Category Archive: Downtown Development
-
Urban Retail to Kravco: ‘Good luck’ on Downtown project
CEO of Chicago firm shot down as Fifth-Forbes developer says counterpart will find it tough going
By Dan Fitzpatrick,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 19, 2003Ross Glickman has two words of advice for Kravco Co., the firm selected last week to study and perhaps fix Downtown’s semivacant retailing district.
“Good luck.”
Glickman, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Urban Retail Properties Co., is more than familiar with Kravco’s tricky task. His company, after all, was Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy’s first choice in the late 1990s to redo the same ragged shopping area along Fifth and Forbes avenues.
Urban Retail’s $522 million plan, which collapsed amid concerns from preservationists and lukewarm interest from an anchor tenant, called for the demolition of more than 60 buildings and the addition of 40 new shops and restaurants, along with an 18-screen movie theater and a Nordstrom department store.
Perhaps Urban Retail’s biggest critics were the Downtown property owners afraid the city would take their real estate forcibly, using the power of eminent domain. “I thought we did what had to be done to make this thing viable,” Glickman said. “Unfortunately, there was a contingent of people who didn’t want to go through the eminent domain process. We understood that.”
Two years after leaving Pittsburgh, Glickman also understands why the mayor pulled the plug in December 2000, months before another mayoral election. “It was the right decision for him,” he said.
But Glickman, who once was director of real estate for Pittsburgh-based General Nutrition Centers, also believes the city may have lost its “window” to sign many of the national retailers that expressed an interest in Downtown in the late 1990s. Some of Glickman’s prospective tenants have since gone elsewhere, notably The Waterfront in the Mon Valley and Station Square on the South Side. “The window closed a while ago,” he said.
Glickman still believes that Urban Retail’s controversial development approach — gaining control of a large area of real estate and making changes at once instead of piece by piece — is the right way to fix Downtown. But Glickman is not sure if the city and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which in recent years spent more than $7 million acquiring 13 area properties, have enough real estate under their control to make that process any easier for Kravco.
Nor is he certain that eminent domain, which the mayor said last week was “not on the table,” will remain off for long.
“Those issues would bubble up immediately,” he said. “I don’t think they have gone away.” Perhaps, with more vacancies along Fifth and Forbes now than a few years ago, property owners might be more open to something “drastic” being done. But, “You are not going to know that until you get into it.”
Starting next month, Kravco will begin work on a four-month study of the area along Fifth and Forbes, with the end result being an “investment plan.” Offices, residential space and new hotel rooms all will be given consideration; and if the city likes what Kravco produces, the two sides would then negotiate a redevelopment agreement.
At a news conference last week, Kravco Chairman Wayne Snyder made it clear that he hopes to avoid the problems that hampered Urban Retail’s last effort, saying he would respect the leases of existing Downtown businesses and weave new businesses into the “urban fabric” of Downtown.
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation President Arthur Ziegler, a former critic of Urban Retail’s plans, likes what he has heard thus far.
“Kravco has adopted an incremental development approach,” he said, “respecting the historic buildings and adding appropriately designed infill construction, as well as starting with a marketing base of the people who are already shopping in the area. We believe such an approach has the best chance of success. The developer respects the uniqueness and strengths that Pittsburgh has and builds on them.”
But again, Glickman is not sure that will work.
“I don’t think you can do it piecemeal,” he said. “The thing has to be done collectively. National retailers today need to see a collective vision — a design. If you did it piecemeal and that one piece didn’t work, the whole won’t work.”
Glickman, though, insists the city is in “good hands” with Kravco, and that his company is no longer in a position to spend millions on downtown development projects. Since Urban Retail left Pittsburgh, the Chicago company has changed hands — twice.
First, it was sold to Dutch real estate company Rodamco North America NV. Then, last year, it was purchased by a trio of development firms — The Rouse Co., Simon Property Group and Westfield America. It is no longer a development company; it is concerned with only consultant work and property management, overseeing 40 million square feet of real estate for other owners.
But Glickman still likes to keep tabs on Pittsburgh — and the long, tortured effort to redevelop Downtown. “I really believe in Pittsburgh,” he said.
His last visit was two months ago, when he took a walk along Fifth and Forbes. He noticed that more storefronts were empty than there were a few years ago. The area, he said, is “sad” and “pretty bleak.”
“Is the street better off now than it was four years ago?” he said. “I doubt it.”
Dan Fitzpatrick can be reached at dfitzpatrick@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1752.
-
City gets advice on developing waterfronts
By Patricia Lowry,
Post-Gazette Architecture Critic
Wednesday, February 12, 2003What makes a great waterfront?
Ann Breen should know. As co-founder and director of the nonprofit Waterfront Center in Washington, D.C., the city and regional planner has been visiting, studying and consulting on urban waterfronts for more than 25 years.
“Every waterfront should be unique and not remind you of someplace else,” Breen told a group of 160 people at a luncheon talk yesterday at the Renaissance Pittsburgh hotel. It is Pittsburgh’s challenge, she said, “to capture the asset and character that is unique to this place.”
As Pittsburgh inches toward implementation of its Three Rivers Park waterfront plan and makeover of Point State Park, the event provided food for thought for planners, architects, funders and interested others. The luncheon was part of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s “Making Cities Work” series.
“You have this marvelous industrial heritage,” something to work with and embrace, Breen said, rather than erase.
“You have a lot of water here in Pittsburgh. We’ve gone to cities where they have barely a trickle and try to make something of it.”
During a slide tour of more than two dozen cities, from Prague, Czech Republic, to Portland, Ore., Breen stressed that the best waterfronts are those that incorporate a variety of uses and capture the spirit of a city.
“What I like about Prague is there are all these nooks and crannies where you can eat,” Breen said. “A floating barge with umbrellas and tables is instant fun.”
In Budapest, Hungary, where trolley tracks run along the river, barges can make the riverfront come alive, as in other cities with waterfront road and rail barriers.
Barges can hold not only restaurants, Breen showed, but also swimming pools and outdoor cinemas.
She praised parks built to withstand and accommodate the inevitable flooding, like Cincinnati’s riverfront park, with its walkway embossed with a geological timeline.
And she praised variety: “A riverfront is not uniform; it should have many, many different places, some green, some hard.” Still, “many cities want nothing but green on their waterfront. That’s for each city to decide.”
Good riverfronts also have “a lot of programming and a lot of public art,” and don’t skimp on the way-finding signs.
As for architecture, she said, “you can have great buildings, but do they address the waterfront?”
Breen lauded the Sydney Opera House, with its balconies and welcoming walkways, but criticized Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim for its lack of integration with and views of the Nervion River.
In a smaller session after the luncheon, Breen said Pittsburgh “doesn’t need another big bell and whistle” with high visibility and impact.
She diagnosed the problem with Pittsburgh’s riverfronts in a single, simple sentence: “Your edges don’t sing.”
Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
Landmarks Supports Fifth/Forbes Plan
The City’s selection of Kravco as the developer for the Fifth/Forbes retail effort together with a commitment to recommendations made by the Plan C Committee and those of the consultant Don Hunter are being supported by Landmarks.
Kravco has promised to weave the Fifth/Forbes leasing effort into the total fabric of downtown utilizing the existing anchors of the Cultural District, office workers, department stores and buildings. No wholesale obliteration of buildings will occur as were proposed under Urban Retail Properties’ plan.
“ Kravco has adopted an incremental development approach, respecting the historic buildings and adding appropriately designed infill construction, as well as starting with a marketing base of the people who are already shopping in the area,” said Arthur Ziegler, president, “and we believe such an approach has the best chance of success. The developer respects the uniqueness and strengths that Pittsburgh has and builds on them”
The effort will be to secure retail tenants for Fifth/Forbes Avenues without requiring massive demolition for expensive movie theatres and more department stores. Housing will be a vital ingredient as well.
The development concept is much more in the tradition of Jane Jacobs’ analyses of both the growth and the revitalization of cities, an approach that has been proven to work and is outlined in Roberta Gratz‘s Cities Back From the Edge.”
“This developer realizes the anchors we already have in the downtown community in terms of demographics, buildings, retail stores and architecture. The first step in revitalizing a downtown is to recognize its own qualities and see them as strengths and seek retail appropriate to them, retail that will enlarge the market and be successful financially in the long term at the lowest possible taxpayer cost”, said Mr. Ziegler, “and we congratulate Mayor Tom Murphy on his selection.”
