Chatham Village

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Buhl Foundation, developers. Stein and Wright, planners. Ingham and Boyd, architects. 1931

Chatham Village was conceived by its sponsor, the Buhl Foundation, as 'a "city village" of 97 units, fashioned in modern mode.'¹ Located on the heights of Mt Washington, across the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle, it occupies a difficult, lushly planted 86-acre site adjoining a public park. The overall plan is by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, who also served as consulting architects. The buildings, designed in a Neo-Georgian style, are by Ingham and Boyd.

In light of their work at Radburn, Stein and Wright sought to provide Chatham Village with the density of an urban village while accommodating the project – intended for modest income families – to the requirements of the motor car. Some off-street parking is in open lots, but many cars are stored in closed garages either grouped in isolated compounds or tucked in below the houses and entered directly from the street. Despite the presence of the car, the plan skilfully integrates the houses with nature to produce a truly bucolic grouping. As at Radburn the houses turn their backs on the vehicular streets, but the internal walkways and greenswards are more intimately scaled, and the project as a whole benefits from the greater density of buildings to landscape. The principal developmental unit is the group house of either eight or ten units, though there are also smaller buildings, including some semi-detached two-unit houses. The original 'manor' house on the property is used as a clubhouse.

Note

1 Chatham Village: A Modern Community of Garden Homes
Combining Architectural Charm with Security and Cultural
Living, rental brochure, Buhl Foundation 1932; Avery
Library, Columbia University, New York.

1 Stein and Wright, 1931 plot plan

2 Stein and Wright with Ingham and Boyd, prospectus drawing, 1931

3 Ingham and Boyd, prospectus drawing of semi-detached houses with garages, 1931

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