Brighton Heights is a lovely city neighborhood -- if only people could find it! The main entrance to this neighborhood at the northern edge of city limits -- off Route 65 opposite the McKee’s Rocks Bridge -- sits at an intimidating five-point intersection, which hardly invites people to cruise in and look around.
Just after hospital administrator Kelly Burns moved to the neighborhood six years ago, she mentioned this dilemma at her first meeting of the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation, and promptly found herself on the “Portal Committee,” which she now chairs.
With the assistance of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, BHCF worked with Maynes Associates Architects to develop the Portal Project. Two results are plans for a decorative “Brighton Heights” sign designed by fellow Northsiders, the Pipitone Group, and, possibly, a wholesale redesign that would replace the five-point intersection with a roundabout -- a circular, one-way loop placed at an intersection, which allows traffic to flow around it without stopping at a standard traffic light.
Once people have been lured in, Brighton Heights residents want to make sure they visit the neighborhood’s businesses, too. They again asked the Community Design Center to fund an urban design study, but first the CDCP asked Brighton Heights do a market analysis – and offered to pay for it.
Consultants Jackson/Clark Partners are working on that now, and will present their findings to the neighborhood group later this spring. Although the neighborhood’s business district is small and fragmented, it has some unusual finds that could be destinations, like Tom Friday’s butcher shop and The Vault, a coffeeshop built into a renovated bank branch.
Says consultant Pat Clark: “It’s really smart, planning not in a vacuum, but as part of capital improvements … it’s a pretty cool holistic approach.”
Photo copyright © Jonathan Greene