Park Appreciation: Seattle Edition

(To combat the winter doldrums, we’ll take you on the occasional visit to urban parks in other cities.)

Over the last several years I’ve been really trying to up my cities-visited count whenever possible.  And on all my travels, I always make it a point to spend some time in an urban park (see: A Day in the Life: Centennial Olympic Park from my trip to Atlanta this spring).  This October, my friend Becky and I visited Seattle for the first time and saw everything from massive old-growth trees to a tiny, tucked-away park with a waterfall in the middle of a shopping district.  Here’s a little photo tour of some of Seattle’s parks.

Our first stop was Seward Park, on Bailey Peninsula along Lake Washington.  About 120 of the park’s 300 acres consist of old-growth forest, made up largely of Douglas fir, western red cedar, and bigleaf maple.  It’s a very different experience from walking in a Pittsburgh park.

In 1903, the City of Seattle hired the Olmsted Brothers’ landscape architecture firm to develop a plan for the city’s parks.  They strongly advocated for the city acquiring Bailey Peninsula from its owners and making it a key part of the park system despite the fact that it was outside the city limits at the time.  Ultimately, the city purchased the peninsula and Seward Park became one of 37 that the Olmsteds designed in Seattle. 

I liked the contrast of this park–a dense canopy of huge, 200-year-old trees followed by the wide-open shoreline with a view across the lake. 

Lots of interesting plants at the park’s perimeter–not sure what this is, but it was unusual to me!

Next, we headed back to the Belltown neighborhood to check out Olympic Sculpture Park.  Water views are a common theme, and this one had a gorgeous vista across Elliott Bay to the Olympic Mountains.  The park, which opened in 2007, is operated by the Seattle Art Museum and contains visiting sculptures, as well as a permanent collection with pieces like Alexander Calder’s “Eagle” (below). 

Pittsburgh folks may recognize these Louise Bourgeois eye benches, which also appear in our own Katz Plaza.

The park is a brownfield reclamation project, sitting on a former Unocal industrial site.  Here you can see the Bill and Melinda Gates Amphitheater (with some of the many red moveable chairs that sit around the park) and a pocket beach on the street level of the park. 

The beach was created in this shallow section of water with the goal of benefiting fish and other invertebrates, but it’s also a nice place to sit and watch boats pass.

Speaking of boats…our next stop was the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union, where we took a rowboat out for an hour to appreciate the city views from the water instead of the other way around.  The CWB sits in Lake Union Park, which officially opened as a park the week before we got to Seattle.  The park fully embraces the value of the lake to the city’s history, with signage, photo exhibits, displays, and docents sharing stories of the area’s past life as a naval reserve.

Our last stop of the day was Kerry Park, which is comparable to Pittsburgh’s West End Overlook in that this park is All About the View.  It’s the best spot in the city to see both downtown and the Space Needle from the same vantage.  If you’re lucky, Mount Rainier also pops up in the background (we weren’t–it didn’t show itself all weekend despite the occasionally sunny weather).  They’ve even put a frame up there for your photos–the “Changing Form” sculpture by Doris Chase.

The next day was a walk-a-thon; we headed from the city center into Pioneer Square, where we stumbled upon a small but soothing space called Waterfall Garden Park.  This easy-to-overlook spot (from the street, you basically just see the wall that fronts the park) is filled with lush plantings, cafe tables, and a 22-foot waterfall.  What could be more random (and delightful) than a waterfall tucked away in the middle of a city?

Our last park stop came a few hours later, after we’d made the somewhat-harebrained decision to go in search of the Jimi Hendrix statue along Broadway.  We had nebulous directions (it wasn’t in our guidebook, but Becky had an address that we looked up on our map), so after walking for about an hour we still weren’t entirely sure we were in the right vicinity.  We eventually made it to Cal Anderson Park, which matched the address.  This park was originally the open-air Lincoln reservoir, another Olmsted-designed space.  Water-quality issues led to the creation of an underground, lidded reservoir and a new plan for the park that adapted the Olmsteds’ design and added several acres.  This four-part water feature was designed by artist Douglas Hollis, and it leads to a historic gatehouse.  Which, incidentally, seems to be what Jimi is hiding behind, but we were unable to locate him anywhere other than later…on Google.

