Repurposing Existing Features for a New Support of Excavation System

In 2021, the University of Pittsburgh began construction of a new recreation and wellness center for students and faculty in the heart of its main campus in Pittsburgh. The design and plans for the center promote the university's goals to create a unique place for members to stay active and to sustainably develop the area within its urban campus. The new 270,000 sq ft (25,000 sq m) center is being constructed within the footprint of two former campus buildings that were demolished, the O'Hara Parking Plaza and the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC). The recreation center borders O'Hara Street on its south side, the ramp to receiving for the Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPIC) on the west side, an internal campus service road called University Drive A on the north side and a long thin area that will become a new terraced pathway on the east side. The existing site grade ranges from elevation 965-1,058 ft (294-323 m) within the area of the proposed recre­ation center. The ground surface at the site slopes between O'Hara Street in the south upward to the service road in the north with a grade difference of approx­imately 100 ft (30.5 m). The bottom of the excavation for the new center will be near the lowest elevation of O'Hara Street, requiring support of excavation (SOE) on the north (LRDC and O'Hara walls) and west (WPIC wall) sides. Mascaro Construction Company, the general contractor, engaged Nicholson Construction Company for the first stage of the construction, which included existing building demolition, earthwork and SOE systems. Nicholson designed and constructed the SOE systems along the site's north and west sides as described.