Summerset at Frick Park is a residential development located in the

Squirrel Hill Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated a ...

and Swisshelm Park neighborhoods within the

City of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsyl ...

and

Allegheny County Allegheny County () is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's seco ...

. This project is one of the nation's first

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

sites to be remediated for residential purposes. The $250 million public-project began in 1997 and is the City of Pittsburgh's largest residential development since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. At completion, Summerset at Frick Park will have over 700 residences and its annual property tax revenue is anticipated to be in the range of $5.7 million to $6.3 million.

History

Summerset at Frick Park is located along the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

on the eastern side of Pittsburgh. The brownfield site sits on the edge of Squirrel Hill and from the 1920s to the 1970s was used to dump

slag Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...

, a by-product of the steelmaking process. The development is adjacent to

Frick Park Frick Park is the largest municipal park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, covering . It is one of Pittsburgh's four historic large parks. History The park began when Henry Clay Frick, upon his death in 1919, bequeathed south of Clayto ...

, a 644-acre refuge that contains the area's largest urban stream, Nine Mile Run, which has been restored as part of the development. Phase 3 of the project, currently (2014) under construction, will be located primarily within the Swisshelm Park neighborhood. Summerset at Frick Park's proximity to

Downtown Pittsburgh Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose ...

and

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, where many hospitals, medical facilities and universities are located, makes the reclamation of this area an important development for the city. The project was spearheaded by 3-term Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy. Mayor Murphy worked with the

Urban Redevelopment Authority The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Government of Singapore. Mission The authority was established on 1 Apri ...

to begin the project in 1995 with the purchase of the land by the URA from a private entity for $3.8 million. A group of investors, developers and builders named the Summerset Land Development Association (SLDA) was formed, led by the locally based Rubinoff Company. The Rubinoff Company was given exclusive rights to create a master plan for the site and partnered with Montgomery & Rust, Pennrose Properties, Ralph A Falbo Inc. and EQA Landmark Communities to develop and build the community. Planning, engineering, architectural layout, landscape design and consulting services were provided by IBACOS, Kacin Company, LaQuatra Bonci Associates,

Looney Ricks Kiss Looney Ricks Kiss is a Memphis-based full-service architecture firm founded in 1983 by Carson Looney, FAIA, Frank Ricks, FAIA, and Richard Kiss, AIA. In addition to architecture, its services include planning, interior architecture and environmenta ...

, GAI Consultants,

Urban Design Associates Urban Design Associates (UDA; formerly known as UDA Architects) is an international urban design and architecture firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. History Urban Design Associates (UDA) was founded in 1964 by David Lew ...

and Zimmerman/Volk Associates. Building began in 2001 and was guided by principles of

New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...

as well as a model of the Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) type. Some of the features of the neighborhood include shared green spaces and parks, rear alleyways, front porches on most structures, old-fashioned street lamps and picturesque stone walls. A community center, swimming pool, playground and basketball court create an urban community feel in the development.

Building standards

Utilizing the standards for

Green Building Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...

, the developers required that every unit built be at least 30 percent more efficient than typical new homes built in the Pittsburgh area. Summerset at Frick Park's standards became instrumental in creating the base standards for both

Energy Star Energy Star (trademarked ''ENERGY STAR'') is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that promotes energy efficiency. The program provides information on the energy consumption of pro ...

and the EPA's “Build America” program. About 60 million dollars in public funds have been used for site preparation, water and sewer line installation, and road construction. SLDA purchases the lots from the URA and sells them to homebuilders.

Future Development

In September 2014, the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority sent a request for proposal to companies to assist the URA in preparing the third phase of the development. The project will be the final phase of the development, adding more homes and related infrastructure to the site, located in the Swisshelm Park neighborhood.http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/ura-files/Nine_Mile_Run_Slag_RFP.pdf

References

External links

Summerset at Frick Park website

Summerset Living - Online Magazine

Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh

National Brownfield Association

EPA Brownfield Program

US Green Building Council

Pittsburgh Economic Quarterly, June 2012

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Pittsburgh's Summerset at Frick Park hosts 'porch party'

Summerset celebrates the season of the porch with a new kind of neighborhood block party
{{authority control New Urbanism communities Populated places established in 1995 Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania