PSU Students Submit Design Options for Brownfield Renovation

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A group of Pennsylvania State University School of Architecture students recently completed a Harrisburg Urban Studio Design research project in which they studied urban site conditions in Allison Hill, Pa. and designed potential uses for a vacant industrial site at South 14th and Howard Streets, the location of an automotive repair facility. The Harrisburg Urban Studio was established by Mayor Stephen Reed in 2004.

The Allison Hill location is one of the Harrisburg’s brownfield sites. Brownfields are abandoned, idled or underused industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by environmental issues.

According to PSU architecture instructor Bret Peters, the studio focused on the City of Harrisburg in transition, as a work in progress. He asked his students to investigate the intentions of the original designers, how those plans evolved, and what should happen next in areas that have lost identity over time.

Peters, along with fellow PSU architecture instructor Madis Pihlak, are teaching ARCH 431: Design Research Studio for the fall 2005 semester. “This is a difficult problem for the students, because this section of Allison Hill isn't a traditional setting for a design studio," Peters said.

Last week the PSU architecture students presented their projects to a professional review panel that consisted of Paul Clarke, professor of architecture at Morgan State University (Baltimore); Bruce Quigley, AIA, professor of architecture at Harrisburg Area Community College; and Dan Leppo, director of planning for the City of Harrisburg. Clarke, Quigley and Leppo are all active with the Urban Studio. The projects provided uses, which ranged from a retail tower, to open landscaped space, to an intricate "network of plazas." All of the designs transformed the vacant location into an innovative and fresh focal point of the Allison Hill community.

Maria Diaz, vice president of GTS-Design and chair of the Urban Studio community relations committee, said she was impressed with the range of design innovations, particularly the adaptive re-use of an existing rail spur at the center of the project site, which gave a new identity to the neighborhood.

"The students realized and expressed a key component of urban design when they identified and included the nearby Reservoir Park, Bellevue Park residential community and the 17th Street/I-83 ramp as part of their particular project site's design concepts," Diaz said.

Some of the solutions the students presented expressed a sensitive use of grading as a tool to help redefine the neighborhood center. Many others utilized building forms and uses. Still others tied their concepts to anchor amenities at the 17th Street ramp from I-83, thus bringing this interior neighborhood to the attention of Harrisburg's prominent vehicular artery.

"The City of Harrisburg will benefit from the ideas and concepts developed by this PSU architecture class," Diaz said.

PSU architecture students Sisi Andrevem, Mark Baker, Andrea Belmont, Snow Chin, Jeeyoung Chon, Rebecca Cybularz, Seth Domoto, Claire Edwards, Scott Eldridge, Thomas Faust, Kyle Fauth, Joseph Fulco, Stephanie Goris, Kristin Halvorsen, Peter Kerekgyarto, Edwina Jean-Louis, Allison Kozero, Arthur Lo, Mark Long, David Maple, Dana Maringo, Dana Monroe, Allison Morra, Kelsey Rhoads, Lance Saunders, Jason Smith, Hallie Terzopolos, Marco Virgili and Allison Wertz participated in the Urban Studio class.

The Harrisburg Urban Studio is modeled after Auburn University's famous Rural Studio, a program that provides architectural students with a practical learning experience while enhancing the environment of disadvantaged communities.

A variety of advisory committees provide support to the Urban Studio. The committees consist of professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, construction management, construction products and community relations.

Pennsylvania's leading architecture colleges will send students to study, design and build in the Harrisburg Urban Studio. A number of architects, engineers, contractors and construction products firms are actively supporting the project.