by Eric Miller

"I had almost forgotten how bad it is," said Richard Mellon after returning to Pittsburgh from the war in 1945. "Now I understand why a lot of people leave and why a lot of people will never come back." His words still resonate. More than a half-century after Mellon helped launch Renaissance I, Pittsburgh is setting the stage for a third renaissance to pull the city into the future. Meanwhile, the population keeps dwindling. But if all goes as planned, Pittsburgh will again be a different place in the new milennium. It will be a place that can attract and retain young people, that can proudly boast of its emergence as a technology leader, instead of endlessly bemoaning the loss of its industrial economy.

Over the next few years, a handful of new developments are set to transform Pittsburgh. On the North Shore, a light-rail extension will connect the new baseball and football stadium now under construction, as well as a shopping and entertainment complex, to an improved downtown filled with two new department stores, a 10-screen movie theater, an additional performing arts theater and national chain restaurants. The Civic Arena will be surrounded by an entertainment complex, possibly connected to downtown by an elevated train. In the neighborhoods, a thriving retail and residential development will extend Carson Street's commercial strip onto an old South Side industrial site. And a new arts and entertainment district will surround an expansion of a medical complex on the North Side.

The plans are ambitious, but if they are carried out, Renaissance III will leave the other two renewal attempts in the dust. In some cases, literally.

And it's about time. Renaissance Renewed
With any luck, Renaissance III will help reverse the missteps made during Renaissance I and II. Both previous attempts at renewal were marked by the mass-clearing of neighborhoods and the unrelenting accommodation of automobiles.

Back in the '50s, the first renaissance focused on the Point and the Hill District. Though new mixed-income housing has recently sprung up on a chunk of the Lower Hill cleared around the time of the Civic Arena's construction, many vacant lots still remain. Renaissance I also gave us the imposing public spaces of Gateway Center, one of the defining projects of its time.

The second renaissance, in the late '70s, gave us PPG Place, Fifth Avenue Place and the light-rail "T." (Unlike most urban improvements of its era, the T, as it turns out, was more in sync with today's efforts.) While the buildings in Gateway Center and PPG Place look dramatic from a distance, the street observer finds them cold. And while people flock to Market Square, they avoid the adjacent courtyard in PPG Place. The developments of Renaissance I, and to a lesser extent, Renaissance II, were designed to give people more space. Thinking more public space was the way to make the city an attractive place to live, planners soon realized space came at the expense of convenience, accessibility and safety.

With the benefit of hindsight, the developers of Alcoa's brand-new North Shore headquarters avoided past mistakes by building in close proximity to the street. The result, which more closely resembles the development patterns of older city cores created before there was such a thing as zoning, is a friendlier environment for pedestrians. Similarly, those behind the proposed Pirates Park have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors. If things go as Plan B's developers would like them to, the asphalt island that is Three Rivers Stadium will soon give way to an intimate, old-time ballpark that's well integrated into the surrounding community.

Development of a new neighborhood ballpark could have many positive effects on Pittsburgh. Instead of rendering parts of the North Side a concrete wasteland after games, Pirates Park might actually create new business in the surrounding area by increasing foot traffic through the neighborhood.

Though not all urban developers have emerged from the old ways, many have adapted to the unwritten rules of something called "new urbanism," which means adapting what we think of as suburban qualities to urban designs. The newest initiatives would create a friendlier urban environment by providing sidewalks and trees for pedestrians and by making it easy to walk as well as drive between destinations. The larger goal of downtown development is at least a partial attempt to appeal to suburbanites--with the ultimate goal of luring them back to live in the city. While the city has experienced some success, it's less certain these new efforts can reverse a downward economic spiral. Making the city seem new is sure to lift spirits, but a third renaissance can't be expected to accomplish any more in terms of economic improvement than the first two.

That doesn't mean, however, that Renaissance III can't succeed where previous efforts failed. With developments designed to increase street activity and the addition of new, convenient and affordable housing, Pittsburgh is poised to significantly improve the quality of life in the city. And while the economic impact of the new projects may be minimal, quality-of-life improvements may ultimately attract new business and technology. Only then can Pittsburgh play host to an influx of talented people who demand more than just a job from a city. Size Isn't Everything
Downtown development, while in the forefront of Renaissance III, is hardly the plan's only focus. All across the city, great strides have been made toward improved urban living.

