Pittsburgh Parks
Pittsburgh's parks have been an important part of the city’s Green Story, representing over $60 million in restoration dollars and millions in new construction. On guided tours conference participants will have a chance to discover:
- The four great and historic parks of Pittsburgh-- Frick, Schenley, Highland and Riverview. Part of the legacy of Pittsburgh’s industrial era, these historic parks comprise over 1600 acres—more than half of the city’s park acreage. A partnership between the City of Pittsburgh and the nonprofit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has helped pour over $30 million into the city’s four flagship parks. In-depth mobile workshops in the parks will allow participants to dig into the planning, restoration and maintenance of the parks.
- The Pittsburgh legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., including visits to new park sites first envisioned in Olmsted’s 1911 Pittsburgh report. To read more about the Olmsted legacy in Pittsburgh, click here.
- The newly-restored Point State Park, immediately adjacent to the conference hotel, with Marion Pressley’s renovations to the design work of Ralph Griswold.
- The Cultural District Riverfront Development, the country’s first master-planned, green, mixed-use arts/residential neighborhood, providing approximately 700 new residential units and 9,200 jobs for the region. A key component calls for LEED-certified buildings, numerous parks and green spaces both inside the buildings and in the public realm, vertical winter gardens and roof terraces.
- Mellon Square, the first modernist park above a parking garage designed by Simonds and Simonds in the 1950s.
- Michael Van Valkenburgh’s spectacular Allegheny Riverfront Park. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. first proposed the creation a narrow riverfront park in his 1911 report on Pittsburgh.
- Nine Mile Run, where a 200-million ton slag heap has been transformed into a residential and natural area, adding a 100 acre greenway to Frick Park.
