News March 30, 2013

The Architect’s Newspaper: Steeling Beauty

The Architect’s Newspaper: Steeling Beauty

David Tabenken spoke with Nicole Anderson at The Architect’s Newspaper regarding our recently completed Allegheny Riverfront Green Boulevard Study, done with Sasaki Associates. Check out ‘Steeling Beauty’, below, featured on the front page of this month’s edition!

A long stretch along the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, once home to steel mills, suffered, like so many cities along the Rust Belt, from the decline of local industry. The Allegheny Riverfront Green Boulevard (ARGB) Study, led by Sasaki Associates with the help of Hacin, seeks to transform this 6.5-mile-long strip from an industrial corridor, filled with vacant tracts of land, into a mixed-use area that provides a robust connection between the existing neighborhood and riverfront.
 
The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) secured a $1.5 million Partnership for Sustainable Communities grant from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund this study. Building on the 2010 Allegheny Riverfront Vision Plan by Perkins Eastman Architects, Sasaki Associates has conceived of a comprehensive plan that focuses on creating access to the Allegheny riverfront, developing parkland and green spaces, designing a bike-path along the railroad, turning the freight rail into a multimodal corridor with commuter rail service, and laying the groundwork for new residential developments and light industry to move into the area.