2023 Veteran design team at work: Forest Hills veteran housing

In late 2023, In the Shade of Silence, an 18ft high Corten and steel Veteran designed sculpture will be installed at 1844 Ardmore Boulevard in Forest Hills, an eastern suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The sculpture will represent Forest Hills’s first piece of public art.

1844 Ardmore Boulevard is the home of Forest Hills Veteran Housing facility. This award winning redevelopment project was completed in 2018 by ACTION-Housing, a Pittsburgh affordable housing developer.

The origins of the sculpture initiative lay with a Veteran cohort from Leadership Pittsburgh’s Community Leadership Course for Veterans™ (CLCV™), a program which aims to leverage the skills and experiences of post-9/11 veterans for the betterment of the broader Pittsburgh region. The CLCV cohort was assigned to assist ACTION-Housing’s effort with the Veteran community impact. Operation Valor Arts was contracted to assemble a Veteran Design Team to create an interpretive piece of public art for a highly visible corner location.