When RSH Architects first responded to Pastor Lawrence Bair’s request to meet with a community group in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Larimer neighborhood, no one realized that the firm was about to embark on a twenty-four year design mission that will come to reality in the spring of 2002.

The former 12th Ward Indoor Recreation Committee was formed to sponsor the public/private development of a community center, serving the youth of the low-income and predominately African-American inner city neighborhood. As originally designed by our firm, the center included an indoor swimming pool, a regulation basketball court, free exercise and multi-purpose rooms, and administrative offices for the Kingsley Association, a local neighborhood social service agency rooted in the East End of Pittsburgh for two centuries.

Unfortunately, the project was conceived at the same time Pittsburgh was suffering through its worst economic recession since the Great Depression. City Parks and Recreation commitments to help fund and manage the project were withdrawn. For the next nineteen years, unsuccessful attempts were made to renew public interest and financial backing by private resources despite numerous presentations before City Council and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

In 1998, Malik Bankston, newly retained executive director of the Kingsley Association approached RSH Architects, having learned of the long-standing commitment our firm made to the project’s development efforts. After several meetings with ad-hoc community groups and the Association’s Board of Directors, our firm was retained to advance the design of a new community center, which embodies all of the originally designed functions. The 55,000 square foot, three story building will also house a day-care center, district magistrate, a computer learning center and lease spaces for future social service agencies.

The project is proceeding under the construction management services of Ebony Development, a local minority developer. The Kingsley Association has approved design development phase documents with attendant budget confirmation by the project’s construction manager. RSH Architects is currently preparing construction documents. Groundbreaking is projected for September 2002, with completion of the center scheduled within a year.