- The Urban Lab    197 kb by    Hutzell, Kelly & Rico-Gutierrez, Luis | kellyh@andrew.cmu.edu    Short Outline Carnegie Mellon University’s Urban Lab, a required studio within the B.Arch. program, has sought to expand the education, community visioning, and research efforts of the university to catalyze revitalization of Pittsburgh urban neighborhoods. Abstract For over 15 years Carnegie Mellon University’s Urban Lab, a required fifth-year urban design studio within the Bachelor of Architecture program, has sought to expand the education, community visioning, and research efforts of the university to catalyze revitalization of Pittsburgh urban neighborhoods. The fall 2006 Urban Lab consisted of four studios and two diverse projects. While all studios shared the same pedagogy, the projects involved different stakeholders, communities, sites and programs. The studio schedule is structured in three phases, with each phase culminating in community- oriented weeks involving presentations and feedback sessions: analysis, urban design frameworks and place-making/visionary projects. Community meetings offered the students the opportunity to engage with community stakeholders and residents of the neighborhoods. Leadership skills and social responsibility were developed as meetings were advertised, planned and facilitated by the students. The semester is presented as a model of curriculum based outreach, where both the students and the community follow the stages outlined. Ultimately the goal is to start a process where ultimately city officials and professionals take the work of the student and further develop it until it is ready for implementation. Two studios collaborated with North Side communities and the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum in correlation with their current National Endowment for the Arts grant. The grant sponsored an international ideas competition, which sought to create linkages among the varied cultural destinations of the neighborhood. At the launch of the competition, the Urban Lab students participated alongside the selected international design teams by providing site analysis and research as well as investigating urban design strategies that included linkages through family oriented housing, cultural, and institutional projects. Their work is currently on exhibition at the Children’s Museum. The other two studios collaborated with the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and community groups in conjunction with a ULI grant focused on two blighted urban corridors: Brighton Road in the North Side, and Herron Avenue in the Hill District. While not program specific, these studios were site specific, focusing on the issue of vacant land and yielding such programs as urban farms and public art corridors. The student work is highlighted in a publication, and has been presented at the ULI Vacant Lots symposium, as examples of strategies for the reuse of vacant lots. Keywords Urban design, community design, curriculum based outreach Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2007: Urban Trialogues   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper