Memory & Renewal:!The Pittsburgh Civic Arena

Robert S. Pfaffmann, AIA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA

“Cultural or civic centers can probably in a few cases employ ground-replanning tactics to reweave them back into the city fabric. The most prominent cases are centers located on the edges of downtowns . . . . One side of Pittsburgh’s new civic center, at least, might be rewoven into the downtown, from which it is now buffered.”

Jane Jacobs, Death & Life of Cities, 1961

Pittsburgh Moderns: Mellon, Heinz, Kaufmann

Key Urban Renewal Zones

Lower Hill Point State Park

Allgheny Center

Origins of Cultural Acropolis: Wright’s Civic Center for the Point

Mitchell & Ritchey with fabric roof model

Fabric Roof Structure Concept; Single use structure for Civic Light Opera

Redevelopment Plan with development surrounding Arena

Master Plan Model with terraced parking deck, housing and “cultural acropolis”

Master Plan Model with IM Pei Designed housing “towers in park”

Gordon Bunshaft (SOM) Proposed Symphony Hall

Structural Diagram of Dome leaves and cantilevered truss

Final Design Arena Cross Section

Clearance underway Clearance underway

The Hill: “The Birthplace of Pittsburgh’s Neighborhoods”

Invisible Cultural Acropolis: African American Jazz & Theater

Government and Business Leaders Celebrate Demolition

Demolition Begins

Site Clearance near completion 1957

Demolition, loss of faith in government, funding Death of ML King brings activism and then riots of 1968

Pittsburgh Civic Arena just before completion

Pittsburgh Civic Arena at opening before seating bowl expansion

Pittsburgh Civic Arena just before completion

Pittsburgh Civic Arena at opening before seating bowl expansion

Night Event

Pittsburgh Civic Arena original seating bowl

Today : View From CIty

Cantilevered Truss (supports roof segments when open)

View from Historic Wiley Avenue Today

Origins of Cultural Acropolis: Wright’s Civic Center for the Point

Lucca, Italy: Urban Transformation

Germany’s Reichstag : Renewing a “Burdened Site”

Hill with Current Conditions and new Street Grid Overlayed (in pink)

Hill with Current Conditions and new Street Grid Overlayed (in pink)

Overlay New Urbanist Plan with Arena

Author’s Proposal

Detail of Redeveloped area around Arena

Hotel

Mixed Use

Residential

Mixed Use

Mixed Use

•  Parking up to estimated 3,000 spaces in concealed garage

•  Residential Overlook/Extension/Transition to , more urban Crawford Square.

•  Large floor plate office /with Green Roof and access to Arena Park

•  “Wiley Avenue” Steps (like River walk in San Antonio

•  Lemieux Place Pedestrian Way during games, special events

Master Development Concept

•  Market & Community Driven Uses

•  120-130 Room “W” Hotel Built with in fixed shell

•  Perfomance Venue similar to Millenium Park (Pritzker), Red Rocks, Hollywood Bowl, (Ice Rink in winter)

•  Destination Igloo Restaraunt and Wiley Jazz Cafe

•  Urban Renewal Interpretive Walk

Arena Development Concept

•  Sustainable Urban Design & Reuse of embodied energy

•  Economically Viable; recycle demolition costs ($12-15 million)

•  20% Historic Tax Investment Credit

•  Less Road & Utility Infrastructucture Investment Needed

•  Internal Development sustains amenities

Economic Concept

Sustainable Urban Design & Reuse of embodied energy

Economically Viable; recycle demolition costs ($12-15

20% Historic Tax Investment

Less Road & Utility Infrastructucture Investment

Internal Development sustains

Economic Concept

View from within with dome partially open

View from within from hotel room

Millenium Park: Pritzker Pavilion

“My plays insist that we should not forget or toss away our history”

Playwright August Wilson