Friendship Development Associates

In our 15 years of operating, FDA has leveraged more than $15 million in private homeowner investment and been instrumental in the success of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh's Housing Recovery Program (HRP). We have constructed 78 units of housing and 29,135 square feet of commercial space. We have received both national and local recognition for our successes, including the receipt of a Fannie Mae Foundation Maxwell Award for Excellence in the category for homeownership for our Clarendon Place development in 2003 and in 2006 we received two AIA awards for the Penn Faimount Apartments including an Urban Design Award for the Penn/Fairmount Master Plan as well as an Architecture Award.

In 1998, FDA and Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC) came together to create the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative (PAAI.) Beginning with a handful of pioneering artists who were looking for raw space to renovate and make their own, PAAI has attracted a number of arts organizations, restaurants, galleries, studios and artists residences to the avenue. Since 1998, over $6.4 million has been invested in the Penn Avenue Corridor to develop space for artists. In the period between 1998 and 2005, 69 arts spaces have been created along Penn Avenue with 6 arts organizations creating over 70 arts-related jobs in the Penn Avenue Corridor. There are over 300 artists who are active in the Penn Avenue Arts District. In addition to the artists that live and work along Penn Avenue , PAAI brings people from throughout the region to Penn Avenue with 10 "Unblurred" events each year. The hundreds of people who bustle from one building to another as they participate in the variety of arts-related events that occur during an "Unblurred: First Friday on Penn" are testament to the re-emerging vitality of this once abandoned corridor.

In 2005, FDA and Friendship Preservation Group (FPG) engaged the neighborhood in a planning process and wrote the Friendship Community Plan. The 2005 Community Plan was based on the 1999 plan and 1995 plan. The plan involved many residents and committees in the process of outlining the neighborhood's long-term goals and short agenda items. The plan also includes indicators that measure progress against 1999 and can be used to assess progress in the future 2010 plan. The year 2005 and 1999 resident surveys provided an additional measure of community sentiment and a set of indicators.

In 1989, a local car dealership on Baum Boulevard purchased a beautiful neighboring Victorian house and wood-framed 1800's structure within Friendship. The car dealership planned to demolish the structures on 400 Roup Avenue and create a car lot. Angry Friendship neighbors organized to stop the demolition. Unfortunately, neighborhood action came too late and the homes were demolished. Friendship neighbors realized that they lost because they were not organized. As a result, two organizations were created, Friendship Preservation Group (FPG) and Friendship Development Associates, Inc. (FDA.) FPG became the neighborhood membership organization and advocacy group working on zoning, beautification, public safety, and youth, families and education. FDA became the 501(c)3 community development corporation. FPG elects the FDA Board Members.