Presenters:
Dr. John Wallace | Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Howard Slaughter | President & Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh
Raqueeb Bey | Executive Director, Black Urban Farmers
Walter Lewis | President & CEO, Homewood Children’s Village
Demi Kolke | Senior Program Manager of Corridor Revitalization, Neighborhood Allies
Zinna Scott, Board member OBB and NMRWA, Chairperson Cluster 8-9 OBB
Christine Mondor | Principal, evolveEA
Jerome Jackson | Executive Director, Operation Better Block
Matt Madia | Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Bridgeway Capital
Mike Hiller | Assistant Director, Nine Mile Run Watershed Association

Homewood is one of 90 city distinct and historic neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh. In April 2019 the community unveiled a new Comprehensive Community Plan includes 21 overarching goals for the neighborhood, from improving air quality to better managing vacant property, providing access to healthy food and increasing transit and affordable housing. The result is a renewed focus on community stabilization and grass roots action, including early organizing to develop a food cooperative that can sell affordable, healthy groceries and expand skill-sharing programs to encourage home gardening and build community knowledge around growing food. During this studio tour participants will unpack and explore the Homewood Community Plan, how the EcoDistricts Protocol was used to guide its development and discuss strategies to inform the future of neighborhood planning in Pittsburgh and beyond.

Presenters:
Kendall Pelling | Director of Land Recycling, East Liberty Development Inc.
Breen Masciotra | TOD Project Manager, Port Authority of Allegheny County
Lynn Colosi | Vice President, Transit Services, Delta Development
Tracey Evans | Executive Director, Wilkinsburg CDC
Malik Bankston | Executive Director, Kingsley Association
Elijah Hughes | Senior Project Manager, EcoDistricts AP, evolveEA
Stanley Holbrook | Larmier Consensus Group
Andrew Dash, Acting Director | Pittsburgh City Planning

Developing a Transit Oriented Development strategy that addresses equity and environmental sustainability is a challenge for every community. In Pittsburgh, the East Busway has become a vehicle for community redevelopment, and transit stations have become the center of redevelopment. As with all redevelopment projects, the question for the community is how new development can serve the needs of the community, especially the most vulnerable. This Studio will visit three communities undergoing transformation along the East Busway – East Liberty, Larimer and Wilkinsburg – and explore new engagement strategies and tools to develop and finance TOD in a way that balances revitalization with community benefits.

Presenters:
Fred Brown | President, The Forbes Funds
Debra Erenberg | Strategic Director, Cancer Free Economy Network
Molly Jacobs | Senior Research Associate/Project Manager, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
David Levine | Co-Founder & President, American Sustainable Business Council
Matthew Mehalik | Executive Director, The Breathe Project

The Pittsburgh region has long suffered from some of the nation’s most dangerous air and water quality. Drawing on their experience as participants in the national Cancer Free Economy Network, this panel will focus on ways that communities are making sense of the environmental threats they’re facing and collaborating to create healthier places to live, work and play. Panelists will present local examples relating to air pollution, the petrochemical/plastics buildout in the region, and specific chemical contaminants. They will describe the challenges and opportunities of working both on problems and solutions, including using exposure and cancer data to understand and communicate risks to health; alternatives to hazardous materials; green economic development; and working collaboratively through regional and national networks.

Presenters:
Anna Rosenblum | Senior Project Manager, evolveEA
Pete Munoz | Senior Engineer, Biohabitats
Brian Wolovich | Triboro Ecodistrict Director, New Sun Rising
Dave Ramslie | Principal, Concert Development

The Triboro Ecodistrict sits directly NE of the City of Pittsburgh, along the Allegheny River. Led by New Sun Rising, the Triboro Ecodistrict promotes coordinated sustainable community development throughout the Boroughs of Millvale, Etna and Sharpsburg through the shared lenses of Equity, Food, Water, Energy, Air Quality, and Mobility. What started as a plan to revitalize Millvale following a series of devastating floods in 2004 and 2007, has become a seven year community education, planning and implementation effort to reimagine these tight knit communities through the lens of sustainability and resilience. With the climate crisis impacting vulnerable downstream communities like the Triboro, this studio will explore the role of integrated ecological design and green infrastructure to protect against future floods, while building local capacity. Studio tour participants will learn about the work happening in the Triboro and assist with design ideation for specific sites where stormwater management interventions are currently being planned.

Presenters:
Daniel Lavelle | Member of Council, City of Pittsburgh
Marimba Millions | President & CEO, Hill Community Development Corporation
Mary Ellen Solomon | Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President, Duquesne University
Kevin Acklin | Senior Vice President & General Council, Pittsburgh Penguins
Grant Ervin | Chief Resilience Officer, City of Pittsburgh
Donzell Robinson | COO Justice & Sustainability Associates
Felicity Williams | Programs and Policy Manager, Hill Community Development Corporation
Derek Dauphin | Senior Planner, Pittsburgh City Planning
Mark Johnson | Plant Manager, Clearway Energy Center, Inc.
Torey Barr | Sales & Marketing Manager, Clearway Energy Center, Inc.

The Hill District and Uptown, directly adjacent to Downtown Pittsburgh are two of the city’s most historic and culturally important communities. Both neighborhoods are on the verge of being transformed through investments in Bus Rapid Transit and high density mixed use development around the Pittsburgh Penguins stadium. In this studio, we will meet with community stakeholders and developers to discuss the opportunities and tension that is created when large public and private investments are needing to be carefully knit together to serve the people who call these neighborhoods home. We will visit Center Avenue in the Hill District, the Fifth/Forbes BRT corridor in Uptown and the redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site in the Lower Hill that is slated to include almost 1.5 million sq. feet of commercial, retail and entertainment uses, along with 1,400 units of housing.

Speakers:
Katrina Flora, Special Projects Manager, Remake Group (Studio Leader)
Jason Hobbes | General Counsel, RIDC
Jeryl Aman, Architect, MSR

As a former steel mill community, the greater Hazelwood neighborhood was once a literal and metaphorical economic powerhouse of the Pittsburgh region.  The 1,305-acre neighborhood and 178-acre brownfield site along the Monongahela River have entered into a new revitalization effort that centers on the redevelopment of the mill site and restoring the heart of the community’s once bustling main street. The decline and eventual closing of the mill was a significant economic blow to the neighborhood. However, given the mill’s decades of pollution and negative impact on public health, its closure has created a chance to build a regenerative community development strategy focused on inclusion, ecological design, and innovation that paves the way for future industrial site redevelopment and restoration of the neighborhood’s physical and cultural fabric. On this tour we will explore redevelopment projects along the Hazelwood business district designed to attract new businesses and residents and RIDC Mill 19, a former steel mill that houses teams from CMU’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative, the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) and the economic development nonprofit Catalyst Connection.