Industrial Past Meets Sustainable Future

Almono LP & OneValley, The Roundhouse at Hazelwood Green

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Pittsburgh, PA | 25,000 SF

Once a home for machines, the 19th Century roundhouse at Hazelwood Green welcomes 21st Century researchers and entrepreneurs.
The site design integrates the roundhouse and its industrial relics into a rehabilitated brownfield along the Monongahela River.

Part of the shuttered, 178-acre J & L Steel Mill, the 10-bay roundhouse originally serviced and turned train engines, redirecting the materials they carried to different stops in the production process. Now, as a co-working space for technology accelerator OneValley, the roundhouse will not only speed the delivery of groundbreaking innovations, but it is elevating sustainable development in the Pittsburgh region. Seeking LEED Gold certification, the roundhouse was also the first project tracked against Pittsburgh’s new resiliency standards.

Before Renovation Existing dilapidated condition
After Renovation Restored and reinterpreted for a new generation

Preserving this important piece of Pittsburgh’s past, the design uses a light touch to celebrate the existing structure while adapting it to a human scale. Partially built into a hillside, the roundhouse was a cavernous two-story space, darkened by decades of industrial use and abandonment, but the removal of a century of soot from the brick walls and underside of the pine roof deck warms the interior. 

Exploded Axon Diagram The insertion of a partial second floor expands usable office space and scales things down for human comfort.
Artboard 1

...a really well executed project...

Artboard 1 copy
- Cincinnati Design Awards Juror
Exterior

The addition of a partial second floor provides more office space (and a featured, glass-walled conference room) while also scaling the space down for its human inhabitants. At the same time, the removal of unnecessary walls and the replacement of its giant garage doors with windows enables occupants to appreciate the volume of this light-filled space.

Before Renovation Dark and cavernous, the interior was a space for machines.
But its form, volume, and beautiful materials make it a compelling place for people.
The turntable, which once redirected trains, now offers a space for relaxation.

The giant windows open to views outside, where a new public space uses native plants to integrate the site’s industrial remains—its turntable, the steel frame of an old shed—into the landscape of the Monongahela River.


Retrofit Magazine, Metamorphosis Award, First Place, Adaptive Reuse

AIA Cincinnati, Architecture Merit Award

ULI Placemaking Awards for Excellence, Transformative Placemaker