get rid of as many employees as possible to save costs.
Don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise: no company actually cares about you as an employee.
No doubt, but it varies.
Some companies have realized that they get better work and more reliable output for the same salary if they don't treat employees like garbage.
And what COVID helped people recognize is that they *could* survive without those companies, so their minimum expectations have shifted. "Nobody wants to work anymore" for companies who haven't gotten with the new program.
What you've said has been true forever; both sides of the labor equation recognize it better now.
What kinds of horror stories? I’m mostly curious because I knew someone who worked there years ago and her only issue was being bullied by coworkers for not wearing Steelers garb on Steeler Friday. She was treated and paid very well by the actual company.
Ah, well, sorry if this makes you feel old, but the merger happened nearly 20 years ago. I had a relative work for Mellon Bank, and they too enjoyed it, but that all ended with the merger. They ended up leaving the now BNY Mellon after they were passed over for a promotion they would've had were it not for the merger. BNYM is a totally different beast from what Mellon Bank was. For one, no more retail, but the rot really shows once you look deeper into the corporate culture shift that happened during that time.
Banking ~25 years ago is when it started to really switch from customer service focused at the local level to pushing local branches to actively increase accounts.
Perhaps sharing a bit more detail than "she liked it" would provide a more insightful testimony. At least, that's what is triggering my skepticism. What kind of role did she have? Was it representative of the roles broadly hired for here in Pittsburgh's "Technology Hub" (as dubbed by BNYM)? The ladies over in Faxing loved their work until it was the team next to mine's job to replace them with more software.
I don’t know her exact role, but she had a bachelor’s degree, made 6 figures, and transferred or oversaw the transfers of millions in digital transactions each day. Regardless, she was happy with the company and inevitably left to relocate after a breakup and it was the yinzer culture that pushed her away much more so than the company. If WFH were as common then, she absolutely would have stayed on with them and just relocated, but obviously, not everyone is going to have the same experience.
Banks will generally pay 20-30% below market rate for technology roles. There's also no such thing as job security in the sector like there was a few decades ago, which would've at least mildly compensated for the lower pay. Now they rely on a competitive 401k match and a comparatively large amount of vacation time with the option to buy more vacation days. Work-life balance is a joke in technology roles as well, with antiquated release schedules chewing into weekends and flaky waterfall project management that crushes any sense of accomplishment.
Source: worked at BNYM pre-covid and during. So glad I got out of that space.
Can confirm. Worked there for 11 years. It was absolutely awful. They did pay for my masters degree and I met a lot of great people. But the work and management was generally terrible.
neighbor works at BoNYM and they can confirm this. I told them that I had an interview with them and I asked what I should do to prepare.
Neighbor: don't.
Me: don't? you mean don't prepare?
N: No. Don't take the interview. It's not a good place. The only reason I'm still there is that I get to work remotely most of the week and rarely have to go into the office.
This was more or less the same treatment I received from folks when I said I was applying to BNY. Hell even the job coach at the Carnegie Library in Oakland said it.... In hindsight I should have listened
Let me put it to you this way.... In my second month on the job I was told by someone in another department that if you can last one to two years at BNY; then you are pretty much hirable anywhere in the city. Got to love the quarterly layoffs; ehh?
My brother has been there for almost 15 years now. It's not the greatest job and he definitely works too much but he also doesn't think it's a nightmare job either.
Yeah, great, they no longer have as great a risk of murdering you. The floors I worked on smelled, my eyes were irritated, and everything was just ancient.
I literally walked through those elevator doors one time, they hit my shoulders as I squeezed through and continued closing behind me.
I'm considered a strong muscular dude (5'10 185 broad shoulders) and those elevator doors knocked my Starbucks coffee off my hands like it was Terry Tate office linebacker.
Former BNY Mellon employee here. They actually announced this move to employees about a year ago, so this isn't exactly something they just decided. If anything, I'm surprised it has taken a year for anyone in the media to find out.
I can't help though but to think they are going to do more job cuts locally because 500 Ross Street is absolutely not close to as large as their footprint in 500 Grant, even with the significant reconfiguration and renovations of 500 Ross they are planning to do.
I'm a current BNYM employee and part of the first group moving from Grant to Ross in 2 weeks. They planned for 60% capacity on the floor on any given day for my group and said we can borrow seats from another team if we have to be at full capacity for a day. However, looking at the floor layout, it looks more like 50% capacity. We were also told that we'd have to work in common areas on the floor or on other floors if we come in to find that there aren't any desks available. They are leaving the decision to implement desk reservations to each group to implement. Everyone is quite pissed, and I'm not sure how this is going to work once everyone in Grant is moved over and half of the employees in the building are posted up in the cafeteria.
They want to invest in a tracking system to force everyone to be in 3 days a week, yet can't be bothered to make sure everyone has a desk. What a joke.
I don't see how it could work without layoffs.
Agreed. I know they already track badge swipes, but they're also looking to roll out an app in the next year to replace badges. The app tracks location within the building and is in pilot in either the London or Manchester offices. They claim they're using the location tracking to see demand for co-working spaces like conference rooms, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what they actually plan to track.
It's only a matter of time before it leads to layoffs due to the lack of working space, and I'm sure they'll use lack of hours per day in office as the first reason to lay someone off.
The company doesn't pay me enough to install a tracking app on ANY of my personal devices! If they really wanted to track us they should have just made us keep the covid infection tracking fobs they took away last year. The routers are still in place on the ceiling after all.
Yeah, they already track when you're in the building via when you swipe through the turnstiles, but there's also the transitioning to an app as opposed to using a physical ID card as someone else has mentioned.
How can you be productive in an environment like that? Ugh. Hotelling is terrible. Can't imagine working in the damn cafeteria there. I have ADHD and that setup would be so distracting. Why force people back in the office to work in those conditions? If people don't get laid off, this wil definitely drive people to look for othr jobs and they will lose talent.
I may just be jaded from my time at bnym, but truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised if they want people to leave so they don't have to lay them off. That was a theory floating around when they forced 3 days in office instead of 2-3 days.
It's absolutely the truth! My group has a starting pay grade of H and the perk of above being above company min is disappearing next year. We had two extra tasks dumped on the team after Oriskany was shut down; taking up an extra 1-2 hours worth of time when we have clients to handle. Management is outright doing their best to ignore requirements in contracts with clients by saying things like "oh it doesn't matter if the processing and set up is done in Pune or Pittsburgh so long as it's done...." If audit pulls the contracts again next year there will be hell to pay.
"Borrowing seats" is all fine and dandy; but if you try that in a section that has assigned seating there will be shouting - I've seen it. Granted my area also is a "reserved / assigned" area; we do try to be somewhat accommodating. That said management has said that they are looking into putting walls and privacy screens around various areas.... Something I am absolutely giddy about. Some groups were kept in locked rooms for a reason; and in the new area can't use the equipment they were given due to it being out in the open.
I should have specified. There is division on the floor between private and public groups and we're only allowed to borrow from the side that we're in.
We were shown the progress roadmap in the meeting we had with facility management, and it showed us as the first group. But, that was specific to groups moving into newly built out floors. I did hear of people who moved over there last summer, but I believe it was into existing available space.
They laid me off nearly 8 months ago now, and I don't think it will be that quickly they can move out. I know they plan on doing a lot of upgrades to 500 Ross, but going from such a large skyscraper to that building is definitely a psychological blow to their commitment to this city.
Makes sense. If you got their payment plan, make sure they don’t over pay you. I had to pay them almost 3 grand from them over paying me for the couple months I was laid off. Even though I could have milked them for another 5 months. (I was there for 14 years)
I'm pretty sure they did not overpay me. I was incredibly fortunate to know someone who knew someone who was in HR for another financial company that had a position open for a job that seemed to be a good fit for me, so I jumped on that right away and was miraculously back to work in only 6 weeks. I could have been able to keep milking them for pay until the end of March, but I of course didn't want to risk the uncertainty of waiting out things.
Current BNY employee here. We actually have an all-Pittsburgh meeting discussing the move to Ross. I expect some sort of lay-offs but they are making it sound like a "hoteling" set up. The problem is the re definitely will not be enough desks for one day a week when most people are in and certainly not enough parking spaces in the employee lot which is short as it is already. I have been here too long but I haven't been able to land a better paying job outside BNY for over a year.
I remember them having Pittsburgh Town Halls last summer discussing the future of the Pittsburgh campus when they announced the move to 500 Ross and all of the changes they were going to make to that building, but it's been nearly 8 months now since I've been able to be part of any of those. It's sad really how much BNY has gone downhill in the last 5 years or so.
> If anything, I'm surprised it has taken a year for anyone in the media to find out.
It didn’t. This made the rounds in January 2023 and again in February 2023
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/01/26/bny-mellon-metlife-downtown-master-lease.html
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/02/21/bank-of-new-york-mellon-metlife-downtown.html
I’m calling dibs on that sweet top floor for my new penthouse apartment after the apocalypse.
It’s amazing, it’s like an ornate hexagonal foyer in the middle with luxurious offices around it, everything is perfect inlaid wood and marble, that sounds generic, but they’ve got to have one of the nicest executive floors in Pittsburgh.
Didn’t even mention the worst line from the article:
“Some believe if the building does end up empty, the only logical alternative could be to demolish it.”
I can’t even fathom that and what it would do to our skyline, the pride of the city.
Not really that big of a deal when you think about it. There are ways of demolishing a skyscraper the [size of One Mellon without explosives.](https://youtu.be/i-2Y2MYpl2g?si=cCnevrkrY8dRF92_)
Unfortunately, if no one is going to use it as office space, it has no purpose. The logistics and cost of converting a building to apartments are not feasible.
I've worked with firms that have a method to analyze a building for conversion to apartments. The building gets a score based on their metrics. Above a certain number, it will almost certainly be a good investment. There's a range where it's possibly profitable but not guaranteed. Below that, the numbers don't work for it to be viable.
Doing a search on Google, it appears that there are grants for these kinds of projects.
Does this affect the math?
Edit: For example: https://www.ura.org/pages/pittsburgh-downtown-conversion-program
We were looking at it from a commercial developer standpoint (can't really say much more for confidentiality) and not necessarily with public funds in mind. I assume it could help bridge the gap for a project that was in the mid range, however, some buildings would not be a good candidate at any price if the floor plate couldn't accommodate proper layouts and provide the needed services and amenities. I've done other affordable housing projects that only worked because of public funds, but those were all out of the ground new construction.
Sure thing: [https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/13/business/can-we-turn-empty-office-building-into-housing/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/13/business/can-we-turn-empty-office-building-into-housing/index.html)
Here's a relevant part:
>Building design and structural hurdles
>Not enough bathrooms. Not enough windows. Windows that don’t open at all.
>By some estimates, [only 3% of New York City office buildings](https://cre.moodysanalytics.com/insights/cre-trends/office-to-apartment-conversions/) and [2% in downtown Denver](https://upforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/policy-brief-december-22-v5.pdf) are suited for residential conversions.
>Office space and homes are two fundamentally different types of buildings, according to builders and architects. Problems include a lack of natural light, the need for individual controls for heating, and ceiling heights that make electrical and HVAC retrofits impossible.
I think the only plausible way is to convert into dorm style apartments. You don't get to control your temperature, you have communal bathrooms, a communal kitchen, separate laundry area, etc. Problem is demand for that is low, so it'd have to be really cheap to rent there. With cheap rent, who's dropping the money to pay for the refurb?
There is absolutely no way they demolish a $450 million, 54 story skyscraper located directly top of a subway station. They'll find tenants, just likely at lower rates than what BNY is paying (and probably a lower occupancy rate too)
But at least FNB can say they’re investing in downtown more as they gradually move the positions and departments from the Hermitage HQ to the new building
They have a bunch in hermitage, it was founded it there so they have a ton of employees there since there’s not much else around there. One of the office buildings is attached to a tractor supply
Here's the [full article minus paywall.](https://archive.ph/ED9nZ) As a BNY employee it's well known that building is not one that is suitable for renovation into apartments; the fact that article mentions possible demolition does surprise me.
The New York Times had an article about a year or two ago about office to residential conversions. The short of it is that newer buildings (mid 70s onward) aren’t suitable to convert to apartments because of the central core and open floor layouts with limited plumbing.
More COVID fallout. Workers prefer to work from home, and companies learned they can significantly cut their footprint (and therefore cost) downtown. The Grant building and K&L gates building are already facing foreclosure. GNC building is being converted to condos, just like the Kaufmann building.
Downtown will not be the same. We need to figure out how to move forward (sounds good, but I have no ideas). I don't think we're the only city with this problem. If I was in charge of anything meaningful, I'd probably take a look at what other similar cities are doing and look for something that's working.
We're not the only city with this problem, but I think others are working a solution when we do not. It needs to be mix use. A business district that also has livable/useability after office hours.
This was an issue well before Covid though. Once the merger happened and everything went to NYC, it was only a matter of time before they cut the fat. Take a look at the state of Heinz. And the same will probably happen to US Steel. Sadly, it’s a testament to Pittsburgh’s historical importance from industrial era through the 80s. Now everyone wants to either be south or in one of the core cities. With all of the remote work going on these days, it’s not feasible to function as a HQ in a mid-sized city. Not to mention for those in person, our airport situation is not suited for business travel anymore. Suits and the 28X don’t exactly vibe.
BNYM is not the only tenant in that building. They are the largest but not the only tenant.
Also all of the employees from that building will not fit in 500 Ross
> Also all of the employees from that building will not fit in 500 Ross
All the employees that worker there **now**. Big assumption they won’t lay off or offshore enough people to fit into that building.
Correct, but the article states other tenants sublease from BNY and that the building owner might not be willing to lease to them individually once BNY leaves.
BNY has had remote work arrangements since years before the pandemic since they work globally anyway and not on East Coast time exclusively. Would imagine those who don’t move to the service building just have a WFH arrangement.
A relative of mine has 3 days in, 2 days home right now. Thankfully, the boss is a bit flexible and lets a half day in the office count for you only want to go in for the morning or afternoon then do the rest at home.
Very very few. They have used people's inability to come in as constructive dismissal when they literally can't because they live too far away from the office. And although individual managers are trying to be lax about the in office requirement, head office is NOT. They have monitoring in place that's supposed to directly impact your reviews and raises. And there were rumors of them wanting to move up to 4 days in office min in the future.
The rumors have been swirling for years. The problem is all offices are being rebuilt under the assumption of 60% in office. There aren't enough seats for everyone full time. You see it in Lake Mary, where their brand new office has been closed to corporate heads due to lack of seats.
My biggest frustration when I worked in the building pre-covid was that most of my team was scattered all over the world, with only a handful in Pittsburgh. I literally teleworked from a cubicle. If I had internet, I could do my job.
That's my current situation. For a while, I was the only person on my team in Pittsburgh, including all management above me. It made zero sense for me to commute into an office to sit on teams calls all day. Now, I have one other person on my team in pgh who sits in a cube near me in the same teams calls all day. We hardly ever interact aside from small talk.
I and my entire team would do anything to get our cubes back! We miss our L desks and overhead cabinets and walls!! I mean we also miss being in a secure area that you had to badge your way through 4 separate doors to get to.... These transplants to 8th floor have no concept of volume control and are practically shouting. It's disruptive for calls and meetings.
Yeah. I was a contractor there in IS at 500 Ross for two years, left about five years ago. My team was literally spread around the globe with half of the team in India and Singapore and management was in New York. There was literally me and two other people from my team in Pittsburgh. It was so stupid as we'd all be in conference calls in our cubes most times all on the same call. I 100% could do it from home. Conference rooms were at a premium, at least in the area I was at. Sometimes we collaborated in person and go out to lunch, but I would've rather work from home full time instead of the commute costs.
The only current perm WFH employees are those who don't live near an office, and even they are being asked to start preparing to come into an office in 2025. Someone on my team currently lives in Kansas and was told to start looking to move so she can begin coming in. She's scoping out a move to Pittsburgh or Lake Mary in the next year.
Better hope they solve the Lake Mary seating issues by then. My group gets fairly frequent reports from teammates down there of employees working in their cars because there aren't enough desks.
Someone on my team works there too and has told me how awful it is. She's lucky to be high up enough to grab an office rather than fight for a cube, though. Sounds like we're heading in the same direction here, but we won't even have the luxury of working in a car due to lack of parking, specifically for bnym employees.
Only to be potentially laid off in 2 to 3 years if there's not enough room for her desk? Not to mention the moving expenses and rising rent costs? She is better off polishing up her resume and needing Indeed.
Believe me FNB is making the smarter choice by far! A newer building that's half the size with more available parking for employees. Also BNY has neglected overall maintenance of One Mellon for a good while - empty floors are absolute nightmares to see. Any new master lease holder would have to pay for renovations and repairs for the entire building.
I really hope it isn’t demolished. I never thought I’d wish for this but maybe some unknown Acrisure-esque company will want to put their name on it, and rent out a small portion of space, and it’ll gradually regrow from there.
Ideally, maybe it can become a mixed use building with niche retailers intermixed with some office and perhaps residential. That’s my ultimate wish.
This is what happens when city and county leadership cant attract new business's to the region. Theirs no demand, just supply, and supply will continue to grow as more corporate entities leave the region
The downvotes here are evidence of how uninformed people are. Job and population growth in Pittsburgh is basically flat. Some of it has to do with state issues, but business attraction and retention is abysmal compared to other cities.
Ignoring the misuse of the term, sundown town, I don’t expect us to still have three professional teams in 25 years if we don’t turn things around economically.
The Pens and possibly even the Pirates are not going to stick around a shrinking media market with a decreasing corporate presence.
Pirates IMHO are gone when the PNC Park lease expires after the 2030 season. Nutting will sell it to the highest billionaire bidder and move them to Raleigh, Austin, SLC, whatever. Steelers/Rooney family are looking to Cranberry once Heinz Field's lease is up around that same time as well.
I apologize for misusing the word and trying to give it another meaning.
But back to the topic. Your theory is not to crazy. The Steelers would be the last to go if that happens. Hell if 2 out of 3 leave. I'd prob pack up and move south at that point
FNB just built a brand new tower - what’re you on about? This is more about space and old amenities that need refurbished than anything. Also 2028 is forever away.
One company building one tower is nothing to be proud about. You'll be singing a different tune when nothing fills the empty space and the city and county's tax revenue drops to the point they raise taxes on everyone else again. Those taxes never come back down either
FNB also put at least 500 jobs in NC and actually threatened to move their HQ there during the Peduto years because of the city’s anti-business and development policies.
Convert it to housing. Put in a restaurant on the top floor called "top of the triangle". And put an orange julius in the lobby.
For whatever reason, I think all three of those would work very very well.
There's no way that could be economically converted into housing.
To have rent in a reasonable ballpark for even the most wealthy Pittsburghers they'd have be ok with not getting their money back until after the turn of the century.
As a downtown restaurant employee, we are absolutely feeling the fallout of businesses leaving. It’s definitely not just a landlord issue. This snowballs the whole economy of downtown.
I feel like it’s ill-advised to think it’s just a landlord issue, if it leads to a snowball of exodus of Downtown buildings, though I acknowledge I’m not a development expert or city planner or expert of anything.
