Three LEED Gold Buildings Add New Density to Pittsburgh’s University District

The design of Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Central Oakland neighborhood, the region’s institutional corridor, calls for significant urban density. Increasing density enables a district to aggregate resource use, like transportation, energy, water, and even food, which achieves greater efficiency across regional systems while contributing to a more vibrant place overall. Meaning, when more people are co-located they become a more viable market for local businesses and services and a more diverse audience for cultural actvity. Contributing to this vision, evolveEA recently completed the LEED certifications of three new buildings in Oakland, demonstrating notable sustainability outcomes as well. Two new towers facing each other across Forbes Avenue, as well as a university research center that was a former gas station have each achieved LEED Gold certification.

The Bridge on Forbes, a $40 million 197 unit residential building; the Murdoch Building, a $22 million 8-story building containing offices for the University of Pittsburgh and ground floor retail; and TCS Hall North, a $39 million six-story robotics office and research building for Carnegie Mellon University are the latest New Construction projects to take shape along the corridor. These buildings will also contribute to the Pittsburgh 2030 District goals of carbon and water reduction, as well as neighborhood connectivity.