On Friday I was lucky enough to take some photos of the WYEP Summer Music Festival from the Cathedral of Learning with an open window, thanks to a very nice WYEP volunteer. When I got back to the office this week, I thought it’d be fun to compare Friday’s photo with one taken at the Plaza’s grand opening in June 2006. And now I just have to share.
June 2006:
June 2009:
So many things have changed! The one that really makes me smile is how big the London plane trees have gotten. In the original photo, you can barely tell they’re trees, and now they’re so tall and beautiful. The heuchera (the dark red plants we used as groundcover) has really filled in. You can also see that in 2006, the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain was dry, and now it’s flowing and surrounded by even more green space than before.
But the biggest difference is the people. This May, for the first time, Schenley Plaza welcomed more than 1,000 visitors a day on average. People are continuing to discover this space, which gets lovelier every year and hosts even more diverse and exciting programs. Thanks to our friends at WYEP for bringing local and national talent to the Plaza and drawing even more people to experience the park.
It really has been a fun three years watching the Plaza grow.
And just for fun, here’s how it looked SIX years ago, before it was transformed from a parking lot into a park.
Pretty awesome to see the difference.
* Thanks to Joshua Franzos for the 2006 aerial and to LaQuatra Bonci for the 2003 shot!
Congrats to the Parks Conservancy for making the Plaza possible. While several folks lamented the loss of the parking spots when this space was first being developed a few years ago, it’s clear that the Plaza is serving far more people now as a green space (1,000 visitors a day!).
Do you have any aerial photos of how things used to look back in the parking lot days? That might be fun to see…I can’t even remember how it looked!
Thanks for the comment! And the suggestion–I added a real blast from the past to the end of the post. I remember driving around that lot frustratedly looking for a parking space back when I first moved to Pittsburgh. My experiences there are far more positive these days!