In East Liberty, for instance, work is underway transforming the Pennley Place housing complex; and on the North Side, after 15 years of planning, a new neighborhood has at last begun taking shape. Here, much of the west side of once crime-plagued Federal Street has been cleared for a new concentrated development called the Federal North Project. Included in the plan is a now completed research facility for the former Allegheny General Hospital, a parking garage, art and retail space, apartments, a theater, restaurants and 33 single-family homes. This allows for not only a mix of uses, but a mix of scale and a blend of new construction with historic preservation.

The cornerstone of the project is the long-awaited renovation of the Garden Theatre, currently showing porn films. Sarah Radelet of the Mattress Factory Art Museum, which will transform the theater into a neighborhood gathering place, says the intent of the renovation is to utilize the theater as much as possible--even showing cartoons on Saturdays--in an effort to increase traffic in the neighborhood. The overall goal of the project is two-fold. While attracting visitors and providing additional destinations for those already visiting the North Side, the focus on housing seeks to transform the area into a functioning community--home to residents with a variety of income levels, businesses used by residents, employment opportunities for residents and attractions that bring in people from other neighborhoods and outside the city.

Unlike some other development efforts, the Federal North Project will emerge through a more organic process instead of a top-down plan. Radelet says the project will grow and shift along with the changing needs and interests of the community.

The larger-scale, four-story structures that will border Federal Street behind the Garden Theatre will include storefronts on the street level and will be built to blend into the surrounding buildings. Existing businesses on the west side of the street should benefit from the added traffic the project will bring to the neighborhood. The development will make Federal Street less desolate and less attractive to criminals. "If you've got people living there," says Radelet, "it will be a better environment." Perhaps more than any other effort that will play a part in Pittsburgh's third renaissance, the Federal North Project will recreate the diversity, vitality and energy we've come to expect from a healthy city.

Across town, on the South Side, another ambitious effort is in the planning stages. A proposed extension of East Carson Street onto the former LTV site, complete with new buildings to resemble those already lining Carson Street, will provide for smaller-scale, more organic development with a mix of homes and businesses.

East Liberty, meanwhile, has gained fame lately for its selection as the future home of Home Depot. But that project is only one part of a total redevelopment of this once-mighty neighborhood. A Boston firm, The Community Builders, is busy at work undoing parts of Renaissance I that led to East Liberty's decline. One of their main projects is the conversion of the Pennley Place apartment complex into what project manager Tamara Dudukovich calls "a more humane living environment."

Several of the buildings in the complex will be razed in order to reconnect Broad Street between Negley and St. Clair, and possibly even into Penn Circle. This will reverse "improvements" wrought by urban renewal in the '60s and help recreate the neighborhood's once pedestrian-friendly core. Several townhomes will also be built along the reconnected Broad Street as well as four new apartment buildings on Negley Avenue. Dudukovich says the additional "eyes on the street" that will come from new low-rise housing will foster a sense of belonging and ownership in the community.Neither aspect, by the way, was considered in East Liberty's Renaissance I redesign.

The renovations of the existing multi-family units will feature exterior doors for the ground floor units and inner sidewalks with still smaller walkways leading to apartment doors. "We're trying to create a clearer delineation of how space becomes more and more private the closer you get to the building," says Dudukovich, adding that the goal was to minimize shared hallways and common space inside the buildings as well. Although the revamped Pennley Place will not include commercial space, it will provide a mix of unit styles and price-ranges, all within walking distance of existing East Liberty businesses. "We're hoping this will create a positive impact on crime," says Dudukovich. In the end, if they are successful, both the Federal North Project and the reconfiguration of Pennley Place may one day become the cornerstones of Renaissance III. Wonderworld of 1960
In some ways, Pittsburgh's newest developments resemble the city of yesterday more than any project started during prior renaissance attempts. The crowding and congestion, once seen as undesirable, is now intended.