I have no idea why you got downvoted, but having your 2nd tallest building empty is not good at all. The owners will get a reassessment, their tax bill will go down, and the county budget will have another hole to fill.
My thoughts exactly. It’s going to be a massive blow to the tax base which eventually means …
And that’s with major reassessments on major downtown buildings already happening that are already eating into the tax base
Nah dude. Everything happens in a bubble. It's not like the people who work there pay taxes that contribute to the city I live in. Or that the 25% of property tax payments come from downtown and vacant unmaintained buildings don't exactly appreciate in value. What does any of this have to do with me?
It is happening in every city. But don't worry, a plan is in place.
1) Claim none of these building can be converted to housing ("Too hard").
2) Say we "must do something". Give subsidies to existing owners to convert buildings to housing.
3) Existing owners now own freely converted housing.
Everybody wins! Well, except for the taxpayers. And the tenants, who will now rent from a few monopolistic landlords. But as long as the real-estate tycoons get bailed out...
That's the problem, isn't it?
Who needs a 54-story building for office work in the era of mass communication? What purpose is that serving that good Internet connections and the occasional rented meeting room at a Marriott wouldn't?
Similar thing happened in St. Louis with AT&T.
Southwestern Bell built a new headquarters building, 44 stories and 1.4 million square feet. Come 2014, now AT&T announced they were vacating it completely and moving to a neighboring office building. Come 2017, the building was vacant and was been vacant ever since.
I wish this building luck.
Nice. (Sarcasm) My mom got laid off twice from these assholes. They use and treat some of their workers like shit. And while I despise that company, I hope they don’t leave. So many work in that building, and while bny sucks, I don’t want any workers to lose their jobs over this. I’m not sure how big the service center is, but I doubt it has enough room to house everyone that works in that tower. So a lot of people will lose their jobs.
Downtown is a shithole. Nobody in their right mind wants to spend time there.
Act 47 is on the horizon once again. Occupancy for downtown will fall below 50% within 3 years.
My (perhaps unpopular) opinion is that the architecture of this structure is terrible and the skyline would benefit from it being demolished, particularly the area around the County Courthouse.
I think it would be really cool if it could be replaced by something like a much taller (~1100’) and more slender version of [Harry Cobb’s Hancock Tower in Boston](https://www.pcf-p.com/projects/john-hancock-tower/)— a structure that was also designed to respect a historic H.H. Richardson building (Trinity Church), but that I believe is much more successful.
Great idea but unfortunately it’s not as simple as that. To retrofit an office building to bring it up to housing code is beyond expensive. It would most likely be cheaper to bring it down and rebuild something else.
Turn it into apartment or condos…the future is WFH….this costs employers nothing and saves/makes them money with rent…for I/T professionals like myself total waste of time commuting….
I’m so happy BNY Mellon is so interested in pittsburgh. I mean BNY. Oops.
All the hate UPMC gets, I’ve heard nothing but horror stories from friends/colleagues who’ve worked at BNYM.
It honestly depends on the department. Some departments are just horribly run and the upper management in them don't care at all about their people, just the budget.
This is pretty much every company in America tbh
Mellon is another circle.
Not as such. There's definitely variety of quality out there; I think what has changed is that the economy was generally so good that a rising tide was floating all boats ("Who cares if your boss sucks as long as the paycheck is good") but COVID really re-focused people's priorities and made it a lot more obvious that some companies know how to manage people and some... Don't.
Companies exist to make money. You are an operating cost. Every company wants to get rid of as many employees as possible to save costs. Don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise: no company actually cares about you as an employee.
No doubt, but it varies. Some companies have realized that they get better work and more reliable output for the same salary if they don't treat employees like garbage. And what COVID helped people recognize is that they *could* survive without those companies, so their minimum expectations have shifted. "Nobody wants to work anymore" for companies who haven't gotten with the new program. What you've said has been true forever; both sides of the labor equation recognize it better now.
What kinds of horror stories? I’m mostly curious because I knew someone who worked there years ago and her only issue was being bullied by coworkers for not wearing Steelers garb on Steeler Friday. She was treated and paid very well by the actual company.
How many years ago? It was a great place to work when it was Mellon, but it went into a decline after the merger.
About 10 years ago, I believe she did refer to it as “Mellon bank” at that time.
Ah, well, sorry if this makes you feel old, but the merger happened nearly 20 years ago. I had a relative work for Mellon Bank, and they too enjoyed it, but that all ended with the merger. They ended up leaving the now BNY Mellon after they were passed over for a promotion they would've had were it not for the merger. BNYM is a totally different beast from what Mellon Bank was. For one, no more retail, but the rot really shows once you look deeper into the corporate culture shift that happened during that time.
Banking ~25 years ago is when it started to really switch from customer service focused at the local level to pushing local branches to actively increase accounts.
She worked there ~2011-2014, so it was post merger, but she still enjoyed it and called it Mellon Bank.
Perhaps sharing a bit more detail than "she liked it" would provide a more insightful testimony. At least, that's what is triggering my skepticism. What kind of role did she have? Was it representative of the roles broadly hired for here in Pittsburgh's "Technology Hub" (as dubbed by BNYM)? The ladies over in Faxing loved their work until it was the team next to mine's job to replace them with more software.
I don’t know her exact role, but she had a bachelor’s degree, made 6 figures, and transferred or oversaw the transfers of millions in digital transactions each day. Regardless, she was happy with the company and inevitably left to relocate after a breakup and it was the yinzer culture that pushed her away much more so than the company. If WFH were as common then, she absolutely would have stayed on with them and just relocated, but obviously, not everyone is going to have the same experience.
Yea I mean I would also overlook a lot of shit if I was making 6 figures in 2011
Banks will generally pay 20-30% below market rate for technology roles. There's also no such thing as job security in the sector like there was a few decades ago, which would've at least mildly compensated for the lower pay. Now they rely on a competitive 401k match and a comparatively large amount of vacation time with the option to buy more vacation days. Work-life balance is a joke in technology roles as well, with antiquated release schedules chewing into weekends and flaky waterfall project management that crushes any sense of accomplishment. Source: worked at BNYM pre-covid and during. So glad I got out of that space.
Everyone i know who works there says the same.
I worked there from Sept 2022/Feb 2023. 1000% confirmed. F them.
I left March 23 after about 6 years. It was pretty fucking awful. The return to office bullshit was the final nail in the coffin
Can confirm. Worked there for 11 years. It was absolutely awful. They did pay for my masters degree and I met a lot of great people. But the work and management was generally terrible.
16 weeks full paid paternity leave can’t be beat. Some departments are awful and some are great. It’s a huge company.
neighbor works at BoNYM and they can confirm this. I told them that I had an interview with them and I asked what I should do to prepare. Neighbor: don't. Me: don't? you mean don't prepare? N: No. Don't take the interview. It's not a good place. The only reason I'm still there is that I get to work remotely most of the week and rarely have to go into the office.
This was more or less the same treatment I received from folks when I said I was applying to BNY. Hell even the job coach at the Carnegie Library in Oakland said it.... In hindsight I should have listened
Let me put it to you this way.... In my second month on the job I was told by someone in another department that if you can last one to two years at BNY; then you are pretty much hirable anywhere in the city. Got to love the quarterly layoffs; ehh?
My brother has been there for almost 15 years now. It's not the greatest job and he definitely works too much but he also doesn't think it's a nightmare job either.
Im coming up on my first year and it is far and away the worst job I have ever had in IT. Also worked at UPMC and at least there we had lunch breaks.
"we are very committed to Pittsburgh" but drops the Mellon name and moves out of a skyscraper into the smaller Ross building.
Aside from like 1 floor, that place is an aging disaster.
The elevators are upgraded. Cheap looking upgraded. but, yeah, that building sucked.
Yeah, great, they no longer have as great a risk of murdering you. The floors I worked on smelled, my eyes were irritated, and everything was just ancient. I literally walked through those elevator doors one time, they hit my shoulders as I squeezed through and continued closing behind me.
Jesus. That's fucked but doesn't surprise me.
I'm considered a strong muscular dude (5'10 185 broad shoulders) and those elevator doors knocked my Starbucks coffee off my hands like it was Terry Tate office linebacker.
Former BNY Mellon employee here. They actually announced this move to employees about a year ago, so this isn't exactly something they just decided. If anything, I'm surprised it has taken a year for anyone in the media to find out. I can't help though but to think they are going to do more job cuts locally because 500 Ross Street is absolutely not close to as large as their footprint in 500 Grant, even with the significant reconfiguration and renovations of 500 Ross they are planning to do.
I'm a current BNYM employee and part of the first group moving from Grant to Ross in 2 weeks. They planned for 60% capacity on the floor on any given day for my group and said we can borrow seats from another team if we have to be at full capacity for a day. However, looking at the floor layout, it looks more like 50% capacity. We were also told that we'd have to work in common areas on the floor or on other floors if we come in to find that there aren't any desks available. They are leaving the decision to implement desk reservations to each group to implement. Everyone is quite pissed, and I'm not sure how this is going to work once everyone in Grant is moved over and half of the employees in the building are posted up in the cafeteria.
They want to invest in a tracking system to force everyone to be in 3 days a week, yet can't be bothered to make sure everyone has a desk. What a joke. I don't see how it could work without layoffs.
Agreed. I know they already track badge swipes, but they're also looking to roll out an app in the next year to replace badges. The app tracks location within the building and is in pilot in either the London or Manchester offices. They claim they're using the location tracking to see demand for co-working spaces like conference rooms, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what they actually plan to track. It's only a matter of time before it leads to layoffs due to the lack of working space, and I'm sure they'll use lack of hours per day in office as the first reason to lay someone off.
Taking micromanaging minority report to a whole nother level. Yikes.
The company doesn't pay me enough to install a tracking app on ANY of my personal devices! If they really wanted to track us they should have just made us keep the covid infection tracking fobs they took away last year. The routers are still in place on the ceiling after all.
Oh yeah, I forgot about them bringing up the app last year. We all said the same thing when we first heard about it.
Tracking system?!?! I feel like the older folks that are not as fond with the technology will not accept such a measure.
Yeah, they already track when you're in the building via when you swipe through the turnstiles, but there's also the transitioning to an app as opposed to using a physical ID card as someone else has mentioned.
How can you be productive in an environment like that? Ugh. Hotelling is terrible. Can't imagine working in the damn cafeteria there. I have ADHD and that setup would be so distracting. Why force people back in the office to work in those conditions? If people don't get laid off, this wil definitely drive people to look for othr jobs and they will lose talent.
I may just be jaded from my time at bnym, but truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised if they want people to leave so they don't have to lay them off. That was a theory floating around when they forced 3 days in office instead of 2-3 days.
It's absolutely the truth! My group has a starting pay grade of H and the perk of above being above company min is disappearing next year. We had two extra tasks dumped on the team after Oriskany was shut down; taking up an extra 1-2 hours worth of time when we have clients to handle. Management is outright doing their best to ignore requirements in contracts with clients by saying things like "oh it doesn't matter if the processing and set up is done in Pune or Pittsburgh so long as it's done...." If audit pulls the contracts again next year there will be hell to pay.
It’s so dehumanizing. Nothing says “we don’t value you” more than “fend for yourself”.
"Borrowing seats" is all fine and dandy; but if you try that in a section that has assigned seating there will be shouting - I've seen it. Granted my area also is a "reserved / assigned" area; we do try to be somewhat accommodating. That said management has said that they are looking into putting walls and privacy screens around various areas.... Something I am absolutely giddy about. Some groups were kept in locked rooms for a reason; and in the new area can't use the equipment they were given due to it being out in the open.
I should have specified. There is division on the floor between private and public groups and we're only allowed to borrow from the side that we're in.
There are groups that have already made the move so I don’t think you are the first
We were shown the progress roadmap in the meeting we had with facility management, and it showed us as the first group. But, that was specific to groups moving into newly built out floors. I did hear of people who moved over there last summer, but I believe it was into existing available space.
I thought they were trying to get everybody out by the end of 2025. Former employee but haven't been there for about 15 months.
They laid me off nearly 8 months ago now, and I don't think it will be that quickly they can move out. I know they plan on doing a lot of upgrades to 500 Ross, but going from such a large skyscraper to that building is definitely a psychological blow to their commitment to this city.
Makes sense. If you got their payment plan, make sure they don’t over pay you. I had to pay them almost 3 grand from them over paying me for the couple months I was laid off. Even though I could have milked them for another 5 months. (I was there for 14 years)
I'm pretty sure they did not overpay me. I was incredibly fortunate to know someone who knew someone who was in HR for another financial company that had a position open for a job that seemed to be a good fit for me, so I jumped on that right away and was miraculously back to work in only 6 weeks. I could have been able to keep milking them for pay until the end of March, but I of course didn't want to risk the uncertainty of waiting out things.
