PJ Dick Innovation Fund Project Grant: Healing and Hybridizing Urban Infrastructures: Mitigating Social, Spatial, and Environmental Impacts in East Allegheny
1960 vs. 2024, I-279 corridor.
Healing and Hybridizing Urban Infrastructures: Mitigating Social, Spatial, and Environmental Impacts in East Allegheny
Project Lead: Jonathan Kline, Professor of Practice, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
Project Team: Nazia Tarannum, Adjunct Faculty & Principal Planner (Strategic Planning), Department of City Planning (City of Pittsburgh); Stefan Gruber, Associate Professor, MUD Track Chair & RCI Director; Graduate Research Assistant
This project examines how urban design, infrastructure, and community-engaged planning can repair historic disconnections in Pittsburgh neighborhoods and address social justice in the built environment. Focused on East Allegheny and Spring Garden East Deutschtown, the research explores how reconnection strategies such as caps, crossings, and public space redesign can improve community identity, pedestrian access, resilience, and mitigate harms caused by the bounding and severing of these communities by highway infrastructure.
The work builds on long-standing collaborations with the East Allegheny Community Council (EACC) and the Community Alliance of Spring Garden East Deutschtown (CASGED) through the City of Pittsburgh's Strategic (Community) Planning division. Both organizations are already committed partners.
This research will benefit CMU and the communities by strengthening collaboration among CMU, the City of Pittsburgh, and neighborhood partners. It will support a continued flow of CMU students working with the Department of City Planning (DCP), building on previous successful student internships and allowing current Master of Urban Design (MUD) students to undertake internships with DCP that shift from being unfunded positions to fairly compensated paid research positions. Findings will inform future research at the Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) and contribute new tools and insights on equity-focused urban design. Technical assistance from RCI will enable DCP to develop design options and a vision for the I-279 corridor and surrounding communities, integrate these concepts into the city's ongoing Comprehensive Plan, and pursue future implementation funding through the Reconnecting Communities Initiative of the federal Department of Transportation. Finally, research could generate supporting materials and framing for future required MUD studios.
Image: 1960 vs. 2024, I-279 corridor.
About the Project Lead
Professor of Practice
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Established in 2023 by PJ Dick Trumbull Lindy Group, the Faculty Grants Program will award a total of $400,000 over four years beginning in 2024. The program supports faculty research and teaching innovations that address the School’s three pedagogical challenges of climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence. The proposals were assessed on their impact in furthering a faculty member’s research and teaching, their contribution to interrogating the School’s challenges, and their viability to garner further research support, make an impact on the discipline and expand the pedagogy of the School.