Code RED: Research, Education, Development

Center for Brownfield Reclamation

The decline of the steel industry in the 1980’s has left Homestead with industrial pollution and economic hardship. Since the mill has been mostly dismantled, only a fraction of the many buildings and distant memories of the site recall what was once there. The proposed site modifications will improve Pittsburgh’s position through the process of bioremediation.

Engaging the temporal and cultural aspects of the site, our buildings screen views and reveal unseen layers of history. New layers are inter-woven with these historical layers to form a continuous mesh. While exploring the building, one can learn from the past and progress into the future.

Visitors access the site by traveling by boat across the Monongahela River. They dock underneath a bold cantilever, which gestures towards the future and the historical steel district. They progress across a public plaza and enter the building. The first floor of the building is embedded in the earth – on this level one can explore buried memories of what the site was like long ago.

The building showcases the steel industry and the process of bioremediation. On the top floor of the building a research greenhouse is dedicated to finding new information about bioremediation. Visitors can also explore the other greenhouses on site. To enhance Pittsburgh’s park system, much of the site is developed as green-space for recreational use.