The Nine Mile Run Project has authored a number of publications illustrating the ecosystem / reconstructive art / discursive democracy approach to brownfield public space reclamation. These publications help to define how ecology, community and art function cooperatively.

Most of these publications are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Go here to download the free Reader.
 

Project Publications 

  • Ample Opportunity Dialogue (1997)
    Ample Opportunity: A Community Dialogue, was the first NMR-GP effort. The project team, directed by three artists, includes a diverse group of professionals from academia, industry and municipal government. For over a year the NMR-GP team endeavored to generate an informed public conversation regarding Nine Mile Run, a brownfield site in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania being developed into a mix of housing and public greenway. Brownfield development is routinely the domain of engineers, economists, and public policy analysts who work to solve the brownfield "problem." Alternatively, this artist-led team regards the development of a brownfield as an opportunity rather than a problem. Considering brownfields as the legacy of the industrial revolution, a social event that effectively privatized America's urban rivers, streams and estuaries, the team approached this project as the social reclamation of public use, value and aesthetics.
  • Nine Mile Run Watershed: Pennsylvania Rivers Conservation Plan (1998)
    The Nine Mile Run Watershed Plan is a unique approach to watershed planning in an urban post-industrial context. The report focuses on the lower watershed encompassing Frick Park and the brownfield development site, with some analysis of the upstream problems which affect the human health and ecology. The report addresses land, water, biology, culture, management, enhancement, creativity and art. The process featured, professionals and community members, working together to discuss the issues over a 6 month period. The text, features community comment throughout. The Nine Mile Run Watershed Plan was developed by the STUDIO in partnership with Pittsburgh City Planning. The project team consisted of scientists, engineers, artists, landscape architects and urban planners from Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Pennsylvania State University.
  • Re-Evaluating Stormwater: The Nine Mile Run Model for Restorative Redevelopment
    and Technical Appendix

    This volume contains materials associated with a design charrette held October 14-17, 1998 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. That event examined possibilities for small-scale, site-specific retrofit and redevelopment activities that could simultaneously restore the hydrology of urban watersheds, contribute to management of stormwater runoff and sewer overflows, and revitalize the economic and cultural life of urban places. The charrette focused on the Nine Mile Run Watershed of Edgewood, Pittsburgh, Swissvale, and Wilkinsburg, as a model for development of physical and policy measures which could be replicated throughout the greater Pittsburgh region and beyond.
Featured Critical Analysis
In addition to the texts available online, the project team has produced texts for:
  • The Journal, "Public Works Managment and Policy." Volume #1, No. 3, January 1997.
  • "Brownfields as Places": A Case Study in Learning to See Assets and Liabilities, Opportunities and Constraints. Kirk Savage and Tim Collins.
  • The Journal, "Leonardo", Works on Words, "UrbanReclamation, Place, Value. Use." Tim Collins and Reiko Goto.