Thirty years ago, Mayor Pete Flaherty hired Ed deLuca away from Baltimore, just as its inner harbor of weedy warehouse lots was beginning to transform.

Pittsburgh was conceiving a transformation of its own that would come to be known as Renaissance II. The city had assembled a long list of plans for construction and land redesign, and Mr. deLuca would oversee much of it as the city's first economic development director.

Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Above: The Smallman Street produce terminal, lit against the backdrop of the Downtown skyline, was one of Ed deLuca's financing projects when he was the city's first director of economic development. Below: The former Pennsylvania Station is one of the renovations for which Ed deLuca secured financing during his tenure as the city's first director of economic development. The station was turned into The Pennsylvanian, an apartment building. Click photos for larger image.

Although just five years, his tenure on Grant Street ushered in the modern era of urban development. If not always pretty, it has been more informed by quality design, niche development and public feedback than was the case during the days of wholesale razing.

The job designation has popped up every decade or so, as a response to a surge of market interest. Patrick Ford's appointment last week makes him the city's third director of economic development. (Steve Leeper served Mayor Tom Murphy in the role in 1994-1998.)

"The mayor has charged me with streamlining the permitting processes between planning, zoning, building inspection, public works, water and sewer and the county," Mr. Ford said. "We have to get our house in order. There's a disconnect between people who want to invest in the city and the city government."

When he was the zoning administrator from 2002 to 2004 and planning director for the past year, he said, nearly every inquiry highlighted the system's flaws: obscure rules, a confusing trail of accountability and poor customer service.

"People couldn't get an answer to why some projects are approved and others aren't, why some developers are chosen and others not. Why do some permits take so long and others don't?

"What are people getting from our permitting process for the taxes they pay? Why are some reviews public and others administrative? Why is it so difficult? Why do I have to pay $10 to park Downtown for a $10 permit? Why do projects go through one department quickly and bottle up in another?"

Mr. Ford said he will write efficiency models to cut duplicative steps in the myriad processes to help everyone from large developers to homeowners. He also is expected to synchronize the work of the urban redevelopment, water and sewer, housing and parking authorities as it pertains to development.

Mr. deLuca, a New Jersey native who died in 1985, is portrayed by many who worked with him here as dynamic, aggressive, a sort of zealot who spoke and wrote widely on the best-practice ideas of the day.

An engineer by training, he had consulted foreign governments for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and he helped found the Council for Urban Economic Development. Now part of the International Economic Development Council, it gives an annual Edward deLuca lifetime achievement award. His early work was in economic development in Jacksonville, Fla.

He was called a visionary in the 1970s, when he advocated sustainable urban design before it was called that: walkable neighborhoods with a density of use, such as residential above retail, and coordinated transportation service.

He was also an early adherent to city-county cooperation and helped create the Pittsburgh Countywide Corp., a loan fund for development projects.

Anita Stec, his administrative aide at the time, remembers him saying, "We are not an island. What affects the county affects the city."

The fund exists today as the Regional Development Funding Corp.

In its first years, the PCC secured the earliest federal grants to transform Herrs Island from an animal slaughter site.

David Matter, who was Mayor Richard Caliguiri's executive secretary, recalled that Mr. deLuca got grants for Station Square development and for industrial construction in the Strip but was not able to effect Herrs Island's redevelopment.

"Ed favored industry, but the URA and city planning thought Herrs Island had a higher use," he said. Their vision of housing and a marina came to pass long after Mr. deLuca left the city's employ.

And when he did, some of the tension went out of the room.

"I was Ed's deputy, and he was not an easy person to work with," said Evan Stoddard, a city planner in the 1970s. "He was very opinionated, and I felt like I was constantly running interference. But he was one of the architects of Pittsburgh's economic development. He brought a bunch of money to the city, and he was passionate about strengthening and improving the city."

In 1982, after his job was folded into the URA, Mr. deLuca reported that his department had saved 3,458 jobs and created 2,626; located nine new businesses; helped finance $29.5 million in capital investments (roughly $72 million in today's value), and kept 205 companies from leaving.

Many development plans that were on his desk are in another cycle of tinkering: Market Square, Downtown, where a makeover plan is being crafted; the North Shore, where designers in the '70s envisioned entertainment venues and condos around Three Rivers Stadium; and the five-block produce terminal on Smallman Street in the Strip, which the URA bought and Mr. deLuca secured funding to retool for the benefit of produce wholesalers.

A 1978 article in The Pittsburgh Press led with this prescience: "It's just a dream now, but Ed deLuca thinks the Strip District can be turned into a retail food paradise that would be a major tourist attraction." The article reported that the attractions would include ethnic food, baked goods, seafood and produce.

Today, in a Strip that attracts 10,000 to 25,000 people on any given day, Neighbors in the Strip and the URA are in the feedback-gathering stage of a plan to reconfigure the terminal as a vibrant marketplace.

County Councilman Bill Robinson was a city councilman when Mr. deLuca served the city. He remembers him as "the city's first superdirector."

"The URA was more of a land acquisition agency, and Ed was a deal maker," he said. "Some people thought he was too aggressive and independent, but I found him engaging and forward thinking.

"In some respects, he was a forerunner of some of the thinking today and some activities of our URA now."

"The redevelopment authority was not dealing with companies," said Mr. Stoddard. "This was when steel was really on the skids and the city was losing a lot of its manufacturing base." He said he remembers the discussion in Mr. Flaherty's office about "trying to get Ed to step in and address these issues."

Ms. Stec, now a business development specialist for the URA, credits her old boss with making the URA better.

At the time, its role was land acquisition and large development projects. It did not arrange business financing or work with small developers, property owners or neighborhood groups as it does today, she said.

"In my mind, the greatest contribution he made was the financing program the URA still uses to help small businesses expand and stay in the city," she said. "A lot of what we do now is driven by the private market coming to us saying, 'We want to do this.'

"His legacy was to bring more versatility and variety to economic development. His legacy came to URA."