A neighborhood rises from industrial refuse

In Pittsburgh, a public/private partnership is transforming an unusual brownfield site into the city’s largest new residential development in more than 50 years. Building neighborhoods on abandoned industrial sites is no longer a novelty, but Summerset at Frick Park stands out: it is the first new urbanist development to be built on a foundation of slag. For 50 years, the city’s steel industry dumped its byproducts on this site five miles from downtown. Most of the steel mills are closed, but the heap remains, rising almost 120 feet above the bed of Nine Mile Run, the creek that runs through the site. This is an atypical location for a brownfield site. Summerset’s neighbors are Frick Park, one of the city’s oldest attractions, and the upscale, historic neighborhoods of Squirrel Hill and Swisshelm Park. The 240-acre site also lacked water and sewer. Due to these factors, it will be developed at a lower density than many brownfield projects, and more than 50 percent of the site will remain as open space. Despite the site’s condition and lack of infrastructure, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy saw the potential in the slag heap and prompted the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to purchase the site in 1995 for $3.8 million. So far the city has invested an estimated $30 million in testing, cleaning up, and grading the site, and will also pay for the construction of sewers and streets. In addition, the developers and neighborhood groups hired engineers and consultants to make sure the site was safe, says Caryn Rubinoff, vice president of the Rubinoff Company, one of the developers. As builders construct the first model homes, the last phase of the site remediation continues with the addition of a two-and-a-half-foot layer of soil which is necessary to bring vegetation back. The master plan calls for 110 acres along Nine Mile Run to be cleaned and replanted as an extension of Frick Park. The design for Summerset has been through several permutations. The city initially hired Cooper Robertson & Partners to design the neighborhood, and their master plan included approximately 1,200 homes. The development team selected by the city subsequently hired Urban Design Associates (UDA) and LaQuatra Bonci, both of Pittsburgh, to reevaluate the design. Architect Jack LaQuatra says the original plan was too aggressive — the balance between yield and development costs improved with the current number of 713 homes and a greater diversity of public open space. Out of the 240 acres, only 105 acres are taken up by streets and residential development. “The original plan called for moving 5 million cubic yards of slag, but we were able to reduce that to 1 million cubic yards, making the project economically feasible,” LaQuatra says. The lat est addition to the design team, Looney Ricks Kiss Architects of Memphis, is collaborating with LaQuatra Bonci on the final adjustments to the plan, in addition to supplying the 12 home designs available to the builders. In keeping with the precedent in surrounding neighborhoods, the homes will be clad in either brick or fiber-cement siding, Rubinoff says. Housing mix Summerset is scheduled to be built in three phases over 10 years. The first phase of 27 acres will have 200 homes, including 87 apartments, 41 townhomes, and 20 one- and two-story cottages. Townhomes and cottages range in size from 1,400 to 2,300 square feet and will sell for between $200,000 and $250,000 (three-bedroom townhouses are $315,000). Thirty-six of the larger village homes (2,000-2,800 square feet), and 16 custom estate homes will rou nd out the mix. These homes range from $295,000 to $375,000 and above. Except for the one-story cottages, all homes will have attached garages that are accessed from rear alleys. The focus of the first phase (see plan on page 1) is a crescent-shaped green lined by attached homes and a short boulevard terminated by a 48-unit apartment building designed as a mansion. A community center is the likely location for a small amount of neighborhood retail space. Rubinoff says the development group is likely to subsidize a small store initially. Additional retail will come in the live/work units planned for the second phase. The first phase is within walking distance of the Squirrel Hill business district. Restricted by the unusual topography, the first two phases will form a narrow, elongated neighborhood tied together by Grandview Drive, which runs at the edge of the slag slopes and offers views of Nine Mile Run, the Monongahela River, and the city. The third phase will be built on the other side of the creek and will have only one road connection to the rest of the development. Summerset will eventually have five access routes. Energy efficiency The development team has set high standards for the energy efficiency of the homes, and Summerset has been designated a flagship community by the Department of Energy. “The goal is to have the homes 30 percent more efficient than the industry standard, and the efficiency is going to be monitored after the homes are built. There will also be a booklet of technology standards for the whole community,” Rubinoff says. The performance guidelines are created by IBACOS (Integrated Building and Construction Solutions) of Pittsburgh. “We’re a bridge between the builders and developers on one end and the product manufacturers on the other,” says CEO Michael Dickens. He adds that these standards complement the design and architectural guidelines common in new urbanist developments. “They are the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle,” he says. The guidelines are built on four principles: improved occupant comfort, increased building durability, conservation of energy and natural resources, and improved occupant health and safety. IBACOS’ sister company and development arm is EQA Landmark Communities, one of Summerset’s developers, which will build the cottage homes. “We use a holistic approach, it’s not like we are doing rocket science,” says Melissa Titus of EQA. Homes are equipped with high-efficiency windows and appliances, the shell is tightened as much as possible, and builders will have special crews that seal every opening. “These are small steps, but it is very fundamental,” Dickens says. He estimates that these measures add around 5 percent to the cost of construction, but the homeowner should recoup the cost over time with lower utility bills. IBACOS has also worked on efficiency standards in the new urbanist projects Playa Vista in Los Angeles and Civano in Tucson. Summerset at Frick Park highlights how collaborations between cities and private developers can make brownfield reclamation an attractive proposition. The presence of slag has not kept buyers away. A lottery will be held to release the first 52 lots, and more than 200 people are on the waiting list. And many more sites are available nationwide. Last year, the US Conference of Mayors counted more than 21,000 brownfield sites ranging in size from a quarter acre to 1,300 acres in 210 cities. Another prominent new urbanist brownfield project in development is Atlantic Station in Atlanta, which will be built on the site of a demolished steel mill.