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Pittsburgh has become an international model for how a city remade itself. How did that revitalization happen? What were the ingredients and decisions that drove success? What lessons can other cities learn?

Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy will address those and other questions during a talk on Friday, Sept. 22 at noon in Allegheny College’s Quigley Hall auditorium. The event, “Reaching for the Future: Competing in the 21^st Century,” is free and open to the public.

Murphy is an Urban Land Institute senior resident fellow and the ULI/Kingbell Family Chair for Urban Development. As a three-term mayor of Pittsburgh between 1994 and 2006, he initiated a public/private partnership strategy that leveraged Carnegie Mellon University’s academic presence to create regional economic development in technology fields and more than $4.5 billion in economic development in the city. Murphy led efforts to secure and oversee $1 billion in funding for the development of two professional sports facilities, and a new convention center that is the largest certified green building in the United States. He also developed strategic partnerships to transform more than 1,000 acres of blighted, abandoned industrial properties into new commercial, residential, retail, and public uses, and oversaw the development of more than 25 miles of new riverfront trails and parks.

Murphy’s extensive experience in urban revitalization—what drives investment, what ensures long-lasting commitment—has been a key addition to the senior resident fellows’ areas of expertise. His talk is sponsored by the Center for Business & Economics and the Law and Policy program.