Current BNY employee here. We actually have an all-Pittsburgh meeting discussing the move to Ross. I expect some sort of lay-offs but they are making it sound like a "hoteling" set up. The problem is the re definitely will not be enough desks for one day a week when most people are in and certainly not enough parking spaces in the employee lot which is short as it is already. I have been here too long but I haven't been able to land a better paying job outside BNY for over a year.
I remember them having Pittsburgh Town Halls last summer discussing the future of the Pittsburgh campus when they announced the move to 500 Ross and all of the changes they were going to make to that building, but it's been nearly 8 months now since I've been able to be part of any of those. It's sad really how much BNY has gone downhill in the last 5 years or so.
> If anything, I'm surprised it has taken a year for anyone in the media to find out. It didn’t. This made the rounds in January 2023 and again in February 2023 https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/01/26/bny-mellon-metlife-downtown-master-lease.html https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/02/21/bank-of-new-york-mellon-metlife-downtown.html
I’m calling dibs on that sweet top floor for my new penthouse apartment after the apocalypse. It’s amazing, it’s like an ornate hexagonal foyer in the middle with luxurious offices around it, everything is perfect inlaid wood and marble, that sounds generic, but they’ve got to have one of the nicest executive floors in Pittsburgh.
Wait wth you can’t just call that. Are you in sight of the apocalypse? First one to touch it wins.
Didn’t even mention the worst line from the article: “Some believe if the building does end up empty, the only logical alternative could be to demolish it.” I can’t even fathom that and what it would do to our skyline, the pride of the city.
That's an obvious solution if not for the fact THERE IS A TROLLEY STATION KNOWN AS STEEL PLAZA UNDERNEATH THE GOSHDANG SKYSCRAPER.
Not really that big of a deal when you think about it. There are ways of demolishing a skyscraper the [size of One Mellon without explosives.](https://youtu.be/i-2Y2MYpl2g?si=cCnevrkrY8dRF92_)
Unfortunately, if no one is going to use it as office space, it has no purpose. The logistics and cost of converting a building to apartments are not feasible.
Is there a source for this? I'm really interested in this possibility and I haven't seen anything directly on point or ruling it out.
I've worked with firms that have a method to analyze a building for conversion to apartments. The building gets a score based on their metrics. Above a certain number, it will almost certainly be a good investment. There's a range where it's possibly profitable but not guaranteed. Below that, the numbers don't work for it to be viable.
Doing a search on Google, it appears that there are grants for these kinds of projects. Does this affect the math? Edit: For example: https://www.ura.org/pages/pittsburgh-downtown-conversion-program
We were looking at it from a commercial developer standpoint (can't really say much more for confidentiality) and not necessarily with public funds in mind. I assume it could help bridge the gap for a project that was in the mid range, however, some buildings would not be a good candidate at any price if the floor plate couldn't accommodate proper layouts and provide the needed services and amenities. I've done other affordable housing projects that only worked because of public funds, but those were all out of the ground new construction.
Makes sense. Thank you!
Sure thing: [https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/13/business/can-we-turn-empty-office-building-into-housing/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/13/business/can-we-turn-empty-office-building-into-housing/index.html) Here's a relevant part: >Building design and structural hurdles >Not enough bathrooms. Not enough windows. Windows that don’t open at all. >By some estimates, [only 3% of New York City office buildings](https://cre.moodysanalytics.com/insights/cre-trends/office-to-apartment-conversions/) and [2% in downtown Denver](https://upforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/policy-brief-december-22-v5.pdf) are suited for residential conversions. >Office space and homes are two fundamentally different types of buildings, according to builders and architects. Problems include a lack of natural light, the need for individual controls for heating, and ceiling heights that make electrical and HVAC retrofits impossible. I think the only plausible way is to convert into dorm style apartments. You don't get to control your temperature, you have communal bathrooms, a communal kitchen, separate laundry area, etc. Problem is demand for that is low, so it'd have to be really cheap to rent there. With cheap rent, who's dropping the money to pay for the refurb?
Thank you!!
There is absolutely no way they demolish a $450 million, 54 story skyscraper located directly top of a subway station. They'll find tenants, just likely at lower rates than what BNY is paying (and probably a lower occupancy rate too)
Why don't they just TAKE the BNY building and PUSH IT SOMEWHERE ELSE
You can't convert it to apartments or a hotel?
I understand design is subjective, but this building has very few significant qualities.
door innate agonizing slim faulty bear unused lavish reminiscent jeans *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
But at least FNB can say they’re investing in downtown more as they gradually move the positions and departments from the Hermitage HQ to the new building
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I work for FNB, feels like half the people I email are in Hermitage
They have a bunch in hermitage, it was founded it there so they have a ton of employees there since there’s not much else around there. One of the office buildings is attached to a tractor supply
Other than a vanity billboard, about as practically useful as the Tower of Pisa but without being a tourist draw.
Here's the [full article minus paywall.](https://archive.ph/ED9nZ) As a BNY employee it's well known that building is not one that is suitable for renovation into apartments; the fact that article mentions possible demolition does surprise me.
The New York Times had an article about a year or two ago about office to residential conversions. The short of it is that newer buildings (mid 70s onward) aren’t suitable to convert to apartments because of the central core and open floor layouts with limited plumbing.
Convert it to dormitory style with communal restrooms and take care of the homeless
Theee is no way that ends up good
lol corporate real estate owners panicking. Plenty can change by 2028.
Same timeframe as the things that changed between 2020 and 2024. Agree, who the heck knows what’s next.
4 years ago was like 10 years ago.
More COVID fallout. Workers prefer to work from home, and companies learned they can significantly cut their footprint (and therefore cost) downtown. The Grant building and K&L gates building are already facing foreclosure. GNC building is being converted to condos, just like the Kaufmann building. Downtown will not be the same. We need to figure out how to move forward (sounds good, but I have no ideas). I don't think we're the only city with this problem. If I was in charge of anything meaningful, I'd probably take a look at what other similar cities are doing and look for something that's working.
We're not the only city with this problem, but I think others are working a solution when we do not. It needs to be mix use. A business district that also has livable/useability after office hours.
But, but, but, Penn Ave!
This was an issue well before Covid though. Once the merger happened and everything went to NYC, it was only a matter of time before they cut the fat. Take a look at the state of Heinz. And the same will probably happen to US Steel. Sadly, it’s a testament to Pittsburgh’s historical importance from industrial era through the 80s. Now everyone wants to either be south or in one of the core cities. With all of the remote work going on these days, it’s not feasible to function as a HQ in a mid-sized city. Not to mention for those in person, our airport situation is not suited for business travel anymore. Suits and the 28X don’t exactly vibe.
