Downtown’s Firstside Park is receiving finishing touches. Built by
PNC Financial Services Group at 500 First Ave., the 1.5-acre park features benches, winding paths and numerous deciduous and ornamental trees.
Over the coming weeks, bronze stepping stones will be installed and perennials and ornamental grasses, including ferns and day lilies, will be planted. “It’ll have a textured look with a variety of shapes--the same way the topography has different levels,” says project manager Susan Golomb. The park’s pavement and benches feature quotations by Confucius, Madeline Bridges and Theodore Roosevelt.
The park’s latest additions are animated figures designed to encourage visitor interaction. Created by California-based artist
Albert Guibara, the figures include monkeys with bananas, toads on a bicycle and a rabbit seated in a chair. “The sculptures are visual representations of three of the quotes. It’s a way of appealing to children in a visual tactile sense,” says Golomb.
The park used 2,500 tons of recycled concrete from the deconstruction of the former Public Safety Building. “This is an unusual circumstance where a Pittsburgh corporation is creating a park. It’s private land but open to the public. The PNC Center is
LEED-certified and now there’s this green space,” says Golomb.
In August, the park will host activities during the DiverCITY Pittsburgh Festival. “Every time I walk or drive by, it’s full of people, especially at lunch, but also all day long,” says Golomb. “It’s designed so you can go with a group, or sit quietly alone, but still see everywhere, because it’s open and small scale.”
Writer:
Jennifer BaronSource: Susan Golomb, PNC Realty Services
Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene