Cradle of the Creative Class: Reinventing the Figure of the Scientist in Cold War Pittsburgh

Abstract

Promoters and critics of the creative-cities script assume that it originated in the late 1990s. In contrast, in this article I argue that the mythology of the creative class and its positive economic and cultural influence on cities began during the early Cold War. In the 1940s and 1950s, regional alliances of business and elites reinvented scientists as powerful figures on which they anchored their efforts to remake the economies and built environments of U.S. cities. To pursue their plans, these alliances described scientists as finicky, objective, and mobile characters who, if satisfied, would contribute disproportionally as citizens of a region. They enrolled scientists as valuable allies who helped craft a narrative in which urban renewal was universally beneficial for an entire region. In this article I examine how members of Pittsburgh's celebrated regional alliance, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development (ACCD), installed scientists at the heart of their effort to transform the industrial region during the early Cold War. This longer history reveals how regional alliances invented the creative-cities script as a means to facilitate elite and business-driven urban redevelopment. From its inception, the script was designed to prioritize the interests of businesses, the wealthy, and the white middle class at the expense of the working class and people of color.