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EPP/SDS/Heinz Project Course, Spring 97

Once a pristine wooded stream valley, the Nine Mile Run valley located between Squirrel Hill and Swissvale is now an environmentally damaged brownfield that is also Pittsburgh's largest parcel of undeveloped land. The Urban Redevelopment Authority has proposed a plan for a new residential housing development and recreational area to be built at this site with hopes to encourage people to move back to Pittsburgh. The site presents problems for such redevelopment however, because it is covered by steep, barren slopes of slag dumped there over the past 75 years from steel production, and because the stream that runs through it to connect Frick Park to the Monongahela River is polluted.

The class worked through the spring semester to come up with recommendations to address these site preparation issues, as well as explore how the housing development can be designed to be a sustainable community. This brownfield reclamation effort should not impose a cost on future generations; this principle applies to the initial planning of the design of individual buildings , the green spaces within the development, and the transportation infrastructure of the site and its connection to surrounding communities. If the issues outlined above are addressed, and the Nine Mile Run development does succeed in attracting people back to Pittsburgh, then it will enhance the image of Pittsburgh as an environmental city and serve as a national model for brownfield redevelopment.

The class' recommendations were presented to a review panel at a final presentation on May 1st, 1997.

To order a copy of the final project report please call the department at 412-268-2670 or send mail along with a payment of $12.40 to: