PLAN FOR THE CULTURAL DISTRICT The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

project profile
Plan for the Cultural DistriCt
pittsburgh, pA.
Urban Design • Place Planning
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the City of
Pittsburgh understood that though the city’s
Cultural District, which lies along the Allegheny
River on the west side of Downtown, already
included theaters, art galleries, retail shopping,
and some commercial offices and housing, the
district could be more than an aggregation of
thematic uses. The goals were ambitious and
complex: to create a special character for the
District through streetscape improvements and
the development of public open spaces, to expand
cultural activities and facilities, to promote larger
scale commercial development, to encourage
expansion of existing retail shopping, to begin a
new residential area along the Allegheny River,
and to preserve the District’s historic buildings.
To accomplish these objectives, the Cultural
Trust engaged Robert Brown of Brown & Keener
to lead a multi-disciplinary team. The services
provided by this group of consultants included:
• An urban design vision for the entire District,
• Specific design proposals for public
improvements to streetscapes, open spaces,
parks and the Allegheny Riverfront,
• Traffic evaluations and proposals for street
changes,
• Real-estate market evaluations and proposals
for possible mixed-use developments,
• Cultural activities market evaluations and
proposals for specific new venues, programs
and buildings,
• Studies of various building types (offices, hotel,
parking, retail, theater, nightclubs, mid-rise
residential) to test the urban
design vision,
• A potential timeline for phasing all
commercial, cultural and public developments,
Gateway from the Downtown Core
View of the Central Plaza
a member of the
Group
1315 walnUt st • sUite 900 • PhilaDelPhia, Pennsylvania 19107
20 soUth main st • sUite 2a • lambertville, new jersey 08530
t 215-751-1133
www.bkurbandesign.com
Plan for the Cultural District
Pittsburgh, PA.
• Cost studies of both public improvements
and building types for use in real-estate and
cultural economic evaluations, and
• Public presentations and meetings with
municipal agencies, cultural groups and
building owners.
The result, implemented over the last decade,
has been the detailed design, for construction, of
the new Allegheny River Park and Ft. Duquesne
Blvd., the design of a new mixed-use building
that includes 250,000 sf of offices and an 800seat repertory theater, and the completion of
streetscape improvements to the various streets of
the district.
client:
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
contact:
Carol Brown,
James Murray-Coleman
(412) 471-6070
collaborator:
edaw
A New Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh: The Cultural
District's Plan proposed new civic open spaces for the
city includes a new park along the Allegheny River,
in a place that was formerly cut off from the city by a
highway and a parking lot.
Brown & Keener
Urban Design • Place Planning