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Mar 4, 2009 10:06 pm US/Eastern
Pittsburgh Becoming A 'Green' Leader
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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Pittsburgh is a national leader in green buildings.
KDKA
Pittsburgh is a national leader in green buildings, from big ones like the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, PNC's First Side Center and the Sen. John Heinz History Center to a little solar-paneled house designed by students at Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture.
CMU Professor Steven Lee says the house has about 100 square feet of solar thermal collectors.
The idea of designing and building buildings that use a very little coal-fired electricity has taken hold in Pittsburgh and it's why Professor Lee and others want to bring designers, builders and students together under one roof.
They plan to transform the mothballed Connelly Learning Center in the Hill into something called Pittsburgh Green Innovators.
"The idea of having a so to speak flagship campus where all the forces that have been instrumental in putting Pittsburgh in a leadership position are represented in a very substitutive way, I think is really, truly a great opportunity for the city," Lee said.
It's an idea whose time has come according to one of the project's original backers, State Sen. Jim Ferlo, who along with Congressman Mike Doyle, is pushing for funding of the estimated $30 million project from the state and federal stimulus package.
"I think there's a high degree of this project to be funded under the economic recovery," Ferlo said.
Pittsburgh Green Innovators now has a 90-day option to either purchase or lease the building from the Pittsburgh School District and it would provide educational opportunities for K-12th graders as well as students from CMU and Penn State.
But it would also provide space and resources for research and the development of new business, becoming a so-called business incubator for future designers and architects.
"I'm now seeing more and more of my students who are graduating from the school of architecture actually staying here in Pittsburgh because they want to be here, because they see that there's an opportunity, they see that it's becoming a very cool place," Lee said.
This is about the creation of a new industry here and ultimately about jobs.
The center would become a place for workers to learn how to work with these new technologies and build these new buildings.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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