Landmarks will make its studies of the buildings in the area available to the developer during the four month preliminary period and has offered to work closely to help bring the project to success.# # #
-
Downtown plan may use Philly strategies
By Stephanie Franken
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, January 30, 2003Gov. Ed Rendell likely will use tax incentives and grants to attract more businesses and residents to downtown Pittsburgh.
Rendell used such a strategy to encourage investment in Philadelphia when he served as the city’s mayor, and he likely will try a similar approach in Pittsburgh, said Ken Snyder, a spokesman for the governor. Mayor Tom Murphy has been working for several years to attract investment in the ailing Fifth and Forbes corridor, once a bustling retail district.
“Individuals don’t just move in” to lackluster downtowns, Snyder said. “They move into developed properties where rent is affordable and it’s an attractive place to live, and there are things to do. The governor relied a lot on tax incentives to bring developers (to Philadelphia) to build these attractions, and also used some bond money.”
Rendell has convened an “economic crisis task force” that would, in part, explore using similar tools in Pittsburgh, Snyder said.
It is too early to know how much money would go toward improving Downtown, or what type of aid might be available. Snyder also didn’t identify where Rendell would get the money, although he said during the campaign he would issue bonds for economic- revitalization projects.
Mulugetta Birru, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said he and eight others met with Rendell about 10 days ago to discuss the Downtown. Birru said he could not offer details about their four-hour conversation, but said the meeting was “an excellent beginning to signal that Gov. Rendell has placed a high priority on economic development.”
Birru said the city would need at least $10 million to $15 million from the state for the Fifth and Forbes project. Former Gov. Tom Ridge gave the city a $10 million grant, but the money was used for North Shore development after Downtown revitalization efforts stalled, Birru said.
Craig Kwiecinski, Murphy’s spokesman, said, “Creating a vibrant Fifth and Forbes corridor continues to be a top priority for the mayor, and we look forward to partnering with Gov. Rendell on this important issue for Pittsburgh.”
Murphy’s initial plan to improve the corridor called for $100 million in taxpayer money to attract national retailers, the razing of as many as 62 buildings and the threat of eminent domain to force owners to sell their properties to the city. Murphy abandoned those plans in 2000 in the face of criticism.
The mayor resurrected efforts to revitalize the corridor in November 2000.
He formed a task force that produced a report in 2002, known as Plan C, that called for preserving more buildings, keeping local retailers, and creating more residential and hotel space. The plan calls for $51.5 million in public money, $39.5 million in corporate and philanthropic investment, and $264 million in private investment.
The city has not named a developer to lead the project.
Birru has said the city is having a hard time attracting a developer because, in part, it needs to own more property in the corridor to attract a developer. Companies often would rather develop government-owned land that is ready to build on, rather than having to buy properties from private owners.
Still, Downtown Works, a division of King of Prussia-based Kravco, said it is interested in the project.
“Pittsburgh has something going for it that most other cities don’t have, and that’s a great array of department stores,” Midge McCauley, director of Downtown Works, said last week. “What they don’t have is the glue to hold those department stores together, the infrastructure between them.”
By taking advantage of city, state and federal incentives, she said, her firm could profit from the project.
“You have a new governor who is very pro-development and a mayor who understands what he needs to do to make the city economically healthy,” McCauley said.
Snyder, Rendell’s spokesman, said an estimated state deficit of $2.5 billion is daunting, but “the governor doesn’t believe that economic development is a place to skimp.”
“The governor’s going to fly this plane while he’s fixing it,” Snyder said.
The mayor’s Plan C task force will meet on Feb. 10. The group hasn’t met for several months, and Kwiecenski, Murphy’s spokesman, would not discuss the purpose of the meeting.
Plan C task force member Cathy McCollom, director of operations and marketing for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, said she hopes that Tom Cox, executive assistant to Murphy, and Susan Golomb, the city’s planning director, will name a developer for the Fifth and Forbes project.
Stephanie Franken can be reached at sfranken@tribweb.com.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
-
Pittsburgh’s Dynamic Nightime Skyline Gets A New Addition – Duquesne Light Turns On Clemente Bridge Architectural Lighing System
Pittsburgh- Duquesne Light Provided a luminous new addition to Pittsburgh’s Dynamic nighttime skyline this evening when the company officially turned on an architectural lighting system for the Roberto Clemente Bridge.
“This project serves as a shining symbol of our commitment to the region and is an important addition to the ongoing initiative to create one of the most striking urban waterfronts in the country,” said Morgan K. O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer of DQE, Inc., Duquesne Light’s parent company. “The employees of Duquesne Light are proud to be involved in such an exciting project.”
At 6:45 p.m., senior line worker Charlie Magnus – who helped install the lighting system – flipped a switch that illuminated a 22-by-20 foot Duquesne Light logo. The lighting of the logo marked the beginning of a unique fireworks show, which included pyrotechnics that created a cascading waterfall effect. When the smoke cleared nine minutes later, an illuminated Clemente Bridge, framed by blue and white lights, appeared.
Joining O’brien at the lighting ceremony, held along the Riverwalk at PNC Park, were about 450 business and community leaders, including the Duquesne Light crew that installed the architectural lighting system. among those who delivered remarks were Governor-elect Ed Rendell, Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddy; Pittsburgh deputy Mayor Tom Cox; Pittsburgh City Councilman Sala Udin; Pittsburgh History & Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler; and Riverlife Task Force Co-Chairman John Craig.“This project involved the cooperation of numerous organizations throughout Pittsburgh,” said O’Brien. “It is the cooperative spirit among a variety of organizations, including the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, that enabled this project to be completed.”
O’brien also thanked other stakeholders involved in the year-ling project, including the Riverlife Task Force, as well as the City and County, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the U.S. Coast Guard.“We are pleased by the magnificent gift of Duquesne Light, as well as the vision of designers Ray Grenald, Courtney Sarge, and Hal Hilbish, which enabled us to illuminate this popular bridge, which won an award in 1928 as the most handsome steel bridge in the United States,’ said History & Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler.
In November 2001, Duquesne Light announced that it would provide the necessary financial support to permanently illuminate the bridge. Duquesne Light crews began installing the lighting system on August 26th. A subcontractor assisted Duquesne Light crews by installing lights on the underside of the bridge and outside of the railing abutting the sidewalks.
As part of its gift, Duquesne Light also created a special endowment that will be used for energy costs and ongoing maintenance and repair of the bridge lights. More than 2000 energy-efficient lights were installed. Most of the visible fixtures were selected for their historical accuracy, while others were chosen for their ability to illuminate the bridge’s more notable architectural features. The installation process was designed to protect the structural integrity of the bridge.
Ray Grenald, a nationally recognized architectural lighting designer, who also designed the lighting scheme for the Smithfield Street Bridge, lead the team that developed the lighting design.
Efforts to illuminate Pittsburgh’s bridges date back to 1929 when Duquesne Light strung Allegheny County’s three “Sister Bridges” – the Sixth Street, Seventh Street, and Ninth Street bridges – and others i the Golden Triangle, with garlands of lights in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the electric light bulb. The most recent effort dates back to 1997, when the Fort Pitt, Fort Duquesne, and West End bridges were lit in conjunction with the Three Rivers Regatta.
-
PNC is anxious for progress in Fifth-Forbes revival
By Stephanie Franken
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 13, 2002PNC Financial Services Group is anxious for progress in the city’s efforts to redevelop the Fifth and Forbes corridor.
“We’d like to see a new Fifth Avenue,” said Gary Saulson, director of corporate real estate for PNC’s Realty Services Division. “From that standpoint, we might be a little disappointed.”PNC has a large stake in Downtown, with about 7,000 employees and 2.5 million square feet of office space.
The company has 12 properties between Market and Wood streets on Fifth Avenue, making it one of the biggest players in the redevelopment of the corridor.
Saulson said he doesn’t blame the city for the delay, and he appreciates that the city is making an effort to redevelop the area in a manner that is more sensitive to existing businesses.
Saulson was a member of Mayor Tom Murphy’s so-called Plan C task force that crafted the latest redevelopment plan in March, after previous, more elaborate Murphy plans collapsed. Plan C, unlike earlier plans, calls for preserving and renovating some buildings, rather than clearing the corridor for redevelopment.