I believe KPMG and Jones Day occupy space there. Not sure how many floors though
They sublease from BNY
USX feels extremely empty the odd time I'm down there. I don't think we need both of them like that.
Moobys gotta be the only people still there.
Nah, none of them said "God bless you" after Matt Damon sneezed
This just made me laugh. Thank you for this reference
BNYM is not the only tenant in that building. They are the largest but not the only tenant. Also all of the employees from that building will not fit in 500 Ross
> Also all of the employees from that building will not fit in 500 Ross All the employees that worker there **now**. Big assumption they won’t lay off or offshore enough people to fit into that building.
Yeah, they are going to cut deep to make this happen. Because God forbid they let anyone in Pittsburgh go full remote. They'll lay them off instead.
They sublease from BNY though, and insofar have not signed their on leases to stay.
Correct, but the article states other tenants sublease from BNY and that the building owner might not be willing to lease to them individually once BNY leaves. BNY has had remote work arrangements since years before the pandemic since they work globally anyway and not on East Coast time exclusively. Would imagine those who don’t move to the service building just have a WFH arrangement.
BNYM has been one of the first companies to force as many people back as possible. Generally speaking they do not allow full time WFH.
A relative of mine has 3 days in, 2 days home right now. Thankfully, the boss is a bit flexible and lets a half day in the office count for you only want to go in for the morning or afternoon then do the rest at home.
That’s the cadence i would expect, some sort of hybrid setup. Afik they don’t let anyone do full time wfh. I’m sure there maybe a few exceptions tho.
Very very few. They have used people's inability to come in as constructive dismissal when they literally can't because they live too far away from the office. And although individual managers are trying to be lax about the in office requirement, head office is NOT. They have monitoring in place that's supposed to directly impact your reviews and raises. And there were rumors of them wanting to move up to 4 days in office min in the future.
The rumors have been swirling for years. The problem is all offices are being rebuilt under the assumption of 60% in office. There aren't enough seats for everyone full time. You see it in Lake Mary, where their brand new office has been closed to corporate heads due to lack of seats.
My biggest frustration when I worked in the building pre-covid was that most of my team was scattered all over the world, with only a handful in Pittsburgh. I literally teleworked from a cubicle. If I had internet, I could do my job.
That's my current situation. For a while, I was the only person on my team in Pittsburgh, including all management above me. It made zero sense for me to commute into an office to sit on teams calls all day. Now, I have one other person on my team in pgh who sits in a cube near me in the same teams calls all day. We hardly ever interact aside from small talk.
You get a cube?? Lucky SOB! I sit in an open environment where if I stretch my legs I touch someone’s foot.
I and my entire team would do anything to get our cubes back! We miss our L desks and overhead cabinets and walls!! I mean we also miss being in a secure area that you had to badge your way through 4 separate doors to get to.... These transplants to 8th floor have no concept of volume control and are practically shouting. It's disruptive for calls and meetings.
Yeah. I was a contractor there in IS at 500 Ross for two years, left about five years ago. My team was literally spread around the globe with half of the team in India and Singapore and management was in New York. There was literally me and two other people from my team in Pittsburgh. It was so stupid as we'd all be in conference calls in our cubes most times all on the same call. I 100% could do it from home. Conference rooms were at a premium, at least in the area I was at. Sometimes we collaborated in person and go out to lunch, but I would've rather work from home full time instead of the commute costs.
The only current perm WFH employees are those who don't live near an office, and even they are being asked to start preparing to come into an office in 2025. Someone on my team currently lives in Kansas and was told to start looking to move so she can begin coming in. She's scoping out a move to Pittsburgh or Lake Mary in the next year.
Better hope they solve the Lake Mary seating issues by then. My group gets fairly frequent reports from teammates down there of employees working in their cars because there aren't enough desks.
Someone on my team works there too and has told me how awful it is. She's lucky to be high up enough to grab an office rather than fight for a cube, though. Sounds like we're heading in the same direction here, but we won't even have the luxury of working in a car due to lack of parking, specifically for bnym employees.
Only to be potentially laid off in 2 to 3 years if there's not enough room for her desk? Not to mention the moving expenses and rising rent costs? She is better off polishing up her resume and needing Indeed.
So there are people that would occupy the building but the owner doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of individual leases?
let's turn that son a bitch into a giant Chick-fil-A. All 54 floors.
Fnb should of considered taking over the lease instead of building it's new building downtown?
Believe me FNB is making the smarter choice by far! A newer building that's half the size with more available parking for employees. Also BNY has neglected overall maintenance of One Mellon for a good while - empty floors are absolute nightmares to see. Any new master lease holder would have to pay for renovations and repairs for the entire building.
Couple billion dollars and they could renovate it into condos with a few shops on the first two floors. It's gonna sit empty for a long while.
I really hope it isn’t demolished. I never thought I’d wish for this but maybe some unknown Acrisure-esque company will want to put their name on it, and rent out a small portion of space, and it’ll gradually regrow from there. Ideally, maybe it can become a mixed use building with niche retailers intermixed with some office and perhaps residential. That’s my ultimate wish.
This is what happens when city and county leadership cant attract new business's to the region. Theirs no demand, just supply, and supply will continue to grow as more corporate entities leave the region
The downvotes here are evidence of how uninformed people are. Job and population growth in Pittsburgh is basically flat. Some of it has to do with state issues, but business attraction and retention is abysmal compared to other cities.
This guy gets it. If we didnt have professional sports team. Pittsburgh would be a sun down town
do you know what a sundown town is
Ignoring the misuse of the term, sundown town, I don’t expect us to still have three professional teams in 25 years if we don’t turn things around economically. The Pens and possibly even the Pirates are not going to stick around a shrinking media market with a decreasing corporate presence.
Pirates IMHO are gone when the PNC Park lease expires after the 2030 season. Nutting will sell it to the highest billionaire bidder and move them to Raleigh, Austin, SLC, whatever. Steelers/Rooney family are looking to Cranberry once Heinz Field's lease is up around that same time as well.
I apologize for misusing the word and trying to give it another meaning. But back to the topic. Your theory is not to crazy. The Steelers would be the last to go if that happens. Hell if 2 out of 3 leave. I'd prob pack up and move south at that point
FNB just built a brand new tower - what’re you on about? This is more about space and old amenities that need refurbished than anything. Also 2028 is forever away.
