Intervention in the Hill District

The subject of the 1992-1993 urban laboratory is the inner city neighborhood of Pittsburgh called The Hill. It is immediately to the east of The Golden Triangle, or Pittsburgh's downtown. It is poor, segregated and blighted. To the south is a steep bluff. Further east is Oakland and the University of Pittsburgh. From The Hill, the views of the office towers of Pittsburgh 's corporations, and of the confluences of the two majestic rivers, the Monongahela and the Allegheny, are among the most dramatic of any city in the world. Yet within The Hill there is poverty and despair.

In an attempt to bring new hope to The Hill, 550 units of middle income housing are currently being built by McCormack Baron & Associates, working with the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, a citizen's non-profit development corporation, Hill- PAC and UDA Architects. Crawford Square is one of the largest inner-city developments under construction in any city in the nation.