Rebuilding Pittsburgh’s Lost Downtown

Instigated by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, a vaguely remembered era of destruction provides the poetry, and premise, for a revival of Allegheny City

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh sponsored an ideas competition to spur neighborhood redevelopment and integration of the area’s many cultural assets ravaged by ill-founded urban renewal strategies of the 1960s and the collapse of industry in the 1970s and 1980s. The “Charm Bracelet” competition, funded by a National Endowment for the Arts grant attracted many entries of which four design teams were selected, including Suisman Urban Design. The team proposed to restore Allegheny City’s long lost urban fabric to its original 36 blocks as a strategy for a comprehensive revitalization of its public space, integrating pedestrian activity, landscape, architecture, and public transportation.

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