What Pittsburgh Can Teach the World

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Downtown & The Cultural District, East Liberty, Lawrenceville, Shadyside, Strip District, Friendship & Penn Ave Arts District, Oakland, North Side, South Side, Squirrel Hill 

Where do professionals go who want to learn the latest in green building technology or tissue engineering or neighborhood regeneration? One place is Pittsburgh—the same place people go to learn about advanced manufacturing and social entrepreneurship and robotics.

Today, the Pittsburgh region is as much a go-to center in these areas and others as it was in steel and heavy industry decades ago.

Delegations from Boston, Cleveland, Kansas City, Phoenix and Richmond have all visited Pittsburgh in the past couple of years to meet with a wide range of experts, according to Shawn Bannon, senior director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. Each group has come here to learn how our region does specific things right, from riverfront trails to Main Street revitalization.

Pittsburgh attracts its share of international visitors as well as those from across the country. Gail Shrott, executive director of the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors (PCIV) notes that “delegations from Dortmund, Germany and Saitama, Japan” have visited Pittsburgh recently to compare how we have improved in a number of areas where they are in need of help in their own cities or nations. Such improvements run the gamut from environmental cleanup to the conversion of old, sprawling industrial complexes to office/industrial parks mixing light industrial with biotech or sales offices. The Danish-American Business Forum has visited to determine what they can do to attract more Danish business operations to the area. 

Each year, PCIV hosts many international visitors—from students to professionals--in a variety of fields. Armenian architects and urban planners have visited to study our city’s buildings while journalists from around the world—from South America to Malaysia, Ethiopia to Nepal—have toured newspaper operations and television stations as they stopped here during their multi-city U.S. government sponsored visit.

Meds and Eds

One area where Pittsburgh truly excels and attracts international attention is Meds and Eds. This past April, The Regenerate World Congress on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine showcased Pittsburgh as the international leader it is in cutting edge medical technology. Roughly 850 of the top medical, business, technical and academic professionals from 40 countries converged at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

As impressive as this was, world focus on Pittsburgh for medical innovation is nothing new. The last two years have seen both the centennial of the American Respiratory Alliance of Western Pennsylvania (begun to help eradicate tuberculosis in the United States) and the 50-year mark since Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine made headlines. What’s more, it’s common for scientists from around the world to visit the renowned University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine to see the latest in amazing advancements.

The big bucks

As a benchmark of its medical acumen, Pittsburgh is routinely near the top of the 100 metros ranked by dollar amount of research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health. For NIH’s fiscal 2002, Pittsburgh ranked 12^th among 100 metros with $398,061,635.

Clearly, research dollars and projects draw medical professionals into the Pittsburgh area to work on medical advances, learn about the projects underway and trade knowledge with their peers in the region.

How green is my valley

Another area Pittsburgh is well known for is green building.

From the start, Pittsburgh has been a leader in the field thanks in large part to the Green Building Alliance which has pioneered environmentally sensible, cost-effective practices since 1997. In terms of square feet, Pittsburgh’s still tops: The U.S. Green Building Council recognized nine Pittsburgh structures comprising 2.7 million square feet of space – roughly 1.8 million square feet more than No. 3 Seattle.

A few years ago the U.S. Green Building Council held its annual conference at the LEED-certified David Lawrence Convention Center, the first and the largest green convention center in the world. It was an exceptional opportunity for the many architects, planners, contractors and others to study the award-winning building. And they toured the many green buildings all over town.

“Architects and engineers in Melbourne, Australia have paid close attention to its design and engineering” while planning their own convention center, says Rebecca Flora, executive director of the Green Building Alliance.

In 2006—2007, the GBA will enlighten more visitors as it conduct tours of local green buildings for a number of conferences: the National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, The Association of School Business Officials and Pittsburgh-based Air & Waste Management Association.

Putting the advanced in manufacturing

At last count there were more than 1,100 advanced manufacturing and materials firms in the 13-county Pittsburgh region as defined in the State of the Industry Report 2006 by the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Those companies employ roughly 34,000 and account for a combined payroll just north of $1.6 billion.

“The region is well known as a research and development center for advanced materials,” says Alexander Scott, executive director of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. 

One gauge of Pittsburgh’s expertise? The more than 5,000 engineers and scientists who convened here last September for Materials Science & Technology 2005. The conference was organized and sponsored by the American Ceramic Society; the American Welding Society; the Association for Iron and Steel Technology; The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society; and ASM International (The Materials Information Society).

By convening in Pittsburgh, the organizers of MST ‘05 knew that the exhibition portion would generate a lot of walk-in attendance from interested local professionals, he says. The event also included field trips to Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, two institutions that attract their own share of visitors seeking to learn from them.

Francine Papillion, associate director, Materials Research Science & Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University was heavily involved in hosting a group of engineers and government officials from the Rhone region of France, according to Suzi Pegg, Senior Director, Global Marketing for the Allegheny Conference. The group came to Pittsburgh to discuss the latest theories and practicalities in advanced materials at CMU.

A lot of skilled Pittsburgh area entrepreneurs are finding opportunities in metals by using advanced manufacturing, notes Marcia Schwab, a management consultant with the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

And one final note

When the coalition of 30 Pittsburghers descended on Chatanooga, Tennessee last year to learn about its exemplary civic design, the group was quick to point out two things upon their return: one, Chatanooga had visited Pittsburgh decades ago to see how we transformed our city and two, Pittsburgh does an awful lot of things really well.

Larry Slater runs Slater Research Services, a market research firm. His last article for Pop City was on international business conducted in Pittsburgh.