A group of seven municipalities along 16 miles of Route 51, spanning from the Liberty Tunnel to Elizabeth, PA, are teaming up with local architects and the
American Institute of Architects to try and solve some of the major infrastructural issues that have long plagued the corridor.
Community leaders and local architects from Pittsburgh, Whitehall, Brentwood, Baldwin, Pleasant Hills, Jefferson Hills, West Mifflin, and CMU's
Remaking Cities Institute and Ruthann Omer, president of Gateway Engineers, have invited the AIA's
Sustainable Design Assistance Team to help create a strategic plan to revitalize the Route 51 corridor during a three day workshop from October fifth through seventh.
"For quite some time there's been traffic congestion problems," says
Jen Bee, an architect who's co-chairing the steering committee for the project with Anne Swager, Executive Director of AIA Pittsburgh. Adding to the traffic issue, Jen also cites blight, frequent flooding, and a lack of proper pedestrian pathways as problems that the SDAT team, a diverse group of architects, hydrologists, and other specialized professionals, will be working with the communities to solve.
On October fifth, the SDAT team will tour the corridor with civic leaders, local architects, and CMU students in order to explore the challenges, followed by a town hall style meeting, where community members can offer input into the plan. Intensive smaller meetings and brainstorming will occur over the next two days, which will ultimately result in a large-scale set of guidelines, which the municipalities will base their revitalization efforts off of over the following year. In addition, the AIA will offer $15,000 in funding for the project, and the SDAT team will return in October 2011 to oversee how the municipalities have utilized the suggestions in their comprehensive plan.
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Source: Jen Bee, AIA LEED AP
Writer:
John FarleyImage courtesy Jen Bee.