However, the park was lovely and also contained some really awesome public art courtesy of the Sound Transit Art Program (STart).  As a light rail station is constructed in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, local artists are creating temporary art installations on the construction wall.  Several of these projects are visible from the park, including this one that I just loved, Tim Marsden’s “Is That All There Is?”

So that was our whirlwind tour of Seattle!  Have you been to any of these parks?  What’s your favorite city to explore parks?

(Check out the Seattle Parks Foundation’s website for more on these and other parks in the area.)

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2010 Year in Review: A Dozen Things You Did for the Parks

Whether it’s in the six miles of restored trails or the shining solitude of the Mellon Park Walled Garden at dusk, you’ve probably noticed some of the impact the Parks Conservancy has made in the parks this year.  Through your support, we’ve been able to complete two capital projects and a host of other work, including laying a lot of foundations for the coming years.  Before we enter our 15th anniversary year in 2011, here’s a look back at some of the notable accomplishments of 2010.

The Mellon Park Walled Garden Opens
This June, hundreds of people blanketed the lawn at Mellon Park to honor the memory of Ann Katharine Seamans at the garden’s rededication ceremony.  Since then, the garden has been filled with couples getting married, friends having picnics, families enjoying Bach Beethoven & Brunch, and more photo shoots than we can count.  The community has embraced this space anew and we couldn’t be happier with how everyone is taking care of it.  And now that winter is approaching, it should be fun to watch the stars shine through a thin blanket of snow. 

Image courtesy of Alexander Denmarsh

$3.8 Million in Trail Improvements
There’s a spot in Highland Park that overlooks the Allegheny River and the Highland Park Bridge, and legend has it that this spot was used as a lookout during the French and Indian War (well before there was such a bridge, of course!).  For the past few years, if you wanted to get to this area you had to sneak through a fence and wade through a construction storage area.  Now, thanks to the trail and signage project that’s just been completed, you can access this spot from a new trail that goes all the way to the seasonal pools that were installed in 2006.  This new connection in Highland Park is just one of the benefits of a project that has made an impact in all four regional parks, including Schenley Park’s Panther Hollow (below).

Schenley Plaza Welcomes Its Millionth Visitor
It’s hard to believe that Schenley Plaza has been around long enough to host a million people, but that’s the mark we celebrated this July when Carol Ambrosia became the park’s millionth visitor.  We’ve got some big events scheduled for 2011 that we’ll tell you more about in the spring, but here’s hoping we get to two million even faster than we got to one!

Carol Ambrosia with Jim Griffin, Schenley Plaza Manager

Panther Hollow Gets a Million Bucks…and a Plan
Since 2003, the Parks Conservancy has been working to remove invasive plants and replace them with natives in the Panther Hollow Valley of Schenley Park.  This ongoing project, which has also included the restoration of the Phipps Run Stream and the installation of a rain garden at the Schenley Park Cafe, is all part of a larger initiative to clean up the Panther Hollow Watershed and restore Panther Hollow Lake.  That project gained a lot of momentum this summer when the Richard King Mellon Foundation gave the Parks Conservancy $1 million, in part to develop a watershed management plan.  We’re in the process of choosing a firm to work with, with a goal of developing healthier stream flows and recapturing and infiltrating some of the water that’s currently going into the sewer system.  You can follow the project on this page.

As part of the planning process, this year we began holding public programs to educate watershed residents on how their actions at home contribute to the health of the park and the watershed as a whole.  From Michele Adams’ presentation on stormwater management to our workshop on building rain gardens, we’re forging connections between the park and its neighbors.  Look for more programs like this in 2011.

Volunteers Create an Extravaganza
This past spring we teamed up with several other local organizations to host what was possibly the biggest volunteer event in our history, the Panther Hollow Extravaganza.  Nearly 200 people braved the rain to do everything from planting trees to removing discarded parking meters!  We’re planning to have a similar event to celebrate Earth Day in 2011, so keep an eye out here for a date announcement.

Image courtesy of John Altdorfer

We Tip Our Caps to Maz and Our Hats to Highland Park
Our two big special events this year covered the gamut from one-time-only to a beloved tradition.  In October, we co-hosted with the Pittsburgh Pirates a celebration of the Pirates’ 1960 World Series win, starting with an unveiling of a sidewalk plaque at Schenley Plaza dedicated to Bill Mazeroski.  Following the radio broadcast of the game, the 1960 team alumni headed over to PNC Park, where an evening gala was held in their honor.  We were thrilled to be part of the sharing of such sweet memories, and we’re happy to be neighbors with that famous Forbes Field wall.

Image courtesy of Mary Jane Bent

This year’s Spring Hat Luncheon was our twelfth annual opportunity to mingle high fashion with the great outdoors, but it’s the first one in recent memory to feature a very special guest: sunshine!  Not only was our visit to Highland Park bright and full of flowers (on hats and in the garden), it also attracted a huge crowd, with the tents practically bursting at the seams to hold almost 700 guests.  We’ll be back in Riverview Park for 2011, and tickets will be available online soon!

Image courtesy of Mary Jane Bent

Hill District Completes Greenprint Plan
The plan to reframe the vision of Pittsburgh’s Hill District as “A Village in the Woods” is in place.  The Hill District Greenprint was developed by Hood Design, the Find the Rivers! consortium (including the Parks Conservancy), and the community to address land use in a way that promotes economic and health benefits for the neighborhood.  The plan’s unveiling this June has left teasers throughout the neighborhood of what’s to come, including sidewalk stencils signaling local businesses, ribbons indicating future trails, and cleanup projects that improve connections and access.  Bringing the Greenprint’s vision to life will be a multi-year process, which you can follow on this page.

Image courtesy of Hood Design

Cliffside and McKinley Parks Receive State Funding
Part of the Greenprint’s agenda includes the renovation of Cliffside Park, a playground on Cliff Street with potentially spectacular views of the Pittsburgh skyline and the Allegheny River.  The park is in a great location and could be developed into a community gathering space as well as a place for children to develop a connection to nature.  Along with this project, an effort to restore one of the entrances to Beltzhoover’s McKinley Park received $500,000 in state funding this year, which the Parks Conservancy will match.  We’re holding meetings with McKinley Park’s supporters now to determine the best project for that park, and we’ve been working with Cliffside Park’s neighbors this year too.  These community parks will receive some well-deserved attention in the year to come.

Gardens Get a New Focus
If you’ve walked by any of our garden projects this year, you might have noticed they’re all looking especially well-cared-for.  That’s because we now have a full-time gardener, Angela Masters, attending to the flowerbeds.  From the mums that brightened Schenley Plaza this fall to the daisies in the Mellon Park Walled Garden, Angela has been keeping everything blooming beautifully.  She’s also become a great ambassador for the Parks Conservancy, because she has a chance to speak to so many people passing by every day.  Next time you see her with her gloves and pruners, make sure you stop and say hello!

High School Urban EcoStewards Plant Seeds for the Future
The first semester of our High School Urban EcoStewards program, with students from City High School, was a huge success, with students contributing to the Panther Hollow project as they learned about ecological restoration.  And thanks to a grant from the Grable Foundation, the program is continuing this season with students from The Ellis School and the Science and Technology Academy.  We’ll return to City High this spring to continue developing the next generation of park stewards.

Image courtesy of John Altdorfer

Park Lovers Help Plan for the Future
None of the things we do at the Parks Conservancy happen without a plan, and no document is more important to us than the Regional Parks Master Plan, which we published jointly with the City of Pittsburgh in 2000.  Ten years into our blueprint for parks restoration, it’s time for a refresher, to cross completed projects off the list, add new ones like the Frick Environmental Center, and refocus on what’s still left to accomplish.  This fall we held four community meetings that addressed the big issues in each park, and we’re incorporating public input into our plan update.  In the meantime, you can offer us your comments and suggestions about the parks on our feedback forum.

Image courtesy of John Altdorfer

The Focus Turns to Trees
The last several years have brought increasingly bad news for the trees in our parks: an increasing deer population, the arrival of the invasive emerald ash borer beetle, and now an outbreak of oak wilt disease.  Is any tree safe?  And is there something we can do to improve their chances of survival?  We believe that there is, and we want to learn from the best, so we’ve been consulting tree experts from around the country to develop a tree action plan.  We’ll be hosting a public symposium in February to share what we’ve learned with you.  For now, read up on the threats to our urban forest and how you can help prevent the spread of pests and diseases in your own back yard.

Thanks to all our supporters for another unbelievable year of progress in the parks.  We hope you’ll all join us in celebrating our 15th anniversary in 2011, when we’ll look back at all that’s been accomplished since 1996 and announce exciting plans for the future.  If you’d like to make a year-end gift to the Parks Conservancy, please click here.

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Threats to the Urban Forest

Emerald ash borer emergence holes on a tree in Schenley Park.

Pittsburgh’s four regional parks have 372,873 trees, according to the City of Pittsburgh’s recently completed Natural Areas Study. These trees represent 53 different species and collectively represent hundreds of millions of dollars in economic value, not to mention their aesthetic and environmental benefits.

But lately we’ve been hearing a lot about threats to those trees–pests like emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle, and diseases like Dutch elm and oak wilt.  The emerald ash borer is in our parks–though we haven’t seen the beetle itself, the D-shaped emergence holes are becoming more and more obvious.  And oak wilt has forced the clearing of several acres of trees in Frick, Highland, and Riverview Parks to prevent further spread of the disease.

Before and after photos show the area of Frick Park where trees were removed due to oak wilt.

To add to the problem, many of the park trees are environmentally invasive, making them threats in and of themselves to the biodiversity of our forests–trees like Norway maple, tree of heaven, Siberian elm, and princess tree. It’s almost shocking how many of our park trees are invasive. In Schenley Park, it’s 32%; in Frick, it’s 35%; in Riverview, it’s 46%; and in Highland Park, a whopping 70% of the trees are invasive. Highland Park is basically a Norway maple forest, which is why it was so heartbreaking to see the stand of oaks removed recently due to oak wilt.  In other parks, we’ve been working to slowly phase out Norway maple and replant other natives, but in Highland Park many of the hillsides are entirely composed of these invasive trees.  Removing them all at once could cause serious erosion problems, so we have to wait until some of the smaller native trees grow large enough to keep the hillsides stable.

These are some of the many reasons that the Parks Conservancy is taking an active role in developing a tree action plan for our parks.  We’ve been talking to experts in government and academia to enlist their aid, as well as local groups like the Pittsburgh Shade Tree Commission and Tree Pittsburgh.  Our discussions have ranged from big dreams to practical solutions.  One idea being considered is to identify specimen trees–those that are particularly strong, beautiful, characteristic of their species, or definitive to an area–and develop a plan to save them (treating them for diseases if necessary). We can’t remove or treat every tree in the parks, because the process would disrupt the surrounding ecosystem. But we could make a dent. The City of Pittsburgh’s work to treat oak trees in areas where oak wilt is nearby is a great example of interventions that are being made to save trees.

A great specimen tree: white oak on the edge of the Westinghouse Woods by the Bob O'Connor Golf Course.

Funding is, of course, always a concern.  Remember that any contribution you make to our Emergency Maintenance Fund helps us preserve trees and respond to threats like these.

You can help out at your home, too. Keep a watchful eye on your own trees, especially ashes and oaks. If you have a particularly magnificent specimen tree and suspect something might be wrong, consult a certified arborist to see whether it can be treated. Research about emerald ash borer is ongoing; in some areas of the country where the infestation was at its peak several years ago, ash trees are beginning to regenerate. We won’t know for another 8-10 years whether the bugs will return and eradicate all the new growth, but some scientists say there is hope. So if you have trees you can protect, it’s worth a try.

On the other hand, if an infection in one of your trees is obvious, don’t wait to remove that tree. The emerald ash borer, for example, will kill a tree within three years, but the pests will remain in the tree until it is completely dead. If you remove the tree while part of it is still alive, you won’t be harboring the pests and you’ll reduce the population. When you do remove diseased trees from your yard, make sure the brush is chipped or burned and the logs are debarked before being used for firewood. The bugs and the fungus will remain below the bark and can continue to spread.

For more information on these threats, check out this great resource from the University of Maryland Extension. You’ll find more information about everything from managing gypsy moth to diagnosing what’s wrong with your trees.

Stay tuned for a lot more information–trees will be a primary focus of ours in 2011, with a public symposium planned for February where you can learn more about how to help.

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Wrapping Up the Trail and Signage Project

The group approaches the WPA footbridges on the restored Hollow Run Trail.

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, the team involved in the trail and signage improvement project in the parks–the engineers, construction crew, park foremen, and Parks Conservancy folks–had a wrap-up walk-through in Schenley Park to take in the trails’ transformation. 

