NEWS

The Oakland Business Improvement District is excited to announce the design team chosen for the Innovation Oakland project!  After a highly competitive consultant selection process that included proposals submitted by design and planning firms from around the world, ARUP,  together with Mijksenaar, Billings Jackson Design, !melk Landscape Architecture PC, EDGE Studio, Peter Margittai Architects and Wall-to-Wall Studios were selected for the project.

 ARUP is a global design and consulting firm working in over twenty five countries.  Recognized for their ground breaking and cutting edge projects, ARUP is the creative force behind many of the worlds most innovative and sustainable projects.  As the firm that will act as the lead consultant for the project, ARUP has brought a team of local and national experts that will bring creative and forward thinking applications in art, way finding, technology and smart design to the Innovation Oakland project.  Cities around the world have enlivened public spaces and generated economic activity via art and technology based projects such as Melbourne’s Federation Square, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Zaragoza’s Digital Mile and Bristol’s Legible City.  The ARUP team will work closely with OBID stakeholders to develop exciting, highly considered solutions which will bring similar benefits to Oakland and to the region.

 Innovation Oakland is a technology-based approach to neighborhood transformation introducing new ways of thinking about how community assets, public spaces and commercial corridors contribute towards the economic prosperity of Oakland and of the greater Western Pennsylvania region.  Home to some of the world’s top research, educational, medical and cultural institutions, Oakland is determined to be America’s first digital community.  Fueled by state of the art technologies, Innovation Oakland will combine art, design, place making and way finding solutions to create new interactive public destinations for the use and pleasure of residents, employees, students and visitors from around the country and the world.

 Innovation Oakland is a community-wide infrastructure initiative of the Oakland Business Improvement District in partnership with Carlow University, Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh and the Oakland Task Force.  Funding has been provided by a grant from the Allegheny County Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund for consultant services for both the Innovation Oakland and the North Side Now! infrastructure projects.  As part of the Smart Streets Pittsburgh program, OBID and partner organization North Side Cultural Collaborative will share consultant services to benefit both neighborhood communities.  For more information about these initiatives, please contact the OBID office at 412-683-6243, x.18.