Renewal, Regression, and Revival: Currents of Change in the Pittsburgh Environment

Sitting at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers where they join to flow into the Ohio, the city of Pittsburgh has been shaped by its material environment—the rocky, grimy, watery base on which it stands. It has also been shaped by industrial activity, as the city has cycled through growth and expansion, deindustrialization, and renewal. Today, many former industrial sites have been replaced by research, shopping, and recreation—but change is not always consistent, and whet...