You Can’t Build That Here - Woodlawn Apartments

Today, we are starting a new blogpost series called “You Can’t Build That Here!”

In each entry, we are going to look at a perfectly ordinary building in Pittsburgh that could not be built today under the current zoning regulations.

Each building that we select is one that fits within the context of its neighborhood. We, as a community, would benefit from having more buildings like them. The fact that if these buildings were torn down today, they could not be replaced brick for brick by right is a glaring failure of our zoning policy. When we walk through the streets of Pittsburgh and say to ourselves “What a nice, old building! Too bad they don’t build like that anymore!”, the reason is our zoning codes no longer allow them to be built.

Today, we’re going to look at 5176 Margaret Morrison St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 - in Squirrel Hill.

The building that exists there now, the Woodlawn Apartments, was built in the 1930s. It has 11 apartments housing 35 students and one commercial unit, currently used as the student art gallery "The Frame".  Prior to 1969, that commercial unit was a pharmacy.  The lot is small, 5,529 square feet - roughly 50 feet by 110 feet.  The building itself is 11,982 square feet and four stories tall (including half-basement).

Thanks to the adoption of the current zoning code in the mid 20th century, that lot is zoned R2-L - two unit residential low density. It is parcel 53-C-93.

Image from Pittsburgh Zoning Map depicting the plot.

Pittsburgh's zoning code for residential low density requires a minimum lot size of 3,000 square feet per unit, requires setbacks of 30 feet from the front and back of the lot, 30 feet from the exterior side, 5 feet from the interior side, and a height maximum of 3 stories or 40 feet.

With a lot that’s 110 feet front to back, any new building built on this lot could be only 50 feet long. With a lot that’s 50 feet from side to side, with one of those sides facing the street, the maximum width of the building is 15 feet.

That means that if the owner tore down the building now, the largest building they could build by right would be a single family three story home of ~2,250 square feet, instead of the four story, 11,982 square foot apartment building that sits there now. They would not even be able to build a building identical in size to what currently exists there. Further, they would be required to add one off street parking unit to the lot.

This is bad for the city and the people who live here!  Woodlawn Apartments currently provides housing for 35 students, spread across 11 reasonably sized apartments (roughly 900 square feet each).  If replaced by a single family home, at most 3 unrelated people could live there. This would push the other 32 students to look for rentals elsewhere. That’s bad for other renters, since it would drive up the cost of rent. It would be bad for the students, since they would have to pay more in rent and have a longer commute to campus.

Worse, because the zoning in this area prevents these sorts of buildings, we are already experiencing those higher rents and longer commutes!  The houses that line Forbes Ave between Margaret Morrison and Beeler, across the street from Carnegie Mellon’s campus, are overwhelmingly rented by students. If more buildings like the Woodlawn Apartments were built on that stretch, with modern amenities and commercial spaces like cafes, bookstores, and art galleries on the ground floor, the students would need to travel less to get to campus and have more access to amenities, the rents would be lower for the surrounding neighborhood, and the residents of Squirrel Hill who live in easy walking distance would have access to better amenities.

It is a tragedy and a fault of our current zoning regime that You Can’t Build That Here.

By Jack Billings with contributions by Clayton Manley