In late February, cityLAB toured the empty Rogers School building in Garfield with a group including representatives from the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, the Garfield Jubilee Association, and two artists who work on Penn Avenue. Built in 1914 and used as a school until 2009, the Rogers School building is very big, beautiful, and uncannily quiet.
Click here to see some photos from our visit.
A quick update about our 6% Place experiment:
Since the new year, we have been working with CMU’s Urban Design Build Studio to make sure that the students’ work on the 6% Place incentives is ready to show to potential funders, planning a strategy for the 6% Place with the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation and UDBS, and meeting with potential funders to get some of our 6% Place projects off the ground.
We hope to have good news to share soon!
On Friday, The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation held a ground-breaking ceremony for forty-five new homes in Garfield. As this article in the Post-Gazette describes, this effort is the “last leg of a decade-long, $24 million scattered-site effort that has coincided with a 45 percent drop in crime” in the neighborhood.
Read more about the BGC’s efforts and Garfield residents’ reactions here and here.
cityLAB recently received an email from a long-time Pittsburgher who now lives in Harare, Zimbabwe. He writes:
Dear Garfield Neighbors,
Please find my contribution to your community creating its future: Invest. Brand. Plan.
Good luck with the process!
Mike Staresinic
Harare, Zimbabwe
Pittsburgh from 2012
Garland Clubs. Recovery takes time. Start small start now: combine joined parcels for gardens, greenways, community vegetable gardens and the like, as a viable investment strategy to attract neighborhood investment clubs. For the price of acquisition, tax, fencing, and some weed whacking, each patch of green neighborhood pulls the rest up. Over time, the surroundings come up due to these Garlands. As new housing picks up, it has green neighbors. Those who hold the green get their investment back as a neighborhood develops around them (eventually selling or developing their land), while residents walk the garlands in an upcoming, natural, strengthening neighborhood. I am prepared to organize the first Garland Club.
Garland Brand. Garfield needs a new brand. Named for an inconsequential President who nobody remembers (quiz: ask meeting participants for that president’s first name), please play with options: 25% Garland. Gardens. 20% vacant can be readily made into a wonderful number when it = 25% FREE, 25% SPACE TO BREATHE, 25% NATURAL 25%. Natural material is the neighborhood’s natural strength. Pump it up to 25% Garlanded Garfield.
Holistic, Full-Cycle Planning. Pittsburgh should not be proud of its speed of demolition, rather speed of redevelopment. Figuring out the full cycle before buildings unfortunately go down transforms demolition from a loser into a winner.
Thanks for contributing your ideas, Mike!
cityLAB’s 6% Place book has been written up in the Bloomfield-Garfield Bulletin. In the article, Rick Swartz, executive director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, says, “The book is an impressive piece of work that should fuel conversation and planning discussions for years to come.”
Read the article below and read more of the January issue of The Bulletin here.
Thanks to the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation and to The Bulletin for their support and for the mention.
The new Pittsburgh CONNECTS Lab in Garfield has a series of great workshops coming up, including sessions on computer and software training, free computer repair, writing invoices for non-profit organizations, and information about how to apply for heating assistance this winter. Read more about their November events here. In October, they are offering:
“Microsoft Excel Basics” on October 27th 2:00 PM;
“Invoicing for Non-Profits” on October 29th 6:00 PM;
And a PNCIS Information Session on October 27th at 6:00 PM.
RSVP or find out more about the workshops by calling 412-456-0858, by writing BGC.ENEC@gmail.com, or visiting their website.
On Tuesday night, cityLAB held a brainstorming session to work through the 16 incentives for our 6% Place in Garfield. Community members worked with the Carnegie Mellon architecture students who are researching and designing the incentives this semester.
After a presentation about the 6% Place and student progress on the projects, we organized into break-out sessions. CMU students and community members worked together in 8 groups to make the incentives as good, as strong, and as viable as possible.
Read more about the background of the experiment here and watch this space to hear more about the 6% incentives in the coming weeks.
We’ve had some great press coverage about our 6% Place experiment and the brainstorming meeting we will be holding tomorrow in Garfield.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review posted a short article about the meeting yesterday, and The Bulletin, a publication of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, just published a great piece about the experiment, the 16 ideas for Garfield, and our upcoming meeting. Read their coverage here, and read more of their October issue here.
Thanks to the Tribune-Review and The Bulletin for this great coverage!
P.S. R.S.V.P. to tomorrow’s brainstorming meeting here!
Please join us tomorrow night to brainstorm about 16 fantastic ideas for Garfield. 70 architecture students are working on these ideas right now and need your feedback! Garfield residents, adults, youth, stakeholders, and community leaders alike, anyone who is excited about Garfield’s future, should attend tomorrow’s meeting at the BGC Community Activity Center at 113 North Pacific Avenue.
The evening will begin at 6 PM with a repeat presentation of the 16 ideas and images of the students’ work so far, followed by the brainstorming session at 7 PM. Please join us to make an exciting change in Garfield! (And: cookies will be served!)
R.S.V.P. here.
Come help us connect the dots! Your ideas for Garfield are needed at a brainstorming session!
Help us brainstorm for change in Garfield on Tuesday, October 4th at the BGC Community Activity Center, 113 North Pacific Avenue. We’ll explore 16 fantastic ideas for Garfield’s future with 70 architecture students.
Hear the 6% Place presentation at 6 PM (a repeat performance) and join in with your ideas at 7 PM.
Be there or be square!
R.S.V.P. to the 6% Brainstorming Meeting here.