In recent years, developers have come to question the value of free-flowing traffic and sprawling developments. The Federal North project seeks to spur sidewalk traffic, and the Pennley Place renewal will add street parking in order to create congestion and activity.

Behind the large-scale developments that marked Renaissance I and II were the writings of architect Le Corbusier, whose famous line, "The skyscrapers of New York are too small, and there are too many of them," described a prototype of the future city of 1960 in an exhibit at the 1939's World's Fair. Visitors to the General Motors Futurama pavilion saw huge glass buildings separated by highways and devoid of traditional streets, small stores and open markets. Strolling through the animated exhibit, visitors were presented with a "Wonderworld of 1960" that would become a model for urban development.

By the time much of the wonderworld had been realized in America's downtowns, coalitions aimed at halting the transformation had formed and the modernist ideals of Futurama met increasing resistance. The seeds for today's return to pre-planning ideals were planted.

The futuristic plans of the 1950s and '60s were scaled back before they could be fully realized. Redevelopment in areas of Nashville, Boston, Brooklyn, San Francisco and even Pittsburgh was abruptly stopped. Finally, planners were beginning to realize that there was something about the old, unplanned city that couldn't be recreated through terms like "beltway," and the sounds of a wrecking ball began to produce a cringe, rather than a sense of awe.

"As we've turned our communities over to the auto, we've created places that are not very inviting to be in," says David Beach, founder of the urban advocacy group, EcoCity Cleveland. "Spaced far apart, they are not friendly places to walk and they're dangerous." If our urban landscape is totally car-oriented," adds Pennsylvania author Thomas Hylton, who wrote 1995's Save Our Land, Save our Towns, "it's not going to do anybody any good." Crime stats show that as street activity decreases, crime increases.

Walking past and looking at the city of the future as a display, as it turned out, was much different from being in it. The 24-Hour City
When New Mexico real estate developer Christopher Leinberger addressed the corporate planning group "Cleveland Tomorrow" last year, he outlined the elements of successful downtowns. They include high-end housing, a well-planned transportation system, an emphasis on tourism, entertainment and cultural events, and a focus on natural resources. Pittsburgh's chief rival, Cleveland, has been touted recently as a "comeback city" in the national media. It even made Fortune magazine's 1997 list of the 10 most improved cities. But even after all that self-help, Cleveland still doesn't rank among Leinberger's six American cities with healthy downtowns. The exclusive list includes midtown Manhattan; San Francisco; Chicago; Boston; Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Cleveland, like Pittsburgh, lacks some of the essential elements.

One edge Cleveland does seem to have over Pittsburgh is a sense, whether real or imaginary, that the city is improving. But that sense may be the result of something other than development projects. David Beach of EcoCity Cleveland says the transformation is largely the result of a successful public relations campaign. "A lot of investments have succeeded in creating a new image that Cleveland is a different kind of place," he says.

But Pittsburgh is the master of the image overhaul. It wasn't so long ago, after all, that the smoky city overcame its "hell with the lid off" image to rank first in Rand McNally's 1985 Places Rated Almanac. Faced with similarly severe population decline, Cleveland may just now be confronting the downside of fame: living up to expectations. Many of the developments planned or recently completed in Cleveland are similar to those now underway in Pittsburgh. Cleveland, too, is investing in downtown attractions like stadiums, theaters and hotels, all in ways that embrace the latest urban planning principles. Cleveland, however, seems to be placing more emphasis on downtown housing and light-rail improvements than Pittsburgh, and these may wind up among the ingredients that make the twenty-first-century city work.

"The Pittsburgh Downtown Plan--a Blueprint for the 21st Century," a Pittsburgh Planning Department proposal, calls for many of the elements that have helped Cleveland with its turn-around. If this still-developing plan were implemented, downtown Pittsburgh would be inundated with loft housing, green grocers, specialty retailers, a new movie theater, more public transit, added landscaping and ample pedestrian walkways.

Strangely, some of this proposal's key components are among those targeted for removal during previous renewal movements. That the proposal goes so far as to mention increasing "underground business opportunities" in downtown subways represents a clear break from yesterday's economic development ideals.

