A new lighting plan for Downtown Pittsburgh celebrates the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers with crossed laser beams of green light, creating an X where the rivers form a Y.

	Illustration by Art2Architecture
	An illustration of the new lighting plan for Downtown Pittsburgh, which celebrates the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers with crossed beams of green light, creating an X where the rivers form a Y. font> Click photo for larger image.

The beams, which would emanate from the Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne bridges and from new vertical structures at Carnegie Science Center and a parking lot on the opposite shore, sometimes could be directed to converge on the fountain at the Point.

The Ohio Gateway is the most prominent, signature element of a multilayered scheme presented yesterday by Art2Architecture, a consultant to the Riverlife Task Force. From a boat, "It would be like a sky gateway as you approach the Point," said Art2Architecture co-founder Peter Fink.

The London-based firm unveiled its vision for illuminating Three Rivers Park in a series of three public presentations at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. About 100 people attended.

The proposed park, commissioned by Riverlife and conceived by Massachusetts-based Chan Krieger & Associates in 2001 as a giant Y, would comprise more than 200 acres of land and water, extending from the West End Bridge on the Ohio to the 10th Street Bridge on the Monongahela and to the 16th Street Bridge on the Allegheny. One of the key recommendations of that plan was to link the riverfronts with a Y-shaped loop trail around the Point.

The lighting plan also emphasizes connections, with the X visually linking the North Shore and the South Side.

But to play up the dramatic possibilities of light, the city first would have to tone it down.

"Pittsburgh is a city of lights for all the wrong reasons," Fink told about 20 people this morning at 8:30. "Standing on Troy Hill, you would think the steel mills are still going. The amount of it that's emanating out of Pittsburgh is absolutely phenomenal."

Fink said installing inexpensive shields on streetlights in North Shore parking lots would help reduce excess light.

"Lighting can only be seen as a transformative thing if it exists with darkness," Fink said. "You don't need to light everything in a robust way. You could light 12 bridges for the budget of lighting three by working with reflections off the water."

Fink, an artist, and architect Igor Marko, his partner, envision lighting most of the bridges with a soft, gold light, and using a system of green and gold lighting for riverfront edges and walkways.

At Point State Park, they also would illuminate the outlines of Fort Duquesne and the Fort Pitt Music Bastion replica, which is expected to be filled in but remain in outline form in brick or stone. The park's Portal Bridge would be washed in sky blue light, while other pastel colors would emanate from the fountain basin in broad spokes of light.

The intersecting beams of the Ohio Gateway would be green because the park is about water and nature, Fink said.

"The X is, like, one of the neatest ideas I've ever seen," said graphic designer Brett Yasko of the Strip District in a feedback session after the presentation. "There are so many people who go to St. Louis to see the arch. And it's just light, not this structure that takes millions and millions of dollars to build."

There are no cost estimates for any or all of the proposed concepts, but an estimate for the Ohio Gateway should be available in about two weeks, Fink said. "We could get national sponsors because it has national significance" as the historic gateway to the west. Funds for other projects could come from the state and other public and private sources.

In addition to permanent installations, Art2Architecture also suggests temporary light events, such as a "Rivers of Light" display in 2006 that would feature thousands of floating, bubble-like spheres of vacuum-formed polycarbonate, a type of plastic, each containing a battery-powered strobe producing steady or pulsing light.

The plan's other ideas include:

Creatively lighting the inside of the Fort Pitt Tunnel to heighten the experience of entering the city.

Science Center Square, an interactive light feature for the North Shore, with colored beams of light streaming from three contemporary windmill-like structures in front of Heinz Field. The rays of light would shine on performers and visitors as they moved along the esplanade, following people at their own pace. A series of three wind turbines nearby would generate electricity for the project as a demonstration of alternative energy.

Closing the 10th Street Bypass on weekends and opening it to markets and fairs as a way of bringing people closer to the riverfront.

Celebrating the vista of Penn Avenue Downtown by illuminating the floor of the street and some of the architecturally significant buildings.

Lighting the trees along the natural riverbanks to reveal their sculptural qualities.

Lighting the city steps in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. "There are many hidden places from which you can have spectacular views of Pittsburgh," Fink said. "But people don't know how to find them or are afraid to go there."

Fink recommends the city take a holistic approach to lighting, linking it with sustainable economic development projects and building it into design guidelines.

"The lighting scheme needs to evolve with principles of sustained urbanism," Fink said. "To create value and then sustain it, it must be linked to other things."

Art2Architecture, which has designed lighting installations for several cities in Britain, is midway through its Pittsburgh plan and expects to complete the final version in June.

Images of the concepts can be viewed now at www.post-gazette.com and in two weeks at www.pittsburghriverlife.org.