12/9/2017
Diana Nelson Jones - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Walkabout: I-579 cap would finally bridge the gap between Downtown, Lower Hill December 4, 2017 7:00 AM
By Diana Nelson Jones / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Bids go out next year for construction of a 3-acre park spanning Interstate 579 in Downtown. The city’s Art Commission approved the design last week. The I-579 cap, as it is being called, has a commitment of $19 million in federal funds, with state, local and foundation funds making up the rest of the $26.4 million cost. The value of this project, though, is inestimable. The destruction of the Lower Hill and the displacement of thousands of city residents for the onetime Civic Arena was atrocity enough, but on its heels came I-579, a gift to suburban commuters that severed the Hill from Downtown. Look at old photos and see the appalling message. The isolation was visual and symbolic, but access between Downtown and the Hill was out of your way. To walk from one to the other is to brave brutal, hideous infrastructure that says: “I’d turn back if I were you.” The park will build a meaningful and inviting bridge. It will be bordered by Bigelow Boulevard, Centre Avenue, Chatham Street and Washington Place. In someone’s lifetime, it will connect to something other than Lower Hill parking lots. Roughly the size of Schenley Plaza in Oakland, the park and pedestrian thoroughfare will be a stunning amenity for the city, an integration of art, gathering spaces, an ad-lib classroom, pathways, musical features and water features to contain storm runoff. The design has been imagined, sketched and played with in a series of workshops that once again called on Hill District residents to offer their vision and memories. They were at the table years ago to help envision Walter Hood’s Curtain Call walkway alongside PPG Paints Arena. They contributed ideas, historic photos and hours of enthusiasm and pride in a project that still has not been funded. “I’m not going to give up hope on that,” said Renee Piechocki, director of the Office of Public Art at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. “People are still looking for funding for that. But this project is funded, and artists and landscape architects worked within a constrained [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] framework to make something great. “That has been the joy of this project, with members of the community and artists,” she said. “It has been a beautiful process.” The the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority has worked with LaQuatra Bonci Architects and the Office of Public Art on a design that includes works by Hill District artists Kimberly Ellis and Amir Rashidd. Stainless steel totems will be internally lit, with patterns of beads and braids running through them and horizontal shelves the height of a cafe table