Student Housing Development in Pittsburgh - Emerging Media Term Project

Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture Emerging Media – Term Project

STUDENT HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN PITTSBURGH

Jianxiao Ge jianxiag@andrew.cmu.edu

Currently, a student housing investment is one of the best types of investments in the US real estate market. Education is a pillar industry in Pittsburgh. As the school expands, the number of students in Pittsburgh keeps rising, which brings great opportunities for the development of student apartments. For international students, buying furniture, dealing with utilities and the Internet can be a hassle in an unfamiliar country.

While far away from home, social activities with friends also become the most effective way to relax after school.

Therefore, I would like to explore the idea of developing a coliving and fully furnished student housing in Pittsburgh, especially for the international students, to form a diverse and active student community. And in this project, I want to integrate the transportation system, urban land, real estate market value to find the most suitable sites for the new student housing. And also use different design components to explore a set of potential new student housing development in Pittsburgh for reference.

Where do most students live in PGH? Top 3: Oakland Shadyside Squirrel Hill Other Neighborhoods: Bloomfield East Liberty Greenfield Friendship Point Breeze Highland Park Lawrenceville Source: CMU & Pitt Official Website

Analysis Workflow

GIS DATA COLLECTION

CITY-SCALE ANALYSIS

NEIGHBORHOOD-SCALE ANALYSIS

DESIGN & EVALUATION

City-Scale Analysis - Public Transportation System Location is probably the most important factor in real estate development. As public transportation in Pittsburgh is relatively developed, about 70% of students commute by bus or school escort.

Therefore, the public transportation system should be considered. The bus network in the community around the school is quite developed, such as Oakland, Shadyside, and Squirrel Hill.

But in the further neighborhood, such as Lawrenceville, Highland Park, Point Breeze, and Greenfield, students may need their own car to meet their daily commuting needs.

City-Scale Analysis – Vacant Parcels

Pittsburgh is already fairly well developed.

What’s more, the universities in Pittsburgh are also facing a shortage of space, and they are trying to expand it further. To be honest, there are not many opportunities in the existing market.

If we look at the neighborhoods around CMU & PITT, such as Shadyside & Squirrel hill, there are few large vacant plots of land to take advantage of, with limited development opportunities.

By contrast, Oakland, Bloomfield, East Liberty has a higher Vacancy Rate.

What is Market Value Analysis?

Pittsburgh’s 2016 MVA utilized data that helps to define the local real estate market between July, 2013 and June, 2016: • Median Sales Price • Variance of Sales Price • Percent Households Owner Occupied • Density of Residential Housing Units • Percent Rental with Subsidy • Foreclosures as a Percent of Sales • Permits as a Percent of Housing Units • Percent of Housing Units Built Before 1940 • Percent of Properties with Assessed Condition “Poor” or worse • Vacant Housing Units as a Percentage of Habitable Units The MVA uses a statistical technique known as cluster analysis, forming groups of areas (i.e., block groups) that are similar along the MVA descriptors, noted above

City-Scale Analysis – Market Value

Basically, A and B represent a very well developed real estate market in the region, which has high housing prices, a large number of new construction projects, and a high occupancy rate of the owners.

C is the average level, D and E are slightly below the average level - new construction is less, but the residential vacancy rate is still low.

The housing market in the area below F is gradually transitioning to depressing levels.

It can be seen that Squirrel Hill North and Shadyside are mainly A and B areas with a well developed real estate market.

While at the same time, most of the area in Oakland is only at the average level of the city, or even slightly lower than the average level.

Therefore, combined with the previous system analysis, I think it’s a potential neighborhood to further focus on.

Component Design

Number of Proposed Student Apartments of Different Sizes Small

Medium

Large

2

1

7

Number of Proposed Student Apartments: Number of Total Floors: Number of New Units: Total Square Footage:

10

108 1,000 1,007,500

Total Cost Estimate:

$221,640,000