Between 1932 and 1936 a planned residential community rose on this hillside south of the Monongahela River, and you are in it now, Chatham Village, considered one of the finest examples of modernist community planning in America. Chatham Village was developed by the Buhl Foundation, a Pittsburgh philanthropic organization, and designed by urban planners Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, the same team that created Radburn, New Jersey. The designers laid out 197 townhouses on curved streets and common greens, orienting the buildings away from the automobile and toward pedestrian paths and communal open space.
No house has a garage on the street; all parking was pushed to the periphery. The common greens, maintained collectively by the homeowners association, create a series of outdoor rooms between the houses. It was a radical vision for working-class housing at a moment when the Depression was devastating Pittsburgh's economy.
The Buhl Foundation wanted to prove that thoughtful design could create beautiful, affordable housing for ordinary families. Chatham Village is now a National Historic Landmark.