PITTSBURGH — One of Downtown Pittsburgh’s more picturesque parks will be getting a facelift over the next couple of years.
Riverlife, the organization that promotes recreation along Pittsburgh’s riverfronts, announced Thursday that the Allegheny Riverfront Park will see improvements in the coming years including replacing damaged pavement, pruning trees, fresh benches and new lighting. The project is expected to wrap up by the end of 2023.
“We’re going to provide a welcoming and accessible experience for all, enhancing that Downtown neighborhood, enhancing visitor experience and connectivity between signature spaces like Point State Park and the [David L. Lawrence] Convention Center,” said Riverlife president Matthew Galluzzo in a virtual presentation.
Working with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the restoration of the park — located along Fort Duquesne Boulevard in the city’s Cultural District — will also be a “key” part of Riverlife’s “Completing the Loop” project connecting Pittsburgh’s 15 miles of Downtown riverfront between the West End, 31st Street and Hot Metal bridges.
“Allegheny Riverfront Park, like many well-designed and well-loved parks, nestles into its surrounding environment in a way that makes it feel like it’s been there forever,” Mr. Galluzzo said. “There’s a downside to that familiarity. It can lead to us taking for granted the care and restoration that’s necessary to sustain the park for future generation.”
Included in the park’s current aesthetic and safety challenges are bluestone walkways damaged, deteriorated and, in some places, unpassable due to decades of use and misuse. The park also is missing out on its potential as a gathering place, Mr. Galluzzo said.
“Maintaining a park is far most expensive than building it,” said Michael Van Valkenburgh, the landscape architect whose eponymous company designed the park in the 1990s.
He compared park maintenance to the cost of buying a dog versus taking care of the pet.
“It’s real easy to buy a dog,” he said. “What are they going to charge you, 50 bucks? Or pay you to take it? Two years later— whoa, you spent a lot of money on that dog. And I choose an analogy that’s playful, but that dog depends on you.”
Built upon a former parking lot, the park was an important component in developing the Cultural District in the late 20th century, which also included bringing together venues like the Harris and Byham theaters under one umbrella.
The organization also emphasized the desire for more outdoor public areas amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to Americans flocking to green spaces and recreation in huge numbers.
Among the responses to that increased demand was the Allegheny Overlook pop-up park that appeared along the river last summer, providing a performance venue, food trucks and free outdoor games right on Fort Duquesne Boulevard between 7th and Stanwix streets.
Carol Brown, former president and CEO of the Cultural Trust, said the completion of the park’s redevelopment in 2001 had an “enormous” impact on bringing the community’s attention to the beauty of Pittsburgh’s riverfronts.
An increasing residential population in Downtown, which was once considered “unsafe” due to its reputation as a “red-light district,” means amenities such as Allegheny Riverfront Park are in higher demand.
“One of the rationales for developing the park was that, when people came to live there, they’d then have access to the rivers,” she said. But Ms. Brown added that a well-funded maintenance plan was overlooked during the park’s initial development.
Ms. Brown, who said the park was both a gift of the river to the people of Pittsburgh and “a handsome example for all cities in the challenge of reclaiming more riverbanks in the urban core,” said she believed restoration of the park was moving in the right direction.
