Larimer's flatness, relative to many Pittsburgh neighborhoods, is an asset in terms of making community space for recreation and farming
Larimer residents contributed ideas and energy towards a future vision for their neighborhood
This block along Larimer Avenue was imagined as a "Village Green"
A neighborhood garden currently thrives at the planned site of the "Village Green"
The Larimer Vision Plan is a community-based plan for the revitalization of one of Pittsburgh’s challenged neighborhoods where disinvestment and depopulation—from 13,000 inhabitants to 2,000 in 50 years—have led to a vastly underutilized community. While visually and physically isolated by Pittsburgh’s rugged topography and urban renewal interventions, the neighborhood itself is relatively flat. It is also immediately adjacent to some of the strongest neighborhoods in the city. The vision plan is based on converting vacancy from a liability to an asset that can lead to Larimer’s reinvention as the sustainable neighborhood benchmark for the region, incorporating new parks, urban agriculture and green building practices as community-building tools.
The Larimer Vision Plan as compiled by Strada was a comprehensive study of conditions and potential. Tangible progress is being made in the neighborhood by organizations like Seeding Prosperity and Revitalizing Corridors (SPARC) and the Kingsley Association, and a new Environmental & Energy Community Outreach Center. In the spring of 2012, Pittsburgh’s City Paper reported on Larimer residents planning for their community to become far less dependent on fossil fuels. Neighborhood planning has been a boon for Larimer as evidenced by ongoing positive developments that are driven by the residents themselves.