While the other three parks have seen noticeable changes (Riverview has some more walkable trails, Frick has a new footbridge, and Highland has a new trail altogether), the changes are probably most dramatic in Schenley Park.  Walking on the refurbished Upper Panther Hollow Trail, we were able to look down and see the changes on the Lower Panther Hollow Trail as well as the Hollow Run Trail, which is walkable again for the first time in recent memory.

This trail will be a fun new option for hikers–it’s more of a woodland trail than the Upper and Lower Panther Hollow Trails it parallels.  It’s narrower, it’s unpaved, and it meanders alongside the path and topography of the stream.  After walking along the other trails for so long, it’s a neat experience to take a different path and get a more “on-the-ground” look at this part of the park.

Installing signs outside the Schenley Park Café

We also passed by several of the new interpretive signs, which tell the story of the park’s trees, its cultural amenities, and the hard work of the Works Progress Administration employees who shaped the look of the park back in the 1930s.  We hope these signs will be a resource to those who are more curious about the places where they take their daily walks or runs.

And now a digression…

The signage project has been a huge opportunity for me personally, starting back in 2007 when I first sat in on a meeting with Phil and Susan from our office and Mike Gable from the City of Pittsburgh to decide where to locate these 100+ new signs.  I’m a sucker for tasks with a high level of detail, so I spent a good deal of time making a color-coded overlay and accompanying numeric key on maps of each of the four parks.  I assumed I’d be done for a while, since construction was still a few years away, but Phil took my penchant for detail to an entirely new level by asking me to actually map each of those signs in the parks themselves.  As in, GPS coordinates of the exact spot where the foundation would be laid as opposed to “near the Highland Park Entry Garden.”

Did I mention that Phil also had Jake holding a 10-foot pole so that I could Photoshop in fake signs at an accurate height to illustrate what the final product would look like?

Since I possess zero knowledge of GPS mapping, my compadre in all of this was my co-worker Jake.  When we visited these 100 or so sites, Jake would make a GPS entry according to my handy (and ultimately not at all useful) numeric codes and I would snap a picture of him doing this so that we could also have a visual representation of what we’d chosen.  Phil dubbed these “Jake-PEGs,” and they are a hilarious (to me) record of a sometimes challenging task.  I should mention here that this was all occurring in February 2008, a time when if it wasn’t actively snowing, it was nonetheless hovering around 2 degrees on the mercury.  There were a few times when the only thing standing between me and a full day of not being able to feel my face was the hot chocolate at the Schenley Park Café.  (All hail Bartho!)

But we persevered, and passed on the GPS coordinates and an enormous file of the Jake-PEGs to the City traffic engineers.  The City folks made some edits (which we expected because Jake and I knew next to nothing about the safe distances poles should be located from the road!), we re-mapped, and sent an enormous stack of documentation to the firms bidding on the project with PennDOT. 

A finished sign in the Highland Park Entry Garden.

The next part of the task, which I started in the winter of 2009, was much better suited to a frigid time of year.  Kolano Design, who had created the original concept for the signs, put together the interpretive signs for Riverview Park and sent us all the art files.  I spent the next few months using those templates to create the Frick, Highland, and Schenley signs.  This was where the many hours I’ve logged in the parks (along with our other ace photographers) really paid off–it was much less difficult than I expected to find appropriate photos for every panel.  My favorite ones are the Trees and Plants signs, because each one features specimen trees photographed in that park, so you really get a feel for the different makeup of the canopies.  Highland is a showplace for sweetgums, for example, and you probably won’t find a katsura tree anywhere but Schenley.

It’s been a long road from siting the signs (which of course often had to be relocated when it came time to dig the actual holes–there are pipes EVERYWHERE!) to actually seeing them installed, but just like the restored trails I think they add a lot to the parks.  I hope the project has enhanced your experience in the parks as much as it has enhanced mine.

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Zazzle’s Blitzen Deals are on…

A holiday card featuring a sepia scene of the Frick Park gatehouse.

Our online store partner, Zazzle, will be offering deep discounts on many of its products, two hours at a time, from today through Tuesday.  You can find the Blitzen Deal page, which shows the current deal and the offer code to use, by clicking here.  Then, head on over to our store to use your savings!

