Planners Can’t Solve Deadlock Over Pittsburgh Hotel Design

PITTSBURGH— A series of meetings held here has yet to resolve the deadlock over the design of a hotel addition to the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland, the prospective builder, will meet in New York City this week with architect Rafael Vinoly, who designed the $328 million convention center under construction here. “The goal [of the meeting]is to try to come up with a design that will give customers the best experience when they visit the hotel and convention center,” said James Richardson, vp/ development for Forest City. The dispute over the design has delayed the start of construction. Originally, the 500-room addition to the 611-room Westin was supposed to be ready by March 2003, when the convention center is fully open. But now it appears the hotel addition wont open until a year after the convention center. The current design shows the hotel addition connecting with the Westin Convention Center hotel on all 27 floors, which Vinoly and a local architectural task force think is too big and block-like. The critics fear the enlarged hotel would form a wall dividing the cultural district from the Strip District, rather than uniting the two popular destinations. (7/5/01) SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette