River vision: Task force ready to unveil its plan for Pittsburgh waterways

Web Extras: Marketplace, Bridal, Headlines by Email, Postcards

River vision: Task force ready to unveil its plan for Pittsburgh waterways

Monday, October 22, 2001

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Pittsburgh turned its back on its rivers, erecting barriers such as steel mills, railroads and highways that cut residents off from their scenic waterways.

Boaters fish in the Ohio River near the North Shore yesterday afternoon. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

This morning, the Riverlife Task Force, a 2-year-old, 40-member group, plans to release an 18-month study aimed at undoing some of the mistakes of the past and reconnecting people to sections of the three rivers around the Point.

"We've gotten a lot of input from people who own land along the rivers, from recreational boaters, from people who use riverfront trails and from the public in general," said Davitt Woodwell, task force director. "We're going to outline our vision for the future of the riverfronts."

The task force is concentrating on beautifying the central sections of the three rivers -- from the West End Bridge over the Ohio River to the 10th Street Bridge over the Monongahela to the 16th Street Bridge over the Allegheny.

Woodwell declined to give specifics of the report, which will rely heavily on months of public hearings and recommendations by Alex Krieger, an architectural consultant from Cambridge, Mass.

But it's expected to include the following:

Creating a 40-foot-wide green space along the edge of the Mon Wharf, to connect Point State Park with the Eliza Furnace Trail, which starts near the PNC Firstside Center and stretches to Oakland. Putting grass and shrubbery along the river would eliminate about half the parking spaces on the wharf.

Constructing areas where boats could be launched. One would likely be on the south shore of the Ohio, near where Saw Mill Run empties into the river. This would give boaters more options than just the existing launch area near 17th Street on the South Side.

Improving the lighting on both shorelines and bridges.

"We want to give an appearance of a friendly area, a place where people would want to go," said City Councilman Alan Hertzberg, a task force member.

Beautifying the Allegheny shoreline in front of the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Creating "architecturally significant" buildings along the riverbanks, such as at the site where the Lawrence Paint Co. building used to be near Station Square and on land around the Carnegie Science Center.

Beautifying the stretch of West Carson Street between Station Square and the West End Bridge.

Supporting the Sports & Exhibition Authority's ongoing construction of the $48 million North Shore Riverfront Park running past the two new stadiums, including a wide, grassy area called the Great Lawn, just west of the Fort Duquesne Bridge.

Supporting Forest City Enterprises' plan for a $71 million expansion of Station Square, including a new floating dock along the Mon.

The Riverlife Task Force was named by Mayor Tom Murphy in mid-1999, but it didn't begin its work in earnest until January 2000. It has become influential because it includes most of the major riverfront property owners.

Besides Forest City, sports authority Director Stephen Leeper and other public officials, members include the Buncher Co., which owns Strip District land along the Allegheny and a large office building called Gateway View Plaza on the south bank of the Ohio; John Connelly, who owns the Gateway Clipper Fleet and 13 riverfront acres west of the Carnegie Science Center; science center officials; Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy; and Steelers Vice President Art Rooney II.

The co-chairmen of the group are Maxwell King, executive director of the Heinz Endowments, which has provided about $1 million of its funding, and John G. Craig Jr., editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

As of June 30, Woodwell said, the task force had received about $2.9 million -- all in private funds, mostly from local foundations -- and spent $2.4 million.

The only public money it's received, Woodwell said, is a recent $30,000 grant from the sports authority to work on the design of the Allegheny riverfront at the new convention center.

Besides money spent on Krieger's work, the task force has taken on other projects, such as reviewing and upgrading the architectural design for the sports authority parking garage half a block from PNC Park; reviewing the design of the new H.J. Heinz Co. distribution center near the Allegheny River; and changing the design of protective road barriers that will be used for improvements to the Fort Pitt Bridge and Boulevard of the Allies.

The task force complained that the 42-inch-high concrete barriers that the state Transportation Department had originally planned to use on the bridge and boulevard would block motorists' views of the rivers. As a result, a new design is being developed.

The group has held more than 100 meetings with the public, ranging from a convention center forum with several hundred people, to booths at the Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta and Three Rivers Arts Festival, to smaller meetings with community groups and river users, such as recreational boaters.

While the task force initially had planned to be in existence only until the end of this year, it has decided to continue its work for at least five more years, thanks to the promise of additional foundation funding, Woodwell said.

"We want to be around to make sure the vision we release gets implemented," he said. "This can't just be a plan that sits on the shelf."