Garfield/Friendship Penn Avenue Corridor Girl Friday Proposal

The subject of this report is a comprehensive urban design and policy statement produced by each of four teams for Garfield and Friendship. Each team was asked to simulate a professional interdisciplinary firm, and to go through the steps a professional firm would take, starting with responding to a Request for Proposal from the City of Pittsburgh.

Garfield and Friendship are two highly contrasting neighborhoods separated from each other by Penn Avenue. Garfield is substantially an African American neighborhood with high unemployment, deterioration, poverty, and crime. Friendship is a racially integrated and historic neighborhood with tree-lined boulevards with large attractive period homes.

Each interdisciplinary team, in the Fall Semester completed the following stages of work: Physical and Social Survey; Exploration and Analysis; Preparation of Alternative Urban Design Strategies; the Development of the Preferred Urban Design Strategy/Alternative; and Final Presentation of Recommendations and Proposals. Students and Faculty held meetings and seminars with citizens, representatives of City Agencies, representatives from the private investment and development sectors, and representatives of Community Development Corporations.