Slow and Steady Survives the Recession

"The city's commercial real estate market is relatively healthy. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Pittsburgh earned the top ranking in Moody's Investors Service's quarterly 'Red-Yellow-Green' report on the state of commercial real estate in 60 major United States cities."

"A number of century-old landmarks have been revived as energy-efficient buildings in the last decade, and several major projects, both new and retrofits, will open this spring.

Years before national environmental building standards were set in 2000, Pittsburgh began experimenting in sustainability as local architects, engineers and academics debated how to reuse old industrial sites.

'We were working on the Model T of green building,' said the architect Bob Kobet of the discussions among early proponents of solar energy, weatherization and nontoxic design."