Project Spotlight: Rachel Carson EcoVillage
The Rachel Carson EcoVillage at Providence Heights, currently under construction in McCandless Township, is a first-of-its-kind community for the Pittsburgh area. The EcoVillage will be a sustainable co-housing community, designed to foster neighborly interaction and accessibility for all residents, from children to the elderly. Rhea has been proud to provide geotechnical, environmental, and land surveying services for this project since its planning stages.
The community, the founders of which include Carnegie Mellon professors Stefani Danes and Doug Cooper, aims to balance modern living with nature, so preserving the local ecosystem is a high priority for the development. The planned construction includes 35 private units of varying sizes and a Common House with shared facilities for all residents, all situated within a unique woodland environment.
Specifically, the community will be located within an oak savanna ecosystem, which is rare in suburban western Pennsylvania and provides important habitat for local plants and wildlife. Rhea used strategies designed to minimize impacts to the existing vegetation for all of our field studies and in our geotechnical recommendations, which have been incorporated into the thoughtful design and placement of the EcoVillage’s construction.
With groundbreaking underway, the EcoVillage has attracted some positive attention in local media. WTAE, Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate, recently featured the development and spoke with some of the folks who have already signed on to be part of the EcoVillage about the benefits of this type of sustainable community. The project was also featured by the American Institute of Architects Pittsburgh in the COLUMNs e-newsletter.
You can watch the WTAE’s feature on the community here. Or learn more about the development on their website.
As Pittsburghers ourselves, we are proud to be a part of this work and can’t wait to see this unique neighborhood join our region.