Saulson remains optimistic that the area near PNC’s headquarters buildings on Fifth and Liberty avenues can be much more than it is today.
“Fifth and Forbes is never going to be Michigan Avenue,” Saulson said, referring to Chicago’s vibrant downtown office, retail and residential corridor. “But there’s no reason it can’t be a smaller version.”
Craig Kwiecinksi, spokesman for Mayor Murphy, said the redevelopment project “is a very important but difficult transaction. We are working to identify a private development partner for the revitalization of the corridor. While we are committed to the project, we cannot move forward until we have identified a private development partner.”
Don Hunter, the consultant who led the Plan C task force, said large property owners such as PNC or Saks Fifth Avenue are understandably reluctant to redevelop their own properties when a larger plan for the area is looming.
“Not much has really happened that’s visible in the past year, which is frustrating,” Hunter said. “We had some momentum as of this time last year through January. I’m not sure what the problem is.”
Hunter has said he would like to take a leadership role in the redevelopment project, but has not heard whether he’ll be selected.
PNC’s Saulson said numerous factors have led to the slowdown: an “underwhelming response” from developers, a weak economy, and a lack of public and private money.
Moreover, other developments — The Waterfront in Homestead, Station Square, the SouthSide Works and even the plans for the North Shore — are drawing attention away from Downtown, Saulson said.
Mulugetta Birru, executive director of the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, has said that Plan C could take more time than many had expected. The city URA, also a major property owner in the Fifth-Forbes corridor, cannot afford to do more than buy a few buildings at a time until it amasses enough property to turn over to a developer. Most recently, the city bought the G.C. Murphy buildings near Market Square, which are across the street from PNC’s properties.
PNC does not plan to take on the role of a redeveloper, Saulson said. “We’re not interested in building speculative space, whether it’s office space or retail space or whatever,” he said.
Saulson said PNC hasn’t ruled out selling its properties to a developer.
Some of PNC’s buildings on Fifth Avenue near its headquarters, are occupied. Among the tenants are a General Nutrition Center, Bradley’s Book Center, Mo-Gear, and Penn Wigs & Fashions. But several are vacant, including the storefronts formerly occupied by Kidsburgh, Cyrus Beauty Supplies, and Fifth and Wood Men’s Shop
Downtown has assets to build on, Saulson said, including large numbers of offices and Downtown workers, a vibrant cultural district, and a good transit system.
“I’m fairly optimistic that Downtown will be developed,” he said. “The question remains as to the time frame.”
Like PNC, Saks Fifth Avenue is bullish on Pittsburgh, but wants to be part of a larger effort before it starts an expansion project Downtown, said Alison Strieder Mayher, vice president and general manager for the Pittsburgh Saks at Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street.
“I think you could say that we are excited and optimistic about the city,” Mayher said. “We certainly are planning, down the road, to do a renovation — and the outcome of the Fifth and Forbes corridor depends upon all of us together just putting our heads together and doing it.
“That will be a few years down the line, I’m sure. But Saks is actively working on it.”
Stephanie Franken can be reached at sfranken@tribweb.com.
-
Demolition is not always the answer
by Brian O’Neill
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, November 07, 2002The speaker was described as “way smart” and a “truly great urbanist” in his introduction, and he came as advertised, but he didn’t say much that was new to this crowd of 150 true believers in city life.
Donovan D. Rypkema was preaching to the choir Monday afternoon in a big room in the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland-Pittsburgh Branch. Anyone coming to one of these Making Cities Work lectures, which are periodically offered by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, doesn’t need to be sold on “diversity” or “sustainability” or “community.” Rypkema offered the basics to a crowd that was more than ready for an advanced lesson.
“Think as far into the future as the age of the oldest public building still in use. . . . A city that has a rotten core is ultimately a rotten city. . . . It is the differentiated product that demands a monetary return.”
We’ve heard stuff like this before, and we believe it, and we can be even more passionate than Rypkema about the importance of preserving what’s unique about cities, this one in particular.
As a leader of sort of a civic pep rally, Rypkema was fine. As Fred Seifried of Lawrenceville said when the speech was over, “I want to know where to buy incense for this gentleman’s altar.”
But as a citizen of a city still dribbling away its populace, a city where the mayor can’t knock down vacant buildings fast enough to satisfy those who live near them, I wanted this man from Washington, D.C. to deal with this local reality: Some of our crumbling buildings weren’t any great shakes when new, and when abandoned they too often become havens for rats, crackheads and — that great oxymoron of the modern age — graffiti artists.
The major reason to preserve old neighborhoods, Rypkema says, is to provide an inventory of affordable housing. Even a city with a high-tech strategy will need child-care workers, waiters, janitors, security guards and others who won’t be able to afford the McMansions or the townhouses that developers build.
Beyond that, he says, throwing away buildings is plain wasteful. More than a quarter of everything dumped in the landfill is construction debris. Every building that goes down is like tossing away more than a million aluminum cans.
Our city may knock down more than 600 buildings this year, and Mayor Tom Murphy has his sights set on 1,000 more, but that’s hardly unique in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia plans to tear down 14,000 buildings over the next five years. Seven of our eastern communities — Braddock, Wilkinsburg, McKeesport, Pitcairn, Rankin, Wall and Wilmerding — have vacant housing rates above the national average of 9 percent. Braddock began the year with a vacancy rate of 28.5 percent, and would knock down 200 or more of its 1,600 residential structures if county money were available.
“I’d like to make it simple and it’s not,” Rykema conceded when I presented this picture. “But never in the history of the universe did a house ever sell drugs. And I defy somebody to give me an example of a neighborhood that got better tearing down more stuff.”
Rykema’s point is simple: Demolition should be a strategy of last resort, not the first choice. What it will take to save more buildings is simple enough, too: More people.
In the neighborhoods that have bounced back through redevelopment — the South Side, the Mexican War Streets, Friendship, Lawrenceville and Observatory Hill, to name a few — thousands have gotten a whole lot of house for their money. But it’s tough to continue that trend without more folks.
Pittsburgh has been largely bypassed by recent immigrants, and we don’t get enough native-born moving here either. According to a recent Duquesne University study, the region may face a shortage of as many as 125,000 workers by 2010.
If we get all the neighbors we need, we won’t be tearing down many more buildings. Meantime, there are some pretty good deals for those of us who want to live in a place that doesn’t look like everywhere else, a someplace rather than an anyplace, a place with heft and history.
Depopulation isn’t all bad.
Brian O’Neill can be reached at boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947.
-
City gets some tips on getting a leg up on others
By Patricia Lowry,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 05, 2002Real estate and economic development consultant Donovan Rypkema thinks he knows what it takes to be a competitive city in the 21st century, and it has a lot to do with creating a distinctive sense of place.
“In economics it is the differentiated product that attracts a premium,” Rypkema told 144 people gathered for lunch yesterday in the newly restored auditorium and former banking hall of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on Grant Street.
Rypkema, who heads Washington, D.C.-based Place Economics, has consulted for state and local governments as well as nonprofits like the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center.
Cities with an edge, Rypkema said, will be cities that develop the five senses — sense of place, ownership, identity, community and evolution or history.
“Begin with a sense of place and find ways to be public that fits that place,” he said.
Rypkema, who has traveled to cities in 48 states, described his own special talent as that of note-taker and list-maker, “seeing what works in communities.”
The list in progress he shared yesterday, titled “The Qualities of the Competitive Place in the 21st Century,” included:
Economic globalization. “Your competitors will not be Boston, Mass., but Bilbao, Spain.”
Continuing education for adults. People who haven’t been in a classroom for the past 24 months, he said, are falling behind.
* An understanding that economic growth and population growth are not necessarily the same.
* Human diversity.
* Arts and cultural activities.
* An inventory of affordable housing for people working in the millions of new, lower paying service jobs that will be created in the next 10 years.
* Partnerships: “More and more issues will be addressed locally through partnerships.”
* A vision and a long-term perspective: “We should think as far into the future as the age of the oldest building still in use.”
* A strong, healthy, vital downtown: “A city that has a rotten core will ultimately become a rotten city.”
* Restored and renovated historic buildings, especially downtown.
* A local culture that is valued.
Rypkema’s audience comprised developers, architects, representatives of community and preservation groups, and municipal government leaders and staffers, including 48 people from Fairmount, W. Va. The event was sponsored by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
