Homewood Cluster 9: An Analysis of Community Assets
Prepared by Design Center Pittsburgh for Operation Better Block
Summary
Homewood’s cluster planning is a community-driven initiative of Operation Better Block (OBB) that works with residents block-by-block to highlight what should be done with the neighborhood’s vacant lots, how to build on neighborhood assets, and understand zoning opportunities for new development. Cluster 9 is a Multi-Family Residential community that is highly connected through the East Busway’s Wilkinsburg Station, the 7800 Susquehanna Building, and Wilkinsburg’s nearby business district. Design Center Pittsburgh partnered with OBB to rethink underutilized neighborhood spaces and use the community’s feedback to develop meaningful design interventions. As a key part of process, Design Center staff heard the priorities for community development directly from Cluster 9 community groups. The Cluster 9 community asked Design Center to assess the current condition of their neighborhood assets and suggest design-related solutions that specifically address concerns about the safety and connectivity of their community. This document outlines some of those findings and includes recommendations about particular design interventions that were ultimately informed through OBB’s guidance, data collection, and analysis of Cluster 9’s main neighborhood places. Some cluster planning recommendations are already underway in the community, including the Rosedale Runoff Reduction Project, the positive economic impact of the Susquehanna building, the rehabilitation of homes, and other environmental initiatives surrounding community gardening. Design Center’s approach in this project aims to connect these on-going initiatives to the overarching revitalization of Cluster 9 by proposing new ideas to the physical streetscape that can enhance the community’s redevelopment strategy. The main recommendations Design Center explores here provide a way for the community to address safety, consider how to create welcoming spaces into and out from the neighborhood, imcrease pedestrian accessibility, improve the resident’s connection to their neighborhood’s main assets, an enhance the physical surroundings of the cluster. Ultimately, using community feedback, including existing data outlined in both the “Homewood Cluster Planning: Cluster 9” report and the Cluster 9 Consensus Vision Plan, Design Center identified that improvements to the East Busway Gateway and the Cluster 9 Traffic Island could have a significant impact in improving the neighborhood’s safety, enhance current redevelopment initiatives and incentivize residents and visitors to experience Cluster 9 through its assets, not its challenges.
Cluster 9: Addressing Safety
1 2 3 Safety & Precaution Priority Areas
Crime Prevention Through Design
A key component in the current plan for Cluster 9’s open space is introducing ecological greens and community gardens along Rosedale Street so that it creates an entrance into the East Busway outlined with green stormwater infrastructure. The connection between the busway gateway and the revitalization of the neighborhood is already recognized in the community. When Design Center staff met with OBB they specifically recommended that design solutions should address the community’s main concerns and respond directly to improving the safety and connectivity of their community. Design Center’s process considered the community goals around sustainability to also be useful strategies to connect the neighborhood more directly to the East Busway and address crime prevention in areas of abandonment and blight. In other words, these lots, which have already been reimagined as community spaces for green stormwater infrastructure, can be designed in such a way as to create a network of connected green spaces that purposefully improve neighborhood connectivity and safety. Design Center prioritized the use of crime prevention as a design element to enhance the plan of the community. This process included data collection of the existing conditions characterizing the community, multiple walkthroughs and site visits that assesed the physical qualities of neighborhood assets, and carefully examining the current neighborhood cluster plan documents provided by OBB. The solutions proposed by Design Center aim to enhance the use of open space and can be tied to the efforts already taking place in the community. The following 3 areas were identified as needing design assistance and are visualized on the map of the community in the previous page: 1. 7800 Susquehanna Building As new space for makers, this building can positively impact Homewood’s redevelopment. The building is currently surrounded by a series of vacant lots and abandoned buildings that isolate it from the community. In this way, it is positioned as a priority for an improved community design strategy. Some measures have already been implemented, like increased and improved lighting, but connecting the building more closely to the community can address its isolation by making it more welcoming and safe.
2. Rosedale Block Park An important green space in the community, the park was established on assembled sites that formerly hosted criminal behavior and blight. The park is already a testament that design can be used effectively to address neighborhood safety. Currently, pedestrians use the park’s open plan to cut through the block. With little to no lighting and a vast open area, the safety of the space can be improved so that it considers nighttime use, adds human scale elements and increases the feeling of safety in the community.
3. East Busway Gateway The Rosedale St entrance to the East Busway is an incredibly important urban node for the community of Cluster 9. It increases residents’ access to public transit including commuters from other neighborhoods who use it everyday. For many people, this is their only interaction with Homewood. Residents who walk to and from the station use Hill Ave, a neglected corridor lined with overgrowth and minimal pedestrian-friendly amenities. Improving the design of this gateway could greatly improve the whole neighborhood.
Possible Recommendations 1.
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Increase lighting: add outdoor lighting to the building structure to establish it as a landmark Reduce the sense of isolation: activate vacant lots around the property Increase the actvity around the building: introduce temporary pop-up options and activities Highlight the building entrance: make the space easy to understand and more accessible Activate the sidewalk: add softscape and other pedestrian amenities to new sidewalk Connect building to amenities: add tables to the park to take tenants outside the complex Use vibrant colors: use blank wall along Susquehanna St as opportunity to add color Consider signage: install proper signage that highlights building’s branding
2.
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Use open space as opportunity: consider placemaking strategies to highlight park as asset Address night-time use: add lighting to the park and its surrounding buildings Introduce signage: display information like the park’s name, to increase community ownership Update park elements: replace missing parts of existing chainlink fencing Plant ecological greens: add native vegetation to edge of the park Activate the sidewalk: add outdoor furniture to sidewalk to establish the street as part of park Formalize park uses: add park infrastructure to open space that formalizes programming
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Establish the intersection as gateway: consider design elements that invite people into Homewood Increase connectivity: formalize the existing informal pathway through triangular lot Strategically add signage: a well-designed Busway sign will increase safety at the intersection Increase visibility and sight lines: remove overgrowth so landmarks are visible ahead Improve pedestrian amenities: connect all sidewalks and paint pedestrian crossings Add ecological greens and trees: line Hill Ave with trees Introduce public art: place art at the gateway’s intersection to beautify it Formalize street parking: make parking lines and spots part of the streetscape
3.
Areas for Improved Visibility Sight Lines
Existing Main Lighting Conditions
Proposed Lighting Conditions
Cluster 9: Improving Urban Nodes 1
2 Identified Urban Nodes
Neighborhood Gateways
There are both challenges and opportunities outlined in OBB’s community planning document for Cluster 9. For this community, the East Busway is an important social and physcial asset. Not only do current development plans focus around it, it also provides express bus service to East Liberty and Downtown Pittsburgh, an influx of daily commuters and visitors into the community, and opportunities for transit-oriented development. On the other side of the cluster, where there is strong homeownership and stable residential blocks, there is newly installed transportation infrastructure, including a shelter and garbage can for the 71D bus stop on a former trolley turn-around, that starts to establish neighborhood identity. Currently, however, one of the main challenges in the community is how to reenvision the multiple vacant lots that immediately surround these assets. Design Center envisions a more beautiful and welcoming entrance for community members and vistors to their neighborhood. Part of the Design Center process was to find a way to reconnect different parts of the neighborhood and showcase the vibrant community that exists. When identifying sites for design interventions, Design Center focused on the on-going community initiatives. There are many strategic sites in the neighborhood right now that, if reimagined and sensitively designed, can have the potential to become significant catalysts for neighborhood development. From walkthroughs and conversations with OBB, Design Center placed value in creating a flexible urban program that could change as the planning process progresses and provides the infrastructure to meet other goals, allows for future collaborations to develop, addresses the connectivity of the community, and beautifies the streetscape. By improving these often overlooked “entrances” to the community, Design Center hopes to enhance the community’s revitalization efforts and provide a unique visual identity for Homewood’s Cluster 9. Design Center identified 2 primary gateways into Cluster 9 that can be visually located on the previous page. Design Center suggests urban interventions to the following urban nodes: 1. East Busway Entrance Receiving a high volume of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, this urban node has the possibility for a meaningful urban strategy that addresses accessibility, safety and open space. Since most of the intersection is nestled by vacant lots and overgrowth, a plan for this urban node can include a variety of strategies that align with the visioning cluster plan.
2. Cluster 9 Traffic Island What looks to be remnants of a trolley turn around and a structure, this traffic island is now a bus stop. Currently on-site however, there is a great opportunity to use the existing infrastructure to create an urban parklet that accentuates the crumbling gateway as an inviting urban node and transform it from a neighborhood eyesore into a place that showcases community identity.
