Is it possible for a redevelopment effort to foster social healing? Planners in Pittsburgh are banking on it, with a soon-to-start project in the city’s Lower Hill District. The goal is to connect that area to the rest of the Hill, as well as with Downtown—while healing old wounds that have been smarting for more than 50 years.
Surface parking lots currently occupy the area that will be a mixed-use development of office space and housing, anchored by a park amidst it. The development aims to build a more inclusive community by redressing old grievances and building a new mini-neighborhood that will provide a sort of gateway into the Hill, near the city’s hockey arena.