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Empty East Liberty public housing high-rise to fall Sunday

Contractors will collapse an empty high-rise apartment building in East Liberty this weekend, removing the last of three public housing towers that formerly dominated the neighborhood skyline.

At 9 a.m. Sunday, subcontractors from Phoenix, Md.-based Controlled Demolition Inc. — the same firm that demolished Three Rivers Stadium in 2001 and the Davis Avenue Bridge in Brighton Heights last week — will use as much as 500 pounds of explosives on the first, fourth, ninth and 15th floors to demolish the 20-story Penn Circle Apartments, said CDI Vice President Doug Loizeaux.

"This will eliminate the last of what's referred to as 'blight' in our community," said Ernie Hogan, deputy director of the neighborhood group East Liberty Development Inc.

Explosives on the first floor will cut support columns and start to topple the building, while the rest will break up falling debris into manageable pieces for removal, Loizeaux said.

Some houses along Broad Street, north of the complex, might need to be evacuated for the demolition, Loizeaux said. The primary contractor, Buffalo-based Titan Wrecking & Environmental LLC, is expected to finalize a list of road closures in the area today, company officials said.

Penn Circle is the last tower standing of three the city built in East Liberty in the late 1960s and early 1970s — the others being the Liberty Park and East Mall buildings. Back then, planners sought to remake the city's "second downtown" as an outdoor urban mall surrounded by towering apartment buildings, said Sabina Dietrick, an associate professor of urban affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

By the end of the 1990s, the high rises had fallen into disrepair and become unsafe, so the city made plans to revitalize the neighborhood and remove them. The first two towers were torn down in 2005 and are slowly being replaced with new, smaller developments. So far, 450 units have been built with another 140 in the planning stages, Hogan said.

The Mosites Co. is redeveloping the five-acre site bordered by Penn Avenue, Penn Circle East, Broad Street and the East Busway, and national retailer Target is seeking approval to build a two-level store there, said Mark Minnerly, director of real estate development for Mosites. Across Penn Avenue, the developer is working with Port Authority of Allegheny County on a transit center providing extra parking and station amenities for riders along the busway, he said.