Pittsburgh Greentech Campus

Concept Design, 2010

The city of Pittsburgh proposed to demolish their iconic “Igloo” Civic Arena. In response, Preservation Pittsburgh held a design competition to propose a new future for this aging building. Built in 1961, the Igloo was architecturally unique with its fully-retractable, 415 foot wide , steel dome. However, the Igloo also represented 50 years of social tension as it physically disconnected a low-income residential community from Pittsburgh’s economically prosperous commercial center. Leveraging Pittsburgh’s world-class academic infrastructure, we reimagined the existing Igloo structure as a greentech campus centered in the dome and ringed by a series of office buildings for key industry partnerships. As both a public and private hub, the new Igloo campus would facilitate the intersection of different communities and provide a much needed venue for public gathering during cold Pittsburgh winters. Unfortunately, in 2012, plans moved forward with the Igloo’s demolition. While unbuilt, the Igloo was a foundational project for our studio in terms of a user-centered process and construction techniques.

“Their proposal illustrated an impressive understanding of the existing built environment, while also having a transformative vision of what the site could become. ” – Scott Leib, Past President, Preservation Pittsburgh

Project Size: 250,000sf / 2,000 users; Our Role: Campus Architect