June 19th, 2010

The Greening of Pittsburgh

by Alex Hallatt

I first visited Pittsburgh in 1991 and I liked it then, but it’s even better now. There are cool (no chain store) shopping/eating areas like The Strip and Southside and lots of bike lanes are going in. We happened to be there on World Environment Day and the boyf’s old buddy, Doug Millar introduced us to Lee Ferraro, the general manager at WYEP, which is noteworthy as the radio station is in one of the city’s greenest buildings.

Much of the building used recycled (75% of the steel, recycled jeans as insulation…) or sustainable (wheatboard, fly-ash concrete) materials with low volatile organic compounds and a design that promotes a healthy working environment. The increased building costs were quickly offset by the low energy use of the building and it seems like a great place to work (you can open the windows, yay!)

It also plays great music.