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Critics say river park should fit bigger plan
Monday, January 17, 2000 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The city's ambitious plan for a North Shore park should be put on hold until a riverfront planning group drafts an overall vision for development along the three rivers, said a Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation official.
Barry Hannegan, the foundation's director for historic landscape preservation, questioned why Mayor Murphy and city Planning Director Eloise Hirsh were moving so fast to expand Clemente Park while another Murphy-appointed panel, the Riverlife Task Force, hasn't yet chosen an architectural consultant to develop design standards for the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela waterfronts.
"We have the cart before the horse," Hannegan said, urging that planning for the North Shore park be stopped until the Riverlife group chooses a consultant from among 20 landscape design firms interested in the job. That choice is to be made by Feb. 22, with the consultant's work to take 12 to 18 months.
Building the new $25 million North Shore park from the Carnegie Science Center to the Fort Wayne railroad bridge "takes a big piece of land out of the picture" and "weakens the task force's position substantially," Hannegan said.
The park, which will be directly across from the Point, "will be the most conspicuous, noticeable design element of the river system," he said.
The city has hired an Alexandria, Va., landscape consulting firm called EDAW to design the North Shore park for $430,000.
By moving ahead too fast with construction of the park, the city is "doing small things first and neglecting the broader implementation" of riverfront planning, Hannegan said.
"It surprised me that [the new park] is going ahead independently of the task force," added Arthur Ziegler, president of the landmarks foundation. "It seems to me the work of the task force should be dovetailed with this tremendously valuable and exciting park. We are all talking about one waterfront."
Hirsh said that plans for the expanded Clemente Park are still "a design in progress" and not set in stone. She said she hopes that EDAW will have final plans ready in about eight weeks. Work would begin soon thereafter, so the park could open by April 2001.
Murphy wants the new riverfront park to open about the same time as the Pirates' ballpark in April next year and the Steelers' stadium the following August.
Hirsh has attended Riverlife Task Force meetings since it was formed in June and said she didn't see a conflict between its work and that of EDAW's North Shore park planning.
She noted that a number of other projects are going forward along the rivers, including the new baseball and football stadiums and, soon, expansion of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, construction of Seagate Technology offices in the Strip District and expansion at Station Square.
In June, when Murphy formed the 40-member Riverlife group, he directed it to develop design standards and guidelines for the area from the Liberty Bridge on the Mon to the 16th Street Bridge on the Allegheny to the West End Bridge on the Ohio.
Murphy conceded recently there has been a little "friendly" difference of opinion on the timing of riverfront projects but said he didn't mind being criticized for wanting to do things in a hurry. "When was the last time a politician was criticized for moving too quickly?" he asked.
Hirsh said the fact that several major riverfront projects are moving forward doesn't negate the importance of the design standards that the Riverlife Task Force will develop.
Hirsh viewed the Riverlife group's work as complementary to other construction work along the riverfronts.
"The overarching principles of the Riverlife Task Force -- high-quality design and having the riverfronts be places that people come back to -- are also the driving forces" behind the North Shore riverfront park plan, Hirsh said.
Davitt Woodwell, director of the Riverlife Task Force, said that no one expects the current projects along the rivers to stop while the task force decides on its consultant.
"When the task force was formed, it was understood that all this [work] was going on," he said. "We are looking at the overall, long-term vision for the riverfronts. We know there are pieces [of riverfront] that will be under development while we are working on that vision."
The task force has set up a design subcommittee that will meet today with Hirsh to discuss the North Shore plans. The subcommittee includes Ziegler; Ellsworth Brown representing the Carnegie Science Center; Brian Ratner of Forest City Enterprises, owner of Station Square; and the co-chairmen of the Riverlife Task Force -- - Alcoa Chairman Paul O'Neill and Post-Gazette Editor John G. Craig Jr.
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