For a century, Western Pennsylvania was called the Steel Capital of the world, pulsating year-round, day and night, with the production of steel for rail, bridges, ships, and buildings. As a bookend to Pittsburgh, McKeesport stood out in the Monongahela Valley as an urban hub. Downtown McKeesport had the tallest buildings outside Pittsburgh, busy streets, streetcars, the fancy stores, parades, and great parks. Then, seemingly overnight, industry stopped cold. Beginning in the 1970’s, competitive steel manufactured in Japan, South Korea, and other countries slowed down the demand for US-produced steel. US Companies were reluctant to modernize, inducing obsolescence. Higher costs of labor, energy and transportation accelerated the decline. By the 1990’s many mills in the Mon Valley had substantially scaled back production or altogether shut down–in some cases, without prior warning to the workforce. Thousands of people were left jobless, hollowing out communities and leaving hulking blast furnaces dark and silent. Pittsburgh rebounded. McKeesport did not. Two-thirds of its population was lost, and what was once a bustling downtown is run down and half empty. An effort is underway to reenvision the city’s downtown, tapping McKeesport most valuable asset: pride of place and community resilience. Another key asset is geographical: the downtown adjoins two rivers, the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, the latter offering rare unincumbered access to the waterfront. National trends pointing to the affordability and benefits of small town living also portend a brighter future.

Students will study the city’s past and current conditions, and over the course of the semester answer a fundamental question: Amid rapidly changing lifestyles and tectonic shifts in the global and national economies, how can McKeesport tap such trends and become a must place to live, work, and play? The focus of such question will be the city’s downtown.

The studio will progress in three phases: 1) Historical understanding; 2) Imagining possible futures; and 3) Developing site-specific plans and designs. The first two phases will stretch through to the midterm review, leaving four to five weeks to develop individual plans and designs. Evaluation of the work will be based on research thoroughness; creativity in imagining possible futures (informed by relevant case studies); and communications skills, graphic and verbal, in answering the question above. The identification of specific sites, blocks, districts or neighborhoods for individual work will be determined following a site visit.

The work plan will enable student to dream big–as big as the individuals who created the Mon Valley steel industry did one hundred fifty years ago–based on an understanding about how progress impacts cities, society at large, and the planet.

This studio is supported by the Koji Yanai Innovative Infrastructure Initiative Fund.

Note regarding the Fall 2026 GSD academic calendar: The first day of classes, Wednesday, September 2nd, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. This studio will meet for the first time on Tuesday, September 8th.