Roundhouse at Hazelwood Green

Building Architecture- Large Scale (>10,000 sf)

Project Narrative

Once a home for 19th Century machines, the Roundhouse at Hazelwood Green welcomes 21st Century researchers.

Part of the shuttered J&L Steel Mill, the Roundhouse originally serviced and turned train engines, redirecting their materials through the production process. Now, as a technology accelerator and co-working space for OneValley, the Roundhouse not only speeds the delivery of groundbreaking innovations, but it’s on track for LEED Gold Certification.

Preserving an 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 volume, darkened by decades of industrial use, but the removal of a century of soot from the brick walls and underside of the heavy timber roof deck warms the interior. Locally fabricated, custom-finishes and furniture—light fixtures, tiles, benches, and bike racks—complement the rich material palette. The insertion of a partial second floor creates more offices and a glass-walled event space while scaling the space down for human comfort. The removal of unnecessary walls and the replacement of its giant, rolling garage doors with windows enables occupants to appreciate the volume of this light-filled space while opening views to the outside.

Creating an inviting public space, native plants and public art integrate the site’s industrial remains—a turntable, a shed’s steel frame—into the landscape while multimodal transit connects the site to the surrounding neighborhood, downtown, and beyond.