Efforts underway to start reversing Allegheny Center disaster (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: neighborhood, theater)

[BrianTH]

The article is here:

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh plans meadow-like park with fog sculpture - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

It focuses mostly on the Children's Museum park plans (including a fog sculpture), but I was most interested in this:

In a related but separate effort, the Northside Leadership Conference is hoping to reconnect Ohio and Federal streets beside the museum in Allegheny Center, an island surrounded by a "moat road." . . .

The Leadership Conference is working on engineering and design to reconnect the roads inside Allegheny Center. The idea is to make the connectors two-way lanes with parking on both sides. That project should take four years and cost about $4 million, said Mark Fatla, executive director of the conference.

Of course really they need to tear open at least a good chunk of Allegheny Center and restore the original street grid to the extent possible.

[BrianTH]

Some images for reference, the past and one proposed future:



A VISION OF RESTORATION AND REVI



A VISION OF RESTORATION AND REVI

[Perryview22]

Given my gripes about the Northshore Development, any improvement that can be made on that side of the River has got my support. I would be happy to see that fortress over there torn down.

[nuwaver88]

Connecting Federal and Ohio Streets would help that neighborhood tremendously. With plans slated for the Garden Theater block, it would allow a direct connection to the PNC Park area. North Shore visitors could more easily spill into the North Side becasue of this direct connection, as opposed to the Commons,which cuts off those attractions like the New Hazlett Theater and Childrens Museum. It would also allow CCAC and Allegheny West to be more easily connected to the East Ohio Street business district, which is slowly seeing a revitalization also. This should be put on the fast track for Pittsburgh's biggest neighborhood that has no cohesion.

[grimacista]

The best thing that could happen to Allegheny Center would be for a deranged individual to hijack a bulldozer and just go to town.

[vtPGH]

While I support reconnecting East and West Ohio Street through Allegheny Center, and restoring as much of Federal St. as possible, I do think the planners, developers, and local leaders need to take a selective approach to which blocks of the original street grid should be repaved and restored. Case in point, the Suisman plan from 2007 shown above involves restoring the far northern block of the old street grid for new development, which would effectively level both the Richie McCabe and MLK Ball fields, which while not historic, are adjacent to the Commons park and continue to be positive, contributing green spaces. The MLK school grounds have community playgrounds and a baseball field used by local little leagues, while the Richie McCabe Field is used frequently by a North Side midget football team, adult softball and rugby leagues, and hosts various community events.

I'm not a NIMBY and support quality development on the North Side, but I'd hate to see some of the same mistakes of the 60's be repeated again if positive, contributing spaces like the two ball fields begin to be demolished because they're in the way of 'progress.'

[BrianTH]

I agree the Suisman plan may romanticize the original Allegheny plan a little too much. I think the important thing is to break open Allegheny Center and restore the main through streets, but leaving those fields within the footprint of the former city center would be fine with me.

[Impala26]

Agreed with Brian. Establishing the two main cross streets passing through the Center would be a mighty fine place to start in my opinion. That area of the North Side could even see some increased investment by being easy to access from the PNC Park redevelopment area.

[BrianTH]

Not to sound like a total loon on the subject, but if I was going to expand the gondola system I sketched out in another thread, I'd propose going from Steel Plaza past Penn Station and the Convention Center then into this area

[pman]

Originally Posted by vtPGH

While I support reconnecting East and West Ohio Street through Allegheny Center, and restoring as much of Federal St. as possible...Case in point, the Suisman plan from 2007 shown above involves restoring the far northern block of the old street grid for new development, which would effectively level both the Richie McCabe and MLK Ball fields, which while not historic, are adjacent to the Commons park and continue to be positive, contributing green spaces. The MLK school grounds have community playgrounds and a baseball field used by local little leagues, while the Richie McCabe Field is used frequently by a North Side midget football team, adult softball and rugby leagues, and hosts various community events.

I'm not a NIMBY and support quality development on the North Side, but I'd hate to see some of the same mistakes of the 60's be repeated again if positive, contributing spaces like the two ball fields begin to be demolished because they're in the way of 'progress.'

I suppose as long as they simply connected suisman to commons it would be both cheaper and wouldn't impact the parks you mention. I'd also note Federal is the most important street and needs to go all the way through or the project probably isn't worth doing at all. It puts the neighborhood within a short walking distance not just of PNC Park, but more of it within an easy walk of the cultural district, not to mention the new T stop, not to mention making it much easier for PAT to run a route connecting to the stop.

btw, what's the history on this area? was it once all park?

he creation of the park reflected the 19th century movement to beautify American cities and improve urban living conditions. Well-known predecessors were New York's Central Park and Philadelphia's Fairmount Park.
The New York firm of Mitchell & Grant designed the plan for Allegheny Commons, which included lawns and tree-lined paths, fountains and benches, a picturesque lake, monuments, and ornamental flowerbeds. It took eight years to execute and incorporated over forty varieties of trees, thirty varieties of shrubs, and tens of thousands of bulbs

http://www.alleghenycommons.org/history.html

The boundaries of the Commons today remain pretty much extant except for Monument Hill, which was obtained by
the Western Theological Seminary in 1819 and a right-of-way, which was granted to the Pennsylvania Railroad on July 1,1850....
Several streets in East, North, and West Common were absorbed into school, athletic, commercial,
office, and housing developments adjacent to the Commons in the 1960s and 1970s, thus eliminating the Commons
street edge and in some cases rows of street trees. As an example, the Martin Luther King School, its playground
and athletic field extend into the Commons and modified the integrity of its edges by eliminating streets, sidewalks
and some of the street trees. In the area of the South Commons, major losses occurred in the 1960s due to the
development of Allegheny Center and highway construction, which reduced this area to a sidewalk, grass strip, and
parking lot. Today, there remains 84 acres of land of the original 102 that is used for park purposes.

http://www.alleghenycommons.org/pdf/MasterPlan.pdf