Here’s a preview of the deals for today (Black Friday) that apply to items in the Parks Conservancy’s store: 

• Holiday cards (70% off between 9:00am and 11:00am)
• Custom park map cases for iPhones and iPads ($20 off between 1:00pm and 3:00pm)
• Custom stamps ($8.80 off sheets of 20 between 7:00pm and 9:00pm)
• T-shirts (50% off between 9:00pm and 11:00pm)

Keep checking Zazzle’s Blitzen Deals all weekend long for more ways to save while shopping for the park lover on your list.

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Turn Black Friday into Green Friday

The biggest shopping day of the year is on its way, and for the first time ever, you can put the parks under your tree!  We’ve been adding new products to our online store every day, from frameable photo prints to stocking stuffers.  Read on for five gift ideas…and how you can take advantage of Black Friday deals to save money while shopping to benefit the parks.

 

1. Get a jump on your holiday cards

Tired of buying boxes of generic greeting cards year after year?  We’ve got you covered with holiday cards featuring snowy scenes from your favorite Pittsburgh parks.  Personalize with your own text or leave them blank.  Then top them off with our custom stamps and show off Pittsburgh to the faraway friends on your list!

2. Keep track of time

We have two beautiful 2011 calendars for you to choose from: our Parks Are Free photo contest winners and a Parks Conservancy calendar that highlights our projects from the Mellon Park Walled Garden to the Frick Park gatehouse. 

3. Deck your walls…with trees!
Does your home or office need a little sprucing up?  We’re now offering a series of full-color photographic prints of some of the most distinctive trees found in Pittsburgh’s parks.  Buy your favorite in a large size, or print several smaller and frame them together.  Because our store offers the opportunity to customize, you can choose your size, paper, and even whether you’d like them pre-framed.

4. Navigate through the noise

Make carrying around your iPhone and iPad just a little more interesting with our custom cases.  Our exclusive designs feature maps of the regional parks in miniature, so you’ll have a tiny guide as you stroll through the park!

     

5. Keep yourself–and your dog!–warm

Show your support for the Parks Conservancy with a cozy logo hoodie, or proclaim your love for Riverview Park with a Chapel Shelter shirt.  There are even sweaters for your dog to wear to the off-leash areas!

    

Best of all, you can stock up on park gifts while getting a great deal–our online retail partner, Zazzle, is offering 120 hours of Blitzen Deals starting at midnight on Friday, with products up to 75% off.  And remember, a portion of all sales directly benefits the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

  

You can find the main page of our store and peruse over 100 products here.

  

Happy shopping!   

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Fall newsletter is online!

Just a heads-up that you can now read our Fall 2010 edition of “The Voice” online!  You can find this issue (and all our back issues) here. Our top story in this issue is the growing number of threats to our forests, from oak wilt disease to emerald ash borer to the ever-growing population of white-tail deer.  We also spotlight some of the incredible volunteer contributions the University of Pittsburgh and other groups have made to us this season, and Phil takes on the subject of native vs. non-native trees in his regular “Phil-osophy” column.

Speaking of “Phil-osophy,” don’t be shy!  If you’ve got a burning question about the parks, their ecology, or just one of our projects, leave a comment for us below and you may see it answered in a future newsletter!

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Photo Contest Winners

In case you missed it over at our website, here are the winners of our 2010 Parks Are Free Photo Contest.  Look for the grand prize photo in an upcoming issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Thanks to the amazing photographers who sent us 250 beautiful park photos.  Our judges at UPMC Health Plan certainly had a wonderful array of shots to choose from, and these were the 12 favorites.

(P.S. Go buy your copy of the 2011 Parks Are Free calendar here and look at these images all year!)

David Pinkerton, “Pink Reflection,” Allegheny Commons

 

Jennifer Stein, “Bowling Green Bench,” Frick Park

John Moyer, “Nine Mile Run in Winter,” Frick Park

John Moyer, “Yellow Warbler,” Frick Park

Alan Whittington, “Frick Tree”

Anne Hong, “Observatory Hike at Dusk,” Riverview Park

Sean Kelly, “Schenley Overlook”

Brian Werner, “Champion,” Schenley Park

Jennifer Stein, “Frick Park Leaves”

Lisa Seligman, “Schenley Park Road”

Lindsay Rethage, “Almost Four Years of Thought,” Fall Run Park

Jon Pratt, “Frick Park”

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Recapturing what’s lost: Riverview and Highland Parks

Two more weekends, two more meetings: here’s your last chance this fall to provide input on our Regional Parks Master Plan update.

