BIG news for downtown Pittsburgh: New York–based Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG),West 8Landscape Architects, andAtelier Tenwere tapped by private developers麦科马克男爵萨拉查and thePittsburgh Penguinsto create a master plan for 28 acres inPittsburgh‘sLower Hill District. Today, those plans were unveiled.
(Courtesy BIG)
The plan will redevelop public space around the erstwhileCivic Arena, build a new public space across from the Consol Energy Center, and dialogue with the city’s vertiginous topography to create bike and pedestrian paths that connect the Hill District with Uptown and Downtown.
In all, the New Lower Hill Master Plan calls for 1.2 million square feet of residential construction as well as 1.25 million square feet of retail and commercial space. The project is expected to break ground in 2016 and cost an estimated $500 million.
(Courtesy BIG)“The master plan for the Lower Hill District is created by supplementing the existing street grid with a new network of parks and paths shaped to optimize the sloping hill side for human accessibility for all generations,” Bjarke Ingels, BIG’s founding partner, explained in a statement. “The paths are turned and twisted to always find a gentle sloping path leading pedestrians and bicyclists comfortably up and down the hillside. The resulting urban fabric combines a green network of effortless circulation with a quirky character reminiscent of a historical downtown. Topography and accessibility merging to create a unique new part of Pittsburgh.”
Landscape architects West 8 designed terraced parks and walkways informed by granite outcroppings characteristic of the surrounding Allegheny Mountains.
(Courtesy BIG)Engineers and environmental design consultants at Atelier Ten developed sustainability guidelines that will encouragedistrict heatingand cooling, as well a stormwater retention for on-site irrigation. See the gallery for more master plan images and schematic diagrams.
(Courtesy BIG)
