Recap of Community Development Activities Meeting on UPMC Children’s proposed Heart Institute

UPMC Children’s Hospital has proposed the development of a new 3-story Heart Institute to be built above their Mid-Campus Garage. As part of LU & LC’s community process, a Community Development Activities Meeting (CDAM) was held for UPMC Children’s Hospital to present their plans to the community on Thursday, 5/25 at 5:30 PM at the CLP Lawrenceville (279 Fisk St). Virtual attendance was available via LU’s Facebook page. There were 3 in person attendees, and 16 virtual attendees throughout the meeting.

Kara Kimicata (Community Outreach Coordinator, Lawrenceville Corporation) and Dave Breingan (Executive Director, Lawrenceville United) began the meeting with expectation setting and general overview of the community process.

John Karolicki (UPMC), Kyle Wisman (HGA), Michael Joyce (HGA), Shawn McCloskey (UPMC Corporate Construction) then went through the design and construction plans for the new Heart Institute. This is set to be a 2 year long project, ideally starting in November-December 2023 or early next year, once permits are secured. There will be two phases to this project:

• Phase 1 of the project will take roughly 2-4 months to focus on stabilizing the existing parking structure and strengthening the foundation. This will lead to one lane of 45th St being closed, the route from Penn Ave down into Lawrenceville will remain open during Phase 1.
• Phase 2 of the project will involve a large crane being placed in the middle of 45th St. Although pedestrian access on 45th will remain open throughout the construction period, 45th St will be closed for all vehicle traffic between Penn Ave and Garwood Way for an estimated 10-12 months.

The plan is to be finished with construction by December 2025.

Following the presentation, the question and answer period was open to those present in person and virtually. Community members’ questions focused on construction process, parking, mobility, and hospital capacity. The UPMC project team has said the Heart Institute will not necessarily lead to more beds or a significant increase in volume, so they do not expect parking needs from patients and their families to grow. During construction, 30-50 spots at the Mid-Campus Garage will be unavailable at different phases of the process, but employees will be encouraged to utilize the 53rd St lot and be shuttled to the hospital as patients/families will be given spaces within/closer to the hospital. As of now, UPMC Children’s has over 1000 spots in their 53rd St lot, and typically only have 600 spots utilized per day, so they do not envision significant impacts to the community, staff or patients in terms of parking. To that note, it was asked if UPMC would be open to exploring community use of their 53rd St lot by community members and they said they would work with LU and LC to see if that is a possibility.

The UPMC Children’s team were then thanked for their time and dismissed for a closed meeting with community members to voice any further thoughts/concerns directly to LU and LC. Dave and Kara also noted that UPMC has not revisited conversation around the proposed UPMC Children’s Hospital sign with LU or LC, but if that were to be considered again there would be further community process. Upcoming meetings and events were shared out to close the meeting. If you have any outstanding questions or concerns, please reach out at 412-802-7220 or info@lunited.org.

Below you can review the presentations, project sheet, view the meeting, and provide feedback:

• LU & LC Presentation
• UPMC Children’s Presentation
• Project Sheet from UPMC Children’s
• Feedback Form
• Facebook Live of Meeting
• Zoom Recording of Meeting