Robots may roam the proposed Hazelwood Green development

Carnegie Mellon University wants to build a robotics playground on a brownfield site in Hazelwood.

Plans for a space where students can more freely experiment with robots were unveiled during the briefing section of a City Planning Commission meeting. In two weeks, the commissioners will hear any public testimony and decide if the project can proceed.

CMU’s latest plan for the giant Hazelwood Green site calls for the creation of a 150,000-square-foot, three-story metal building with one and a half acres of enclosed “outdoor laboratory.”

The building is as much a public attraction — with plans to feature art along the enclosure — as a site for robotics experimentation.

Bob Reppe, the assistant vice president and university architect for CMU’s campus development office, said that it will be “a space where robotics research is done that can’t be done on campus. Focused on ideas that can be developed and taken to market.”

Reppe said the development will include a drone cage and space for robotics testing for agriculture and other marketable fields. If the plans are approved, the project is expected to be substantially completed by May 2025.

“The research that takes place in here is really scrappy and requires a generous amount of space,” said Jennifer Askey, an associate principal at design firm Perkins Eastman. “It’s designed to continue Pittsburgh’s tradition of making things.”

Here’s more on the tech development plans for Hazelwood Green.

This story by Eric Jankiewicz was originally published by PublicSource, a news partner of Technical.ly. PublicSource is a nonprofit media organization delivering local journalism for the Pittsburgh region at publicsource.org. You can sign up for its newsletters at publicsource.org/newsletters.