New Point Park reopens
The city’s park was closed for 18 months so renovations could be made.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The city on Friday reopened Point State Park, a historic green area undergoing a $32 million renovation at the confluence of the famed three rivers.
By midmorning, as the sun persistently fought through a thick layer of clouds, businessmen and women were strolling through the downtown park, which had been closed for 18 months. Parents and children enjoyed the warm spring day, while a day care center brought its children to run on the lush green lawns and rest on the sleek silver benches.
“We’ve been going to smaller parks and decided to take them to a bigger park, there’s more place to run around,” said Marlee Kline, a day care provider at Brightside Academy. The decision to go to Point Park on Friday was spontaneous, but it will now be the preferred venue, she said.
“We’ll take them down now every day it’s not raining,” Kline said, as her restless group of 4- and 5-year-olds waited in a crooked line to cross the street.
The site of the park has been a part of Pittsburgh’s history almost from its inception, when Gen. John Forbes named Pittsburgh on November 25, 1758, and Fort Pitt was built to control the strategic point at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. The park itself was first dedicated in 1974.
The current refurbishment began in 2006 and is meant as a 250th anniversary gift for future generations.
When the project is completed in 2010, the 36-acre park will have tens of thousands of trees and shrubs, bicycle and walking trails, a wading pool for children, a refurbished fountain, a cafe and boat docks and launches.
Gov. Ed Rendell praised the renovation, which he called the most expensive per-acre park project ever taken on by the state.
“I believe Pittsburgh is in the early stages of a significant revival ... It’ll be a great place for people to come and to live and to work and to recreate,” Rendell said. “It’s our pleasure to say ‘happy birthday, Pittsburgh.’”
A part of Fort Pitt’s moat and wall, excavated in the 1960s, has been filled in to make the park more conducive to large public gatherings, such as the city’s annual July Fourth celebrations and the Three Rivers Arts Festival. An outline of the battlements remain traced in concrete.
A fountain located at one of the triangular park’s points will also be refurbished and planners hope to make it one of the tallest in the world.
Minutes after the long red ribbon was cut, Pastor Ben Reaoch made his way along a newly opened walkway. Pushing a stroller as his children, Milaina, 5, and Noah, 2, ran alongside, Reaoch tried to circumvent fences surrounding the ongoing construction so they could play near the fountain.
“The view of the city and the rivers, it’s a beautiful spot,” Reaoch said, as cars zoomed overhead across one of Pittsburgh’s hundreds of bridges and tunnels.