Plans Envision Pittsburgh Airport Of Future

By Pittsburgh Business Times

A pedestrian-friendly world trade center on Pittsburgh International Airport grounds. The green redevelopment of University Boulevard in Moon Township. The creation of a new high-tech town at the now-rural corner of Routes 22/30 and the Findlay Connector. These are some of the plans that could jump from the drawing board to reality in and around Pittsburgh International Airport within the next three or four decades.

The final hours Tuesday afternoon of a two-day regional development conference centered around the airport focused on some of the visions of the future, thanks to the work of graduate students and professors at the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. The idea is to create a Pittsburgh Aerotropolis, an economic region centered around an airport that combines the best of industrial, commercial, educational and residential development. The term was coined by John Kasarda, of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, who addressed the conference Monday at Robert Morris University.

There are already Aerotropolises in Dallas, Dubai, Hong Kong and, most notably, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Pittsburgh's location between the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic makes it uniquely qualified to be an Aerotropolis.

"We have an airport here that has landing capacity and the land in and around the airport that can be harnessed for development," said Mulu Birru, president of MGB & Associates and a former Allegheny County economic development director. It also has the four R's key to Aerotropolis development: Road, runways, rails and rivers, said Donald K. Carter, director of CMU's Remaking Cities Institute. The Aerotropolis plans incorporate green development, sustainability and connectivity to infrastructure and the world via the web.

"What we're trying to do is create a place where you live, work and play," Carter said of the many initiatives.