Proposed Oakland hotel gets approval

$30M project follows historic district guides

The city’s Historic Review Commission has approved plans for a 10-story Hyatt Centric hotel to be built behind the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland.

The proposal calls for a 168room hotel in what is currently the PAA’s parking lot. PAA officials have said the hotel is expected to help the club to survive financially. The 107-year-old club’s building, in the style of an Italian Renaissance palace, is located at the corner of Fifth and Bigelow boulevards.

The vote, taken at a special meeting Wednesday with one member opposed, completes the historic review of the project. The commission’s deliberations were delayed after a tie vote in June and a continuance two weeks ago for consideration of additional documents.

Some residents of nearby Schenley Farms opposed the building as too large and incompatible with the Oakland City Center historic district guidelines. They had met several times with the developer, resulting in a reduced size, from 11 stories and 190 rooms to 168 rooms and 26,000 fewer square feet. The estimated cost of the project is $30 million.

Acting chairman Ernie Hogan said the historic district guidelines “encourage visual compatibility” with the rest of the 19th and early 20th century architecture in the use of materials, scale and massing and that the current design does that.

“We want to protect the historic fabric but to allow the city to grow responsibly,” he said.

Commissioner Joe Serrao said the Cathedral of Learning “would be a tough sell if we were considering it today” because of its towering height, among other incompatible features. “The city evolves, and things can be evolutionary. It may complement or contrast.”

Matthew Falcone, in casting the opposing vote, had wanted to abbreviate corner windows so they don’t wrap around the side of the building. He said the windows proposed are too large to be compatible with the district guidelines.

“I don’t see windows as large on any other buildings around it,” he said.

The approval is contingent on a modification of a loggia on the top floor.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to hear the proposal July 28.