ZGF Architects, Wexford Science & Technology, and The University of Pittsburgh have revealed new details of the Ford Motor Assembly Plant adaptive reuse.
Vacant 1915 Ford plant coming back to life as $330 million Pitt biomedical research hub
In 1915, Ford’s Model T represented one of the world’s great leaps forward in technological advancement, using the emerging science of assembly-line production to create a vehicle that was affordable to middle-class Americans. A key part of that was the eight-story Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in the Bloomfield/Shadyside area on Baum Boulevard, along what was once known as Pittsburgh’s booming “automobile row.”
Now, that same building, renamed The Assembly, will pioneer Pittsburgh’s newest high-tech developments in cancer biomedical research and commercialization, anchored by the University of Pittsburgh.
The final piece is secure.
On Tuesday, a steel beam was raised to the top of The Assembly, a structure located at Morewood and Centre avenues on the Bloomfield/Shadyside border at the former site of the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant.
The original 250,000 square-foot building and the four-story addition will house University of Pittsburgh laboratories and offices, an event space, conference rooms, a 250-seat auditorium, and a restaurant and cafe with parking below.
There will be 108,000 square feet available for lease. Construction is expected to be completed by January .
A group of 305 construction workers applauded as they watched the beam being raised toward the sky in what’s called “topping out,” a ceremony that signals the uppermost steel member is going into place and that the structure has reached its height, according to the American Institute of Steel Construction.