Existing Busway Gateway
Currently, the Rosedale entrance to the East Busway welcomes commuters and residents of Cluster 9 with overgrowth and unkempt empty lots. All sidewalks are disconnected (in some places the sidewalk is completely missing), prompting pedestrians to make their own informal path up and across the intersection’s triangular lot. Apart from the sidewalks, there is virtually zero pedestrian-friendly infrastructure resulting in a type of exit that incentivizes cars to speed out and down Hill Ave. The overgrowth significantly decreases the safety and character of the neighborhood because it produces blind corners and poor sightlines into the neighborhood.
Proposed East Busway Gateway
Design Center’s proposed design calls for a reintroduction of pedestrian-friendly amenities and the maintenance of the intersection’s vacant lots. The triangular space has been reimagined as an arts park that bridges the East Busway entrance with the rest of the community. The proposed design enhances the path pedestrians have informally established and formalizes elements of the curb to create a continuous streetscape. What is now a vacant lot could be used in the future to commission and display artwork that welcomes commuters into Homewood’s Cluster 9. Appropriate signage can also add a welcoming feel to the intersection. Additionally, trimming and cutting back the overgrowth in the corner vacant lots can significantly impact the intersection while prepping the sites for the future development outlined in the neighborhood plan. For example, cutting down the overgrowth and planting low, native vegetation can prepare the site for the type of storm water infrastructure and green space that the community has made a priority in their neighborhood plan.
East Busway Intersection Ownership Most of the vacant lots that exist around the East Busway Entrance intersection are privately owned as seen in this ownership map. Other stakeholders that would need to be involved include the City of Pittsburgh, People’s Natural Gas, and the Port Authority of Allegheny County. Some of the opportunities include that the lots on the corners immediate to the intersection are tax delinquent and can be considered feasible for planned improvements.
City of Pittsburgh Privately owned Waste Management of PA Inc Port Authority of Allegheny County People’s Natural Gas
Existing Cluster 9 Traffic Island
Currently, the Cluster 9 Traffic Island is a visibly unfinished space in the neighborhood, consisting of various blighted elements including outdated concrete platforms, stairs, and decorative fencing. The right-of-way is badly paved and the sidewalks are completely disconnected. A bus stop has been installed on the site, but the entire traffic island is in a state of great disrepair.
Proposed Cluster 9 Traffic Island
A new vision for this traffic island includes re-establishing the infrastructure that is already present on the lot, including connecting the sidewalks so they wrap around the site, fixing the stair pathway and creating a meeting space that enhances the bus stop. Greening this traffic island can add needed streetscape improvements to this area of Cluster 9.
Cluster 9 Traffic Island Ownership Map
City of Pittsburgh Privately owned Port Authority of Allegheny County
The Cluster 9 Traffic Island is mainly used by the Port Authority of Allegheny County as a bus stop and informal right-of-way. A case can be made for collaboration to transform the site into a healthy community parklet.
Conclusions
The intention behind Homewood’s planning for Cluster 9 is part of a larger voice to address housing, the reuse of vacant lots, stormwater management, zoning change recommendations, and the identification of areas for opportunity. Design Center’s assessment of the community’s assets highlights opportunities for design interventions in the neighborhood’s physical spaces. The recommendations presented in this report developed from OBB’s feedback regarding the community’s needs, data collection of the neighborhood’s existing conditions, and research into Cluster 9’s current plans for redevelopment. Design Center highlights the following design interventions:
7800 Susquehanna Building Positioning itself as an important anchor and landmark for the community, the Susquehanna Building can be connected more directly with the community through easy urban strategies. Some suggestions include creating informal temporary activity around the building, introducing inviting and colorful elements, and activating the vacant lots surrounding the development.
Rosedale Block Park This park important presence of community groups who care about the well-being of their community. To improve perceptions of safety, the park can consider repairing its fence and adding lighting. Since most people in the community use the space, including pedestrians of other clusters, design interventions in this park can enhance it as the heart of the community that it is.
East Busway Entrance Design Center recommends an urban strategy that formalizes this intersection as a gateway to the community. For example, cutting down on the overgrowth in this intersection can help improve perceptions of safety to the community while simultaneously preparing the sites for green storm water infrastructure. This site is key to the redevelopment of the community.
Cluster 9 Traffic Island The opportunity present on this site is physically visible in the existing infrastructre that is already present in this traffic island. The community would benefit greatly by turning this bus stop into a parklet that beautifies and enhances the identity of the community. Some recommendations include the reintroduction of the architectural elements already on the site and reconnecting it as a key part of the neighborhood