The Hazelwood-based nonprofit group Center of Life has announced plans for a huge new community center on the former mill site known as Hazelwood Green.
Plans for the three-story, 127,000-square-foot building were made public Friday in an event at the site, at the corner of Hazelwood Avenue and Lytle Street. That’s just a block from Irvine Street, the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare, and three blocks from Center of Life’s current headquarters in a church and former Catholic school.
The group, founded in 2001 by community activist and pastor Tim Smith, now offers youths and families everything from homework help and health care resources to music and sports programs. The new center would house the Council of Three Rivers American Indians Center early-learning center, a health center, and a University of Pittsburgh community-engagement center.
Smith said the building will sit on 5.3 acres of land donated by Almono, the consortium of local foundations that owns Hazelwood Green. The move would allow Center of Life to stop leasing space, he said.
“It will also give us the capacity to serve more families, but also open up to the community more opportunities for programs, for jobs, for services, for other opportunities like that,” he added.
“I believe this is something that the people want, and I feel what we’re trying to do is to build something that is worthy of the people,” Smith said.
Smith said the building, designed by Pittsburgh-based WTW Architects, would cost between $50 million and $70 million.
“It is probably the biggest reach that we’ve ever taken,” he said.
He said the project was inspired by Almono’s initial 2002 purchase of the 178-acre Hazelwood Green, former site of the LTV Coke Works. The group has formally begun its fundraising campaign and plans to break ground late next year.
“We aim to be an anchor tenant here,” said Keith Caldwell, Pitt’s executive director of Place Based Initiatives, which operates Community Engagement Centers to create connections to Pitt in Hazelwood, Homewood and the Hill District.
Other groups partnering with Center of Life on the project include medical provider Primary Care Health Services.
Center of Life is known for the award-winning music program Center of Life Jazz; the KRUNK Movement, a songwriting and music-production program; its social-justice resource center; and a summer youth basketball league.
The sprawling Hazelwood Green site, though still largely empty, is slowly filling in with occupants including the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute; Pitt’s biomanufacturing institute Bioforge; autonomous vehicle company Motional; and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ planned community football field and rec center.
Smith said the Center of Life building would help connect Hazelwood Green to the broader neighborhood.
A Center of Life news release included statements of support for the project from both U3 Advisors, the development advisor to Almono, and the Greater Hazelwood Community Collaborative.
The group is also looking to build the structure in accordance with the international Living Building Challenge, meaning it would meets its energy needs with on-site renewable energy, handle its own storm and wastewater, and use materials and design that prioritize the health of its occupants.
Speaking at the announcement, Leslie Montgomery of the Green Building Alliance said Living Building certification, a rigorous process, is a “stretch goal” that is dependent on budget. But she added that all buildings on the Almono site are required to be LEED-certified, a more widely attained standard.
