This project was a competition for a redesign and revitalization of Allegheny Center Plaza which sits at the former crossroads of Federal and Ohio Streets on Pittsburgh’s North Side in front of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. The design strategy emphasized freedom of movement across the site, and the creation of spaces for multiple uses and configurations – events, recreation, leisure etc.
A hard-scape zone positioned toward the northwestern corner of the site optimizes relationships with the Children’s Museum and with the sun. This zone is represented as a wood deck and its surface offers a defined territory of high-performance and flexibility for gathering, learning, eating, exploring and general activity, set against the foil of the quiet, green carpet areas.
A carpet of green establishes continuity across the site: it is intensified in three tightly mown lawn panels, which descend toward the wood plinth and form casual seating and picnicking areas from which to watch the life of the plaza unfold. The carpet turns up again at the south side, rendered as a vertical landscape that helps mitigate the scale of office building to the south.
A bosket of trees occupies the southern termination to Federal Street. This bosket provides a natural buffer between the park and the apartment building to the east. In summer, the bosket provides a shaded grove for respite from the sun; in autumn, the mixture of mature and new trees creates a glow of golden yellows and reds; in winter, the canopies are dappled with delicate lights offering a soft twinkle against the evening sky; in spring, the budding leaves remind us of renewal of the verdant landscape.
LA DALLMAN and StossLU, collaborators
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