When it comes to recreating Pittsburgh as a 24-hour city, what is built may not be as important as how many different things are built. Key to a thriving urban core, says author Thomas Hylton, is the ability to move from place to place without a car. Pittsburgh's planners learned this the hard way. Back to the Future
The irony of the urban planning process is that the highly functional cities of the past upon which we now model our urban designs were for the most part unplanned. The six healthy cities Leinberger points to either didn't experience 1960s urban renewal to the extent that Pittsburgh did, or they have succeeded in recreating a walkable, transit-oriented urban environment.

In the past, cities grew, one building at a time, without zoning or large civic- and government-directed initiatives. The small buildings and variety of uses, later connected by streetcars and subways, provided the atmosphere sought by modern planners. Developing in this unplanned manner may no longer be possible. Cities can't grow in the same way they did a hundred years ago because incentives now ensure that development proceeds in a prescribed fashion.

Government incentives such as highway grants, the capital gains tax, zoning and FHA mortgages all support suburban sprawl. Cities, meanwhile, grow up around transportation. A city dependent on cars will come to resemble a suburb, just as cities built around streetcars and pedestrian traffic have become the places we try to recreate today. If healthy urban living environments are ever to be realized, steps must be taken to make cities more attractive. These days most urban areas compete with the suburbs for business, and the construction inside the city is a mere fraction of what takes place around the region.

"Today's developments are ever more segregated," says Hylton. "The most common [new] developments are boxes and parking lots."

Still, inside the city, private development has begun to follow the new urban form. A Wal-Mart store in Vermont has opened in an old five-and-dime. Likewise, Kmart recently opened a new outlet in Manhattan's East Village, fitting into a department store-style space. "The big-box retailer has begun adjusting his parameters to fit into the city rather than adjust the city to look like a suburb," Hylton adds.

The downtown developments Plan B's architects hope to initiate have also come into question. Some, like Dave Tessitor of the local policy group American Town and Country Alliance, charge that the development is on too large a scale to create the active streets developers seek. Others question the potential economic impact from the kind of developments now under consideration, suggesting that the proposals lack creativity and that the money could be spent in other ways.

Some think building the city's high-tech industry is the answer. Many local initiatives aimed at developing technology are already underway. One is the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Consortium in Lawrenceville. Developing technology first, then focusing on quality of life has worked in other areas. Silicon Valley is the best example, having boomed after Stanford University invested in computer technology. Akron, Ohio, took a similar path. When faced with the decline of the rubber industry, it invested in developing polymer technology. Today there are more jobs in Akron than at the height of the rubber era. Now the city must improve the quality of life in order to hold onto talented workers.

Most of the projects in Pittsburgh and Cleveland also rely on improving the quality of life in order to attract residents, hoping industry follows.

In the six healthy cities cited by Leinberger, however, both industry and a high quality of life are already in place. So relying solely on entertainment and downtown attractions is unlikely to make Pittsburgh the seventh healthy city.

While local industry won't be able to hold talented people if the city is not a nice place to live, increasing Pittsburgh's quality of life stands no chance if a diverse pool of talented people cannot find adequate career opportunities. It is this catch-22 situation that has Plan B's architects scratching their heads.

Developing technology aside, Pittsburgh may be smart to use Cleveland as a model for its physical development. After all, leaders there say public investment in stadiums, light rail and entertainment attractions has spilled over and spawned private initiatives. For the first time, hotels and homes are being built independent of government direction. Businesses have also begun moving back into the city. "Cleveland has stabilized," EcoCity's Beach says. "We're starting to see new housing. At first it was subsidized, but increasingly we're seeing private developers." For the first time in decades, there is demand for urban life.

David Beach feels certain that "if you can create competitive housing prices, there is a demand for a city environment and being close to jobs." While he's not sure how much impact 'glitzy' downtown projects have on neighborhoods, Beach adds that a vital downtown and jobs close to the city's core are just two of the areas where Pittsburgh needs improvement. Other areas--schools, and perhaps policing--also need work if Pittsburgh expects to become a fully functional city. But if nothing else, Renaissance III guarantees what's most needed during times of stagnation: change. Sometimes just the sound of construction can make the difference.

This article originally appeared in InPittsburgh. Eric Miller is the New Colonist Editor.