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Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has begun a project to revitalize Allegheny Public Square Park into a vibrant green space for Pittsburgh's North Side. Over the years, this park has also been known as Diamond Park, Ober Park, Allegheny Center Plaza and the sunken plaza in front of the Children’s Museum.

This is a collaborative effort among the Museum, Pittsburgh city officials, community representatives, artists, architects and designers.
 

Schematic Design
by Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
September 2008

Click on each image for a closer view.


Aerial View



View from the Park's Southwest Entrance



View from the Northwest Museum Corner



View from Children's Way of Proposed Sculpture by Ned Kahn


View from the Northeast Corner



Plan View



Competition Winner

The winner of the 2007 Design Competition of Ideas for Allegheny Public Square is Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture of San Francisco, California, announced in November 2007.

Download the Winning Project Statement here.

2nd Place - La Dallman Architecture + StossLU + ARUP, (Milwaukee, Wis.)
3rd Place - WANTED [Paula Meijerink] with John Stephen Ellis, Jeffrey Inaba and Cheri Ruane, Weston & Sampson (Boston, Mass.)


The Design Competition

Six design teams were invited to participate in a design competition for the revitalization of Allegheny Square Park in Summer 2007. They were selected by a committee from more than 15 proposals. The designers were hosted on July 21 to visit the plaza and gather community feedback to help inform their redesign proposals. The public was also invited to express their ideas and wishes for the park in sand models, maps and an “ideas” quilt.

The designs of the six teams were on display in the Children's Museum lobby through November 5, 2007, with a place for comments. A jury of local, national and international experts in design, urban planning and architecture, along with Museum staff and board members, served as the jury.

The six teams were:

Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
San Francisco, Calif.
Garofalo Architects (Douglas Garofalo) with Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architect
Chicago, Ill.
Hood Design (Walter Hood)
Oakland, Calif.
Klavon Design Associates (Dina Klavon)
Pittsburgh, Pa.
La Dallman Architects (Grace La and James Dallman) with stosslu and ARUP
Milwaukee, Wis.
WANTED (Paula Meijerink) with John Stephen Ellis, AIA, Jeffrey Inaba and Cheri Ruane, Weston & Sampson
Cambridge, Mass.


The Vision

These are some of the elements and features desired in the revitalized square:

• an improved community space that is responsive to the North Side neighborhoods and Children’s Museum, accommodating the needs of today’s users
• sustainable design principles
• integrated public art
• innovative design solutions that demonstrate an appropriateness of scale and inventive program organization
• sound maintenance and management practices
• cost effective design solutions


Comments

If you'd like to comment or ask a question via email about the winning design, please email comments@pittsburghkids.org.