Where do you go to find your summer interns?

“You’re looking for somebody that has some usable skills, but we can also help them grow those skills. We have a student this year from the UDream program at Carnegie Mellon. It’s for minority architects, and we assign them a project where they can develop a whole series of skills. ... I’m starting to see this incredible influx of young people calling to come here from all over because Pittsburgh is now hip and cool.”

—Rob Pfaffmann, principal, Pfaffmann + Associates

“Our best interns have come from Slippery Rock because they have an intense program with an intern adviser. The one this summer is from Penn State. If they have a program that really looks for results, we like that better than places that seem to tell their students to just go do an internship.”

—Becky Rodgers, executive director, Neighbors in the Strip

“We have programs with a number of local schools, including Point Park, Allegheny College, the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State. But we also work with a number of national schools. …Our publisher and editor-in-chief, John Robinson Block, is a graduate of Yale, and the Block family has endowed a program to send a number of Yale interns to the Post-Gazette every year.”

—Chris Chamberlain, president, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MUP Students Anne Lewis and Le An receive national fellowships

Anne Lewis
2011 Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellow

Anne Lewis, first year MUP student, has been selected to receive a 2011 Dwight David Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship. The Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship is awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation to outstanding graduate students showing promise in becoming leaders in the field of transportation. The goal is to attract the nation's brightest minds to the field of transportation, to enhance the careers of transportation professionals by encouraging them to seek advanced degrees and to retain top talent in the transportation industry of the United States. The program is intended to bring innovation and enhance the breadth and scope of knowledge of the entire transportation community in the U.S.

Anne is from Belmont, Mass. and received her undergraduate degree from Williams College where she majored in physics and political science. She is interested in improving the linkages between transportation planning and housing, especially within low-income areas, and to support the design of equitable and sustainable transportation systems. She writes, "in an era of sprawling land use patterns, increasing automobile-related costs, and dispersed employment opportunities, the costs of transportation and housing are inextricably intertwined, and low-income households tend to experience the most severe financial burden from these combined costs." Anne hopes to address these issues as a transportation planner through the consideration and implementation of policy tools, economic incentives, and urban design. Anne is particularly interested in locations that present problems of scale in the adoption of public transportation. The Eisenhower Fellowship will help Anne fund her last year of graduate school.

Le An
UDream fellow at Carnegie Mellon University

Second year urban planning student Le An has been named a UDream Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The program seeks to attract talented architects and urban designers to work in Pittsburgh and encourage diversity within the architecture/urban design profession nationwide.

Through the generous support of the Heinz Endowments, UDream offers full tuition, stipend, housing, and travel to and from Pittsburgh for program participants. The program is a combination of six weeks of academic training at CMU taught by architecture faculty and local urban design practitioners and 12 weeks of internship with local architecture and urban design firms, non-profits or public agencies. Thirteen finalists interviewed with firms such as Urban Design Associates (UDA), Perkins Eastman, and Loysen + Kreuthmeier Architects, and organizations like Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Le An was offered placement at UDA. Founded in 1964, UDA is a multi-disciplined urban design and architecture practice headquartered in Pittsburgh, Penn. UDA develops master plans, pattern books, and architecture for clients in North America, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Le An expects to use this opportunity to learn more about his areas of interest, sustainable urban design and downtown and waterfront revitalization.