Urban Design Associates (UDA) is led by principals who design. Our teams are deeply involved in every aspect of the project and stay with our clients from beginning to end. This commitment to highly personal and dedicated service is unique to the practice. Our goal is to design places of lasting value for our clients and the people who live and work there. We believe in social equity. We work with public and private clients who share a passion to design and build the next generation of beautiful and sustainable cities, neighborhoods, and buildings.
UDA, founded in 1964, is a multi-disciplined urban design and architecture practice headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. UDA develops Master Plans, Pattern Books, and Architecture for clients in North America, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Our design process features dynamic, three-dimensional graphics that allows everyone involved to visualize the scale and character of what is being proposed. This process creates consensus among stakeholders, development teams, political leaders, and the general public.

RESPECT FOR TRADITION AND LOCAL HERITAGE

UDA establishes the character of new places through our research into patterns that have evolved in a region over time to produce remarkable and distinct cities, towns and settlements that people love and admire. These enduring qualities spring from the environment, culture, and heritage. Each place has its own DNA. By documenting these qualities and establishing design vocabularies that grow out of great places, new development can continue the sense of place into the future. This method makes it possible to design a rich and diverse environment that is sustainable and flexible for many different market sectors and uses over time.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

History provides many examples of sustainable development patterns. The best cities evolved over time as compact, mixed-use environments, designed for walking, transit, a mix of uses, a wide range of choices and prices and a supportive network of civic amenities. The rich interplay of streets, public spaces, and architecture provided beautiful settings for an entire range of daily activities. With the introduction of new building technologies, LEED® standards, new techniques for the disposal of waste, energy generation, and storm water management, the envir­onmental costs of urban development are further mitigated. UDA integrates these techniques and expertise into our multi-disciplined approach to urban design. Our teams of urban designers, ecologists, engineers, architects, and economists work collaboratively to design state-of-the-art environments in both urban and rural contexts.

CITIES, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND ARCHITECTURE

Over the past 30 years, cities are finding renewed life as both the civic and cultural core of regions and as 24-hour centers with residential, cultural, entertainment, retail, business, civic, and educational uses. UDA has been working with existing cities for over 40 years to create new investment opportunities and attractive urban infill developments to capture emerging markets. Our work designing new towns and resorts has featured successful developments aided by UDA Pattern Books®, a revolutionary implementation tool that ensures high quality standards throughout the life of the project. Our new towns and resorts also feature green infrastructure design, mixed-use centers, walkable neighborhoods, and mixed-income neighborhoods. Our architecture studio is committed to building designs that evolve from regional traditions with new technology and market requirements. UDA designs a variety of key buildings for many of our urban design and master plans to create the essential character and image. Our team includes LEED® accredited architects for each project to complete the cycle of sustainable design from the city scale to the human scale.