2008 International Urban Parks Conference Mobile Workshops

Take a Parking Lot and Turn It into Paradise – The Challenge of a Sustainable Schenley Plaza
It has taken more than 100 years to fulfill Edward Bigelow’s grand vision for a splendid entry to Schenley Park. For decades a parking lot blighted the park’s gateway, a site intended to be the green heart of Oakland. Today it has been transformed into a vibrant, public green space enjoyed by a quarter of a million people annually.
     - Meg Cheever, President, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
     - Cynthia Morton, Ph.D., Associate Curator and Head of Botany, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
     - Kirk Savage, Associate Professor of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh
     - Debbie Beck, Chief Financial Officer, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

David and Goliath’s Happy Ending – Achieving Win-Win Solutions with Powerful Public Agencies (Highland Park)
The open water reservoir in historic Highland Park is a favorite destination of young and old alike. When state environmental regulations threatened to cover the reservoir, community activists fought back. By working with elected officials and others, they instigated the development of creative plans for a state-of- the-art micro-filtration system that allowed the reservoir to remain open. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy then partnered with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority to naturally de-chlorinate the water by constructing a "Babbling Brook," a terraced trailside streambed of rocks and boulders. Nearby, the Conservancy and City partnered on a $1.2 million historic restoration of the park’s signature fountain, reflecting pool, and lush entry gardens.
     - David Hance, registered architect and President, Highland Park Community Development Association
     - Dianne Swan,  Executive Director, Rosedale Block Cluster, a nonprofit community organization based in one of the city’s economically challenged neighborhoods, which planted more than 40,000 bulbs in the entry garden with community youth
     - Michael Eversmeyer, Highland Park resident and principal architect whose firm specializes in historic preservation, renovation, and adaptive reuse
     - James Ferlo, Pennsylvania State Senator, 38th Senatorial District since 2003
     - Erin Copeland, Restoration Ecologist, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Natural Partners – Restoring Urban Trails and Woodlands with Community Teamwork (Schenley Park)
Steep topography and years of deferred maintenance caused a widespread breakdown in Schenley Park’s drainage system. The hillsides and trail system were severely eroded, and the unique WPA-era tufa bridges had deteriorated. Multiple invasive species also threatened the park’s woodland habitat. Today, the park is undergoing a multi-million dollar ecological restoration effort in the 80-acre Panther Hollow to remove invasive trees and vines, replant native species, restore drainage systems, stabilize hillsides, and reconstruct trails and streambeds. This major project would not be possible without the time and energy of many volunteer groups.
     - Mike Gable, Deputy Director, City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works (DPW)
     - Phil Gruszka, Director of Park Management and Maintenance Policies, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Preserving Park History on Pittsburgh’s North Side – Allegheny Commons, Riverview Park Chapel Shelter, and the Allegheny Observatory
     - Christina Schmidlapp, former project director, Allegheny Commons Initiative, which is implementing a comprehensive park master plan for Pittsburgh’s oldest park
     - Susan Rademacher, Parks Curator, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
     - Laura Fulmer, Marketing Communications Coordinator, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

From Slag Heap to Valued Landscape – Reclaiming an Urban Watershed in Frick Park
As early as 1911, Frederick Law Olmsted had identified the parkland potential in the Nine Mile Run Watershed, writing, "perhaps the most striking opportunity noted for a large park is the valley of Nine Mile Run ... it is so excluded by its high wooded banks that the close proximity of urban development can hardly be imagined ...." Sadly, the land was not turned into a park, but sold to a steel company that used it as a slag dump. Almost a hundred years later, the City of Pittsburgh, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, developers, and others partnered to transform the mountain of slag into a new residential neighborhood called "Summerset." This past year, Nine Mile Run’s 100 acres, with its restored stream corridor, were officially annexed to Frick Park.
     - Brenda Smith, Executive Director, Nine Mile Run Watershed Association
     - Tom Murphy, Mayor of Pittsburgh, 1994-2006
     - Edward (Ted) Muller, Professor of History and Director of the Urban Studies program, University of Pittsburgh
     - Jake Milofsky, Field Ecologist, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy    

 Compare and Contrast – An Olmstedian Campus Arboretum and the Uber-Green Phipps Conservatory
     - Richard Piacentini, Executive Director, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
     - Lisa Kunst Vavro, Assistant Professor and Director, Landscape Architecture/Landscape Studies and Director, Chatham University Arboretum
     - Arleyn Levee, Landscape Historian and Olmsted Scholar
     - Melissa McMasters, Online and Community Advocacy Manager, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy