My day started when, two minutes before our final Managing in Complex Environments class, Dr. Ray Jones came out and told us, “We’re going to the Oaklander, like right now!” So we all dropped our bags off in his office and walked our field trip over to the Autograph Collection Oaklander Hotel. I have some familiarity with the hotel because this is the same place I stayed at whenever I visited Pitt. On our way there, we went up a set of steps, and I noticed my last name etched into them. It must be a sign of some sort…
At the Oaklander, we talked with Theresa Murdoch, who is the Director of HR for Concord Hospitality Services. She talked to us about how the hotel operates and really emphasized the behind-the-scenes reasons why late checkouts are such a burden. Checkouts are supposed to end at 12, which gives the cleaning staff 3 hours to clean the rooms before the 3 pm check-in time. Usually, they’ll start their rounds at 8 or 9 am to get ahead. But when someone checks out late, it throws everything off. Even worse is when a high-tier loyalty member checks out because they get a 4 pm checkout. That leaves only 30 minutes for the staff to clean the room before the next guest arrives. It becomes especially stressful during major events like Pitt/CMU move-in days, Furry-con (which is apparently huge in Pittsburgh), or the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, which happened just last week and had President Donald Trump in attendance. She also told us how, when President Barack Obama visited, the CIA requested roof access. After the talk, she took us downstairs to the construction site where their new restaurant will be. It’ll be a high-end pizza bar opening this October…
Once we got back to class, we spent the last 40 minutes talking about how we aren’t trying to completely change everything in Carrigart. We’re just trying to offer steps toward a Minimum Viable Product. This way, we can get things rolling without overwhelming the business owners in a town of 200 people.
After class, we had an hour of free time to get lunch, so we went to Szechuan Express down the street and absolutely stuffed ourselves with succulent Chinese meals. I got the Orange Chicken and fried rice and walked out of the restaurant barely able to walk. When we got back to the classroom, I climbed onto a table and took a very quick, food coma-induced nap before we all headed out as a group to the neighborhood of Lawrenceville…
This neighborhood is one of the bigger ones in Pittsburgh and is north of the Strip District. When talking to locals about it, they all mentioned how it’s become heavily gentrified. We took Ubers over and went to Ice House Studios, a co-working center for mostly artists located in a building that used to be an ice factory.
Our Uber ride was actually really cool. We tried talking to the driver, but he said he didn’t speak English. When we asked what language he spoke, he said Russian, which worked out because my friend Mark Rakach is fluent in it. The whole ride up was just the two of them chatting in Russian. The driver is from Kazakhstan. His family is still there, but he’s in the States driving Uber to one day bring his wife and kids here.
When we got to Ice House Studios, we talked to the Lawrenceville Corporation about their methods of marketing and how they manage a neighborhood with over 300 small businesses. They told us that their goal is to keep the businesses local… except for Starbucks. Funny how big corporations are seen as the enemy, unless they offer morning coffee. When we asked about the negative effects Starbucks might have had on local coffee shops, we were told there were none, and that it actually increased foot traffic. Again, their big stance is anti-corporate… unless it “helps them connect with their high school daughters.” Very strong backbone here. Gotta love when people pick and choose when their community rules apply…
After this site visit, we went to Field Day, another co-working space in Lawrenceville. This one was nice. The setup is designed for maximum productivity. The first floor is a lobby-bar, the middle four floors are all co-working offices, and the rooftop is used for events. We talked to the owner, whose concept is to run the place like a hotel, but for office space instead of bedrooms. When someone asked about AI, he spoke strongly against it. His whole philosophy is rooted in hospitality, and that includes real human interaction at every touchpoint, not a cold robot powered by some random LLM agent. It was a unique take on AI in business, and honestly, it raised my standards for what hospitality should look like. We ended the site visit on the rooftop with an amazing view of the neighborhood…
We ended the site visit on the rooftop with an amazing view of the neighborhood… hard to believe the area was considered sketchy less than 10 years ago. I’m always fascinated by how fast areas can get gentrified and the ripple effects it has on the people already living there. On one end, it brings in new business and infrastructure, but on the other, it forces longtime residents to get priced out of their own homes and neighborhoods…
After the site visit, we went to Millie’s Ice Cream to cool off. I had the strawberry jam on a waffle cone. It was delicious…
From there, we headed into the Lawrenceville Market House to explore and check out some local merchants. I went into MJ Eclectic and immediately found a ring I knew was mine. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. Another one added to the collection. Here’s a photo of me and a squirrel from the shop…
We finished the day off at Lawrenceville Hall, where we crushed some big ole burgers for dinner. Then we Ubered back to the dorms and called it a day.
