CMU architecture students plan for Downtown of the future
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The Urban Lab's plan for Downtown Pittsburgh promotes a pedestrian friendly environment that connects Downtown. -
The Urban Lab's plan for Downtown Pittsburgh promotes a pedestrian-friendly environment that connects Downtown. -
The Urban Design Lab's plan for Downtown Pittsburgh promotes a pedestrian friendly environment that connects Downtown. -
The Urban Lab envisions repurposing the Civic Arena into a civic park, preserving the arcing structure. -
The Urban Lab envisions repurposing the Civic Arena into a civic park, preserving the arcing structure. -
A riverbus capitalizes on Pittsburgh's waterfront and specifically targets commuters who would drive into Downtown from as far as 13 miles away. -
Implementing new bike paths simply requires a bright coat of orange paint, which greatly increases biker presence on the road -
The tram route includes two pedestrian streets, in purple, and the proposed bicycle paths, in orange.
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Imagine a Downtown with an iconic part of the Civic Arena as a scenic overlook, a cable car connecting the Hill to the Convention Center, a looping midtown tram, river buses, and pedestrian alleys connecting river to river, and small greenspaces dotting the path from the Point to Uptown like breadcrumbs.
For their fall semester Urban Lab studio, Eve Picker and Rami el Samahy's 27 Carnegie Mellon University architecture students imagined these and other ideas to better connect and define Downtown, merging blue-sky elements delightfully alongside the brick-dominant, narrow-alleyed industrial past.
A few people besides students and instructors attended a presentation of their ideas in city council chambers Thursday. They included council members Daniel Lavelle, who represents Downtown, and William Peduto, whose district includes the university.
The students' Downtown strategy was a mix of the do-able and the "in your dreams." But Mr. Peduto pointed out that priorities make things doable. "The Mon-Fayette Expressway is $4 billion to drive from Braddock to Oakland," he said. "Imagine if $4 billion were put toward this."
Ms. Picker, a longtime Downtown developer, described the students' work as "free to the city if anyone wants to pay attention to it."
Reminding the students that Schenley Plaza's transformation from parking lot to park was a student-driven project, Mr. Peduto said, "What I saw today is beautiful. I love it. It is respectful of the past and also shows us what the city can be.
"Push the envelope," he told them. "So many people will tell you you can't do this or we can't afford it, but government's job is to find a way."
Robert Rubenstein, director of economic development for the city Urban Redevelopment Authority, suggested the students do a cost-benefit analysis.
"What are the savings if this is implemented?" he said.
"A lot of the things that could save money would be viable."
The Urban Lab was founded in 1963 by David Lewis, who established the graduate school in urban design at CMU. The lab is a resource for city neighborhoods to collaborate with architects-to-be on usable, free plans.
Ms. Picker said her students came up with "a lot of reality-based things. The plan is incredibly thoughtful." She said she is inspired that the Atlanta Beltway, a pedestrian and bicycle thoroughfare that follows an old railroad line, was a student plan that is being implemented now.
"The instructor thought it so good that he knocked on the door of a city council member and said, 'You've got to look at this.' "
First Published December 13, 2010 12:00 am
