'Urban lab' redesign breathes new life into North Side
Share with others:
The North Side has been redesigned. Its main arteries -- Federal and Ohio streets -- are reconnected, and the shadowy, concrete expanse of Allegheny Center sits reformed in the middle of traffic grids, drenched in sunlight and greenery.
Not only that, there are more walking paths, water features, street lights, a theater for all tastes, and coffee shops. And the drippy, pigeon-infested, badly-lit railroad underpass that separates the North Shore from the North Side? Gone.
On the practical side of fantasy, 42 Carnegie Mellon University architecture students redesigned the North Side to the delight of most of the 30 people at an "urban lab" workshop at the Children's Museum Wednesday night. It was the last of three such workshops.
Each fall semester, Carnegie Mellon's fifth-year architecture students focus on a neighborhood, studying its history, identifying its design flaws and social needs, then set about redesigning it. The project helps students develop as designers.
The finished product -- a full-color booklet of all 11 schemes -- needs a funding source.
The final presentation drew more people than the first two, but student Flora Bao expressed regret that more didn't wander in.
"We handed out more than 2,000 fliers," she said. "We wanted to get more people who weren't already plugged in.
"Maybe it's a good thing, though. The people who are here already know these things, and maybe they can make things happen."
"It was energizing for all of us who have been going round and round on these issues for years," said Christina Schmidlapp, leader of the Allegheny Commons Restoration Project. "The students also reinforced ideas the neighborhood has held, that barriers are better off removed, like connecting East and West Ohio streets and upper and lower Federal. It's fun to see such talent trained on our issues with fresh eyes."
First Published December 2, 2005 12:00 am
