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Places: Dreaming of a city with a life along its rivers
Saturday, June 24, 2000 By Patricia Lowry, Post-Gazette Architecture Critic
If I were a car, I'd love to live in Pittsburgh," Alex Krieger told Pittsburghers Monday night. "Or a railroad car or a highway ramp. You have accommodated these things exceedingly well."
Patricia Lowry is the Post-Gazette architecture critic. Her e-mail address is plowry@post-gazette.com
Especially along the riverfronts, which he has been asked to transform into something more accommodating to people.
Krieger, the Cambridge, Mass., architect asked by the Pittsburgh Riverlife Task Force with creating a new vision for the city's riverfronts, kicked off this week's three-day community brainstorming session by contrasting the existing conditions with what might be. Krieger wooed the group with images of Venice, Rome and Paris, then invited Pittsburghers to tell him what they'd like to see on and along the rivers.
"The next two days is a time to dream, a time to imagine."
And so, over a period of 12 hours on Tuesday, about 150 Pittsburghers dared to dream.
Some ideas, like lighting the bridges and establishing beaches along the shoreline, surfaced again and again. Others were one of a kind.
Artist and industrial designer Irene Pasinski dreamt of reviving the Carnival of the Three Rivers that she and other artists organized in 1976 -- an event that evolved into the Three Rivers Regatta. Pasinski, an avid boater, brought a box of illustrations she had done showing how boats and barges might be dressed in historical and fantastic garb to become floats in a water parade. Because the regatta has become a high-powered, sports-oriented spectator event, Pasinski feels there's plenty of room for a grass-roots festival involving artists and boaters.
Krieger's team photographed some of her drawings and included them in Wednesday night's wrap-up session, during which the group's facilitators summarized what they'd heard the day before, when people could share ideas in any or all of six topic areas: Design Qualities and Sustainability; Park, Open Space and Trails; Development Opportunities and Housing; Events and Cultural Attractions; River Commerce and Recreation; and Neighborhood Connections and Transit.
There was, unfortunately, no category for History, Content and Narrative, no station at which Pittsburghers might express what the new developments should communicate about the city.
Still, some managed to make their feelings known.
"There is a need for more interpretive features, about Native Americans and about the river itself. Tell the story of the rivers" and "preserve the heritage of the rivers," said Cambridge architect Alan Mountjoy, summarizing the Design Qualities session input.
"Create new neighborhoods" along the rivers, and shape the riverfronts in ways that respond to the neighborhoods they run through, Mountjoy said. Paint each of the bridges a different color, creating a rainbow effect. Open up some daylight for the creeks that feed the river by clearing away decades of overgrowth so people can better understand how the watersheds work.
In Parks, Open Space and Trails, four themes emerged: safety; connectivity up and down the rivers and back into the neighborhoods; history ("They all have stories to tell") and program ("How can they be used now?"). Pittsburghers want places where they can come and touch the water. They want better connections between the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center and the river, and better connections between Point State Park and the rest of Downtown.
In the Development Opportunities and Housing area, Pittsburghers want to encourage mixed-use developments with an emphasis on housing. Overall, they felt the rivers could support a much higher level of "intensity and density."
For Events and Cultural Attractions, a long list emerged, from Pasinski's river carnival to fishing tournaments to a bridge candlelight parade to a Lewis and Clark celebration, recognizing that the 1803 expedition began with a boat made here.
Under River Commerce and Recreation, boaters made it known they want more access to the riverfronts with docks, and they want to be able to go to Pirates and Steelers games by boat.
"Nobody asked for any new roads," said architect Roxanne Sherbeck, sparking a laugh from the group when she talked about Neighborhood Connections and Transit. But lots of people want to be able to take water taxis up, down and across the rivers, and make trips by boat to other riverfront towns.
William G. Faub, who grew up on the North Side's Preble Street in the 1920s and '30s, remembered when you could take excursion boats to West Virginia. He charmed the group with tales of swimming in the Ohio, where parts of the shore were lined with bleachers so spectators could watch swimming competitions for which the city awarded trophies. Other times, things were less formal: "I hate to say this, but we was naked."
Overall, many of the ideas were rather general, tame and prosaic. Only a handful of the city's artists and architects attended one or more of the three sessions.
"I think Pittsburgh still believes that somebody else is in charge," Krieger told the group Wednesday night, when a man expressed concern about the state building highways that, 20 or 30 years from now, would destroy the results of current efforts.
"As an outsider, let me tell you you're in charge."
There's still plenty of opportunity for input, as Krieger and his team take to the road in the coming months, soliciting ideas in neighborhoods throughout the city.
Comments also can be left at the task force's Web site, www.pittsburghriverlife.org.
As one task force handout put it, "Don't be afraid to dream BIG."
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