Pitt’s Hillside Area Development Recognized with National SCUP Award
The University of Pittsburgh’s Hillside Framework Plan was recognized by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) with an honorable mention for “Excellence in Planning for a District or Campus Component.”
Conceived by Pitt in partnership with David Rubin of Land Collective, the design creates a cohesive environment that will unify the upper and lower sections of the University’s Pittsburgh campus by utilizing land often overlooked as impractical.
Special attention was paid to updating aging infrastructure (including a new chilled water plant and power, water, and sewer lines in construction), creating sustainable landscaping through use of native plant species, adding new accessible pathways and gathering spaces, and reducing vehicular surfaces.
“The vertical complexity [of] a campus on a hill is a real physical challenge, and they did it really well,” commented one juror in selecting this project for a 2022 SCUP award.
The SCUP summary perspective summarized the project with: “Rethinking the nature of the relationship between the urban lower campus and the vastly different, yet complementary topography and character of the Hillside provides and opportunity to envision a signature landscape within the campus that creates a sense of unity and cohesion between disparate architecture while emerging as an iconic feature in and of itself.”