Revitalization on Penn Ave. (Pittsburgh: home, architect, fit in)

[Elder18]

I came across this article in the PG today. It's a few years old, and I wonder how things in the area it talks about are going these days and if the situation has improved.

Here's the article:
Corridor's comeback: The revival of Pittsburgh's East End

[barneyg]

This project has taken forever and will take a long time to complete. From what I recall, a designing architect had been hired by the city under mayor Murphy, and mayor O'Connor wasn't quite happy with the results so he hired another one, but he died before the funding for the design could be approved. I think city council eventually approved it (perhaps Summer 2006?) but I don't know if the design has been presented yet to the city. If it has, I'm pretty sure that funding for the actual revitalization has NOT been approved so far.

(Note: I'm talking about the actual project to rebuild the street itself, ie. sidewalks, sewers, asphalt. Over the past few years there have been some private and non-profit initiatives in the area such as the new Children's Home, a new old folks home around Penn/Graham, the Pittsburgh Glass Center... I think the area's getting better and one can see the difference from 2 years ago but there really is a lot to be done still.)