Riverview Park
Saturday, October 30

The Chapel Shelter is one of the most popular in the city's system.

Riverview Park has a wide expanse of woodland and a maze of trails throughout most of its 287 acres.  Then, in the park’s center, there is a ridgetop where much of the recreational activity is centered.  Between the Chapel Shelter and the Observatory, there is a swimming pool, an unused building called the Bear Pit, the popular Activities Building, and a space-themed playground.  The ridgetop will be the main focus of the meeting’s theme, “Discovering New Destinations.”  Our goal is to reinforce pedestrian connections, improve pedestrian safety, and enhance user amenities in this area.

In addition to thinking about improving access and activities in this area, we’ll also look at the new soccer field on the north end of the park.  We’ll pass by the Centennial Pavilion and discuss potential ways for bringing this shelter back into wider use, as well as whether the area could be improved by the installation of meadows and other stormwater management techniques.   We’ll look at the area where the remnants of Watson’s Cabin stand and discuss potential uses for that site as well.

Highland Park
Saturday, November 6

The original vision for Highland Park was of a seamless connection across the center of the park: a visitor would enter at the magnificent Entry Garden, walk up the steps to Reservoir No. 1, and then walk down another set of steps on the other end of the reservoir (where the present-day PWSA microfiltration plant and babbling brook are located).  The visitor would then walk down another set of steps, reaching Lake Carnegie below.  Then it would be just a short walk to a vantage point with a dramatic view of the Allegheny River and the Highland Park Bridge.

Lake Carnegie is largely unused.

While part of this progression is intact, it’s likely that most people in recent years haven’t used this path through the park, especially since a fenced-off maintenance yard sits between Lake Carnegie and the hillside view.  And while the swimming pool and sand volleyball courts are always lively during the summertime, the once wildly popular Lake Carnegie generally hosts more geese than people on any given day.

The Highland Park master plan update meeting will address these and other issues through the theme “Reclaiming Lost Uses: Lake Carnegie and Beyond.”  We’ll talk about how to restore some of these broken connections, as well as potential uses for other dormant park amenities.  For example, how could the now-empty Reservoir No. 2 (which was closed due to EPA regulations that reservoirs be covered or the water be treated) be used once again?  Is there an opportunity to turn vacant land on Negley Run Boulevard into parkland?

RSVP for one or both of these meetings here.  We appreciate everyone who has provided input so far, and we look forward to hearing from more of you at the upcoming meetings!

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Finding the balance in Schenley Park

A challenging intersection across from Phipps Conservatory.

Have you ever tried to cross the street in Schenley Park–say, going from the Schenley Park Café to Phipps Conservatory–and almost been mowed down by traffic?  Or is there a spot in the park you always wanted to visit, but you were frustrated by poor trail connections?  Maybe you love walking or biking around Panther Hollow Lake but wish there were an easier way to access the Junction Hollow Trail from there.

The Schenley Park edition of our Regional Parks Master Plan update is designed to address these kinds of issues.  Join us Saturday, October 23, at 9:00am at the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy in Oakland (map) for a discussion of connectivity and accessibility in Schenley Park.  We’ll have coffee and pastries on hand to wake you up, and we’ll talk about how to make the busiest park in Pittsburgh even safer.

Then at about 10:30am, we’ll head into the park to look at conditions along the roadways and intersections, in search of a better balance between people and cars.  We need your help to evaluate some of the most important priority spots and suggest opportunities for improvement.  We’d like to make the park safer and more accessible for cyclists, pedestrians, and runners, so we need to hear from those of you who use the park and have faced its current challenges.  The morning will wrap up around 12:30. 

Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here.

Attendees at the Frick Park meeting visit the observation deck by the Environmental Center.

We had excellent participation at our Frick Park meeting a few weeks ago, where our attendees visited several sites that might one day house outdoor learning spaces.  Participants were able to walk through each site, hear pros and cons, and then rank them.  It’s a great opportunity to get directly involved with what’s happening in your favorite park.  And if you’re not completely sold, just remember this is the peak foliage weekend in Pennsylvania.  If you don’t go to the park, then you’re just missing out!  Hope to see you there bright and early Saturday.

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