city steps

Pattern Scale: Neighborhood to City

Description of the Pattern:

In many cities with hilly topography there are networks of community stairs or steps that provide essential pedestrian connections. These steps or stairs often provide access to natural spaces within cities but are frequently themselves natureful and biophilic, providing vertical pathways through gardens and forests and panoramic views of the city. Two cities with extensive networks of green steps are Pittsburgh, PA, and San Francisco, CA. Pittsburgh’s more than 800 sets of steps date to the early 1900s and were constructed to provide a way for workers to walk to the steel mills from their hillside homes. The city has recently completed a comprehensive assessment of the steps and started to prioritize repair and renovation. Many of the steps are in disrepair and their relative inaccessibility make work on them more difficult and costly. There are several yearly public events organized around the steps, for instance the Step-a-Thon in the Fineview neighborhood (a 5k race), and the Step Trek in the South Side Slopes neighborhood (the Pittsburgh neighborhood with the most steps). San Francisco has a similar history of public stairways, including close to 700 sets within the city. Spread throughout the city they provide connections to nature and serve as sites of extensive public art, with both painted and mosaic art featured on the steps.

More Reading:

Pittsburgh Citywide Steps Assessment
Bob Regan (2015). Pittsburgh Steps: The Story of the City’s Public Stairways. Globe Pequot.
Mary Burk and Adah Bakalinsky (2018). Stairway Walks in San Francisco: The Joy of Urban Exploring. Wilderness Press.

Who Submitted this Pattern:  Tim Beatley, Biophilic Cities