You Can’t Build that Here — The School House Apartments
January 31, 2024
Our eighth entry in the You Can’t Build That Here series takes us to a former 1898 elementary school that is now apartments in East Allegheny.
For our eighth entry in our “You Can’t Build That Here!” series, we pole vault over downtown and land in East Allegheny (also known as Deutschtown).
Each entry in this series highlights a currently existing building that would be illegal to build under the existing zoning code. The purpose is to highlight how flawed our zoning code is.
Today, we’re looking at 500 Tripoli St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212- the former Latimer School turned apartment building appropriately named The School House.
Designed by German-born Pittsburgh architect Frederick Sauer and originally built in 1898 as an elementary school, the 3rd Ward School, the building was converted into a Junior High School called “The Latimer School” in 1915. After being converted into apartments in 1985, this building now has 77 units - varying from studios to 2 bed/2.5 baths, ranging from $700 to $1,475 a month. The whole building is 4 stories tall and roughly 120,000 square feet, and the footprint is roughly 126 ft by 246 ft.
A sample two bedroom/2.5 bath floor plan for a corner unit.
The lot it sits on, parcel number 23-M-196, is 1.1 acres or roughly 48,000 square feet, and is zoned R1A-VH (Single Residential Attached, Very High Density). It measures approximately 131 feet by 362 feet.
Under the current zoning code, homes in R1A-VH have required minimum lot sizes of 1,200 square feet and only a single residence may be built per lot. Further, there is a height maximum of 40 feet or 3 stories (whichever is less), a front setback of 5 feet is required (though this can be waived through administrator exemption if the proposed setback is deemed “contextual” - see ), a side setback of 5 feet (though this can be 0 if the buildings are attached, and 3’ if the lot is less than 37’ wide - see ), and a rear setback of 15 feet.