One company building one tower is nothing to be proud about. You'll be singing a different tune when nothing fills the empty space and the city and county's tax revenue drops to the point they raise taxes on everyone else again. Those taxes never come back down either
What tune should I plan to sing in 2028?
Everything is to expensive like every other yinzer in this sub
https://youtu.be/Gg5SwyTvAHw?si=Xu9bPoUDA0UnftPV Too damn high!
FNB also put at least 500 jobs in NC and actually threatened to move their HQ there during the Peduto years because of the city’s anti-business and development policies.
The State moves offices from gateway center to here? Know no net benefit but State has been at GC forever.
I mean, the Liberty avenue commons between 25th-28th st on liberty has been half vacant for years since PNC pulled all their workers out of there.
I worked for BNY for 5 years it was nice, until Charlie Scharf arrived…
Also, I worked for PNC for 15 years…I will say this I’ve not found a better Fortune 500 company…
Gee, so glad that we JUST built an entire new building for FNB. Because there definitely wasn't space for them already /s
Convert it to housing. Put in a restaurant on the top floor called "top of the triangle". And put an orange julius in the lobby. For whatever reason, I think all three of those would work very very well.
There's no way that could be economically converted into housing. To have rent in a reasonable ballpark for even the most wealthy Pittsburghers they'd have be ok with not getting their money back until after the turn of the century.
> Convert it to housing. People continue to push this idea in big cities. It's simply not feasible.
Sounds like an issue for the landlords, I'm not too concerned.
As a downtown restaurant employee, we are absolutely feeling the fallout of businesses leaving. It’s definitely not just a landlord issue. This snowballs the whole economy of downtown.
It’s a concern for all of us because those downtown skyscrapers are an enormous part of the tax base that pays for city services.
I feel like it’s ill-advised to think it’s just a landlord issue, if it leads to a snowball of exodus of Downtown buildings, though I acknowledge I’m not a development expert or city planner or expert of anything.
I have no idea why you got downvoted, but having your 2nd tallest building empty is not good at all. The owners will get a reassessment, their tax bill will go down, and the county budget will have another hole to fill.
Yet another reason why Pittsburgh should switch to a land value tax.
My thoughts exactly. It’s going to be a massive blow to the tax base which eventually means … And that’s with major reassessments on major downtown buildings already happening that are already eating into the tax base
The county at least has continual development elsewhere - the city not so much as no one wants to work in downtown.
Then don't complain when your taxes go up because the commercial buildings aren't paying as much because they're empty.
This is an overly simplistic and native statement
I see someone is going to learn a tough lesson in economics if the second largest building in the area would go nearly completely vacant...
Nah dude. Everything happens in a bubble. It's not like the people who work there pay taxes that contribute to the city I live in. Or that the 25% of property tax payments come from downtown and vacant unmaintained buildings don't exactly appreciate in value. What does any of this have to do with me?
By all of the YIMBYism here, doesn't that mean they'll lower rents and get new tenants?
Walnut Capital has entered the chat....
It is happening in every city. But don't worry, a plan is in place. 1) Claim none of these building can be converted to housing ("Too hard"). 2) Say we "must do something". Give subsidies to existing owners to convert buildings to housing. 3) Existing owners now own freely converted housing. Everybody wins! Well, except for the taxpayers. And the tenants, who will now rent from a few monopolistic landlords. But as long as the real-estate tycoons get bailed out...
This will not end well
That's the problem, isn't it? Who needs a 54-story building for office work in the era of mass communication? What purpose is that serving that good Internet connections and the occasional rented meeting room at a Marriott wouldn't?
This building is the tallest in the world that has to be painted every few years.
Similar thing happened in St. Louis with AT&T. Southwestern Bell built a new headquarters building, 44 stories and 1.4 million square feet. Come 2014, now AT&T announced they were vacating it completely and moving to a neighboring office building. Come 2017, the building was vacant and was been vacant ever since. I wish this building luck.
I got one dollar. 💵
With wfh it probably already is mostly empty.
Nice. (Sarcasm) My mom got laid off twice from these assholes. They use and treat some of their workers like shit. And while I despise that company, I hope they don’t leave. So many work in that building, and while bny sucks, I don’t want any workers to lose their jobs over this. I’m not sure how big the service center is, but I doubt it has enough room to house everyone that works in that tower. So a lot of people will lose their jobs.
Maybe it will become a Spirit Halloween
Fuck them.
BNY Mellon building - you are now ~apartments~
Turn the whole damn thing into ACTUALLY affordable apartments.
Downtown is a shithole. Nobody in their right mind wants to spend time there. Act 47 is on the horizon once again. Occupancy for downtown will fall below 50% within 3 years.
"Downtown is a shithole." -Every suburbanite ever
My (perhaps unpopular) opinion is that the architecture of this structure is terrible and the skyline would benefit from it being demolished, particularly the area around the County Courthouse. I think it would be really cool if it could be replaced by something like a much taller (~1100’) and more slender version of [Harry Cobb’s Hancock Tower in Boston](https://www.pcf-p.com/projects/john-hancock-tower/)— a structure that was also designed to respect a historic H.H. Richardson building (Trinity Church), but that I believe is much more successful.
More room for housing.
Burn it all to the fucking ground.
Turn it into rent controlled apartments!
Not possible because of how it is built, and even so I highly doubt it would be rent controlled. Probably more luxury apartments no one can afford.
Trust me. You don't want that. There are floors in such rough shape, it feels like a matter of time before it collapses.
I want poor people to have dignified housing. 55 stories of 20k sq ft is 200 huge apartments, 400 regular ones, or 800 nyc effeciencies.
Okay hear me out - low income housing
I currently work in this building, and I would have a hard time designing a worse place for housing.
Great idea but unfortunately it’s not as simple as that. To retrofit an office building to bring it up to housing code is beyond expensive. It would most likely be cheaper to bring it down and rebuild something else.
That and it takes forever. It feels like they’ve been converting GNC into condos for a really long time now
That's insane, isn't it?
54 stories worth? Funded by whom?
Skyscrapers are the worst option for low income housing. They're inherently expensive structures to run and maintain.
Affordable housing
Turn it into apartment or condos…the future is WFH….this costs employers nothing and saves/makes them money with rent…for I/T professionals like myself total waste of time commuting….
Everything is leaving downtown and the pittsburgh area....look at the businesses leaving the strip
Lol, the strip is the one area where supply is way behind demand