If banks have a favorite color, it might be green -- as in greenbacks. But to the good fortune of Pittsburgh, PNC Financial Services Group has a wider palette than its mission suggests. It will shortly have a 1.5-acre expanse of green Downtown -- as in the color of vegetation.

On a block bounded by the Boulevard of the Allies, Grant Street, First Avenue and Ross Street, Pittsburgh's newest park is taking shape, destined to be an oasis among the concrete landscape of the city. The project does honor to the corporation that is making it come to life.

As Post-Gazette architecture critic Patricia Lowry observed yesterday, in a Magazine cover story with an appealing artistic rendition, the design of PNC Firstside Park is "surprisingly park-like, forested and organic ..." and brings "green space to a section of Downtown that sorely lacks it."

Located opposite PNC Firstside Center, the privately owned park will have spiraling paths and a small eating area with benches. It will be a boon to both the banking center's 1,500 employees as well as strolling Pittsburghers who pass by. It was the original intention to have a child-friendly environment in this space -- as a company official said back in 2004 -- and it will certainly be that.

But adults will be able to rejoice in the act of good corporate citizenship that animates the plan. After all, this is a valuable piece of land, at or near the commercial heart of the city. In the memory of most Pittsburghers, this space is associated with structures, most recently the Public Safety Building and before that the Post-Gazette office. Now it will be a park.

A bank official wouldn't tell our reporter whether the park is a placeholder for a future building, saying "you can never predict what will happen in 20 years." True enough. But for the moment, green is everyone's favorite color and praise for PNC should be every Pittsburgher's reaction.