The $13.7 million renovation of the Roundhouse at Hazelwood Green was unveiled Wednesday with a ceremony featuring several dignitaries involved with the project.

The difference between the former industrial structure built in 1888 and what was revealed on Tuesday morning could not be any more stark.

The gleaming new facility, with solar panels covering the roof, has officially opened as the newest innovation hub of OneValley, a Silicon Valley-based global entrepreneurship center. The new place is designed not only to support entrepreneurs but also to accelerate startups and support organizations that foster innovation, thus benefitting Pittsburgh’s innovation ecosystem.

Lead architect Anne Chen speaks at Tuesday's official opening of the newly renovated Roundhouse at Hazelwood Green and talks about keeping a crane above works stations at the state of the art structure. pic.twitter.com/J5oBpbZMNY

— Paul Guggenheimer (@PGuggenheimer) September 22, 2021

The Monongahela Connecting railroad built the structure. It was owned by Jones & Laughlin Steel, which later became LTV Steel. The Hazelwood site closed in 1999 and was the last mill to operate in the city.

The renovation was financed through a combined investment by the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Heinz Endowments.

“In the 19th century, the Roundhouse serviced locomotives that powered the innovation economy of that era. Now, the Roundhouse will be an engine once again, for a new economy and a new generation of Pittsburgh innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Sam Reiman, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Reiman said the people who call this place home will be seeking to create jobs for themselves and their neighbors.

“OneValley could have gone anywhere in the world to open their next global office,” he said. “It is a statement about Pittsburgh, and a validation of our vision for the Roundhouse, that they chose to come here.”

OneValley at the Roundhouse will operate on a membership basis, with members receiving access to turnkey office and co-working spaces as well as access to the Pittsburgh Entrepreneurship Platform and a global network of entrepreneurs, investors and mentors.

“Typically our communities are predominantly housed by early-stage technology startups,” said Alec Wright, OneValley chief innovation officer. “You come in as one or two people. Our goal is after two or three years you’ve got 50 people, 100 people and you’ve actually gone out and gotten a space on your own. Incubation really is the term for what we’re hoping to do with early-stage technology companies.”

The transformation of the 26,000-gross-square-feet Roundhouse area on the Monongahela River is stunning.

What was once a facility that serviced trains that were used to move steel and steelmaking materials is now a shiny new innovation center with large windows replacing what were once garage doors. There are comfortable work spaces and a second floor that did not exist in the original structure. The upper floor introduced concrete to a building that was of made of brick, steel and wood.

But how did the designers take such a dilapidated space and turn it into something modern and futuristic?

“It’s by appreciating elements of the existing building — the history, the materials, this large volume of space, and then thinking about how people occupy it,” said lead architect Anne Chen, a principal at GBBN. “Some of it is about introducing new elements that relate to the human body so that you feel that we have a place in here.

“The second floor introduces the idea that it’s a place for people. When we started working here, it was just a shell. It was just a big open space that was dirty. You couldn’t imagine spending more than 10 minutes to an hour in here. Now it feels like a space you can be in for a whole day.”

However, Chen felt it was important that the building retain elements that are part of its history, such as a large crane that looms overhead.

“Keeping the crane looks easy. It wasn’t easy,” she said. “The crane actually had to be removed and then reinstalled after construction (of the second floor) was done.”

The effort to transform the former steelmaking site began in 2002, when Almono LP was formed by four Pittsburgh foundations to purchase the Hazelwood site from LTV for $10 million. Today, Almono is owned by three of the foundations – the Richard King Mellon Foundation, The Heinz Endowments and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. (The fourth, the McCune Foundation, sold its shares to Mellon in 2016.)

Mayor Bill Peduto called the renovation of the Roundhouse at Hazelwood Green another milepost in the transformation of Pittsburgh.

“We recognize not only the decline that our city and our region went through, but that there is a new beginning that has not only started but has propelled itself,” he said.

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