School of Architecture
Eddy Man Kim and the Pittsburgh Steps Project
written by
Cally Jamis Vennare
Eddy Man Kim is curious about steps — particularly Pittsburgh steps.
Kim also serves as associate teaching professor and co-director of the Computational Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture. He is a practitioner, researcher, educator and technologist in architectural, web, media, brand and experience design.
"I’ve been at CMU eight years now. From Day 1, I’ve always been interested in Pittsburgh steps. Blame it on an architect’s natural curiosity," Kim explained. "When I come to a new city … I look around, I see odd things … and then I can’t stop thinking about them. One thing leads to another and before I know it, I’m doing a project about it. It’s a natural progression for me."
In this instance, Kim’s curiosity about Pittsburgh steps piqued the interest of the Garden Club of Allegheny County (GCAC), an organization committed to promoting greater knowledge of horticulture, conservation and historic preservation.
In spring 2022, Kim’s Interface Architecture: Architecture Interface (IA:AI) class partnered with GCAC and formally launched "The Pittsburgh Steps Project." The project’s objective — and the task of the undergraduate class of CMU sophomores — was to conduct speculative research on a defined network of Pittsburgh steps that “connect disconnected neighborhoods” throughout the city. Exploration of the steps spanned across a wide range of disciplines and media, ranging from broad-stroke storytelling to business-style marketing to granular geo-environmental analysis, painting a picture of the steps as a network of nodes.
"I’m motivated by CMU’s larger agenda of being more relevant to the local community. That motivation is coupled with a personal interest to ensure that what I teach my students feels and is real, not just theory on paper," said Kim. "My IA:AI Studio is about professionalism and engaging with clients, as well as understanding a problem and coming up with ideas. Students are also given the flexibility to choose their focus — whether it be the construction of one-to-one scaled steps, the user experience, strategic thinking or something else. Researching neighborhoods, understanding demographics and working with real people on real projects is hard, but we don’t do as much of it as we should."
At the end of the semester, each IA:AI team shared key learnings via an interactive exhibition at the College of Fine Arts’ Great Hall on CMU’s campus. The final exhibition featured dynamic "bouncy" steps, toy steps and even a Virtual Reality (VR) walkthrough.
As noted in the presentation by students Andrea Wan and I Lok U, "As life goes on, certain moments in history are lost to time, leaving behind monuments to narratives of past life. This interactive experience aims to bring new life to Pittsburgh steps through storytelling and advocacy. We tell the story of the steps, drawn from memories of the old and imaginations of the young, looking towards an imagined future where the steps may once again reestablish the steps as the genius loci of the community."
At the request of GCAC, The Pittsburgh Steps Project exhibition also traveled to the Frick Environmental Center for the Garden Club’s November 4, 2022, symposium. It is the IA:AI team’s hope that, with GCAC’s support, they will continue to spread awareness and support for these lost gems.
