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Session produces flood of river ideas
Wednesday, September 20, 2000 By Patricia Lowry, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
In June, when Massachusetts architect Alex Krieger asked Pittsburghers what they'd like to see and do along the rivers, he got a boatload of ideas.
A daylong community brainstorming session produced a wish list for water taxis, riverfront housing, boat docks, fishing tournaments, river parades, river history, public art projects, natural shorelines and more.
This weekend, Pittsburghers will have a chance not only to learn how Krieger and his team have responded to their ideas but also to hear about how other cities are transforming their riverfronts.
"A Forum on the Future of Pittsburgh's Riverfronts" will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Carnegie Museum's Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland. The forum is co-sponsored by the Pittsburgh Riverlife Task Force and the museum's Heinz Architectural Center.
In February, the task force commissioned Krieger's firm, Cambridge-based Chan Krieger & Associates, to create a bold vision for Pittsburgh's riverfront. Krieger, who heads the department of urban planning and design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, will unveil his team's current thinking in a slide-illustrated talk.
While the plan suggests long-term uses for privately held land between the Point and the West End Bridge, such as a lagoon and public marina west of the Carnegie Science Center, for now it is focusing on more easily achievable, short-term goals.
"We are looking at ways to activate the edges where we don't have ownership of the land," said Chan Krieger architect Alan Mountjoy, the project manager. "The end goal is to have accessible edges all the way to the West End Bridge."
Krieger envisions a host of river activities centered at the confluence, between the West End Bridge and the Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne bridges -- an area Krieger identifies as the "Y."
He advocates creating a "Port of Pittsburgh" with a central no-wake zone, making the rivers safer for crewing, kayaking, canoeing and other activities. For motor boaters, more tie-ups would be provided.
With conceptual sketches and maps, Krieger also will show:
"It's a great opportunity for us to get some really core response at a time when Chan Krieger's plans are at a conceptual level and are jelling, but not set," said Lisa Schroeder, the task force's staff design specialist.
The forum's other speakers will be Robert Yaro, director of the Regional Plan Association for the 31-county New York City metro region, and Nicolas Retsinas, a national housing expert who directs Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. He is the author of the center's annual report, "The State of the Nation's Housing."
Yaro will talk about the Regional Plan Association's broad vision, shaped over five years, for making the New York metropolitan area more competitive in the global economy by investing in public transportation, parks and greenways, traditional commercial cores and work force education, and by encouraging cooperative planning among local governments.
Retsinas will illustrate how housing has helped revive waterfronts in other cities, tailoring his presentation based on his knowledge of the Pittsburgh housing market.
After their presentations, the speakers will participate in a roundtable discussion led by Richard Florida, Carnegie Mellon University professor of regional development. That will be followed by 45 minutes of open discussion.
The forum is free to the public, but advance registration is required. To date, about 200 people are planning to attend. To join them, call 412-622-5551 or send an e-mail to mummertb@carnegiemuseums.org.
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How the "Y" could be defined with a series of illuminated structures with various designs and functions, both on land and in the rivers. Some would serve as landings for river taxis.