The city of Pittsburgh encountered and was transformed by modern architecture in an ambitious program of urban revitalization in the 1950s and ’60s. HAC Lab Pittsburgh: Imagining the Modern untangles Pittsburgh’s complicated relationship with modern architecture and urban planning. This experimental presentation at Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center includes abundant archival materials from the period, an active architecture studio, and a salon-style discussion space, unearthing layers of history and a range of perspectives.
Architects-in-residence, the Boston-based studio over,under, highlight successive histories of pioneering architectural achievements, disrupted neighborhoods, utopian aspirations of public officials and business leaders, and Pittsburgh’s role as a model for the modern American city. These intertwined narratives shape the exhibition’s presentation, as does the assignment for its in-gallery architecture studio: the imaginative reuse of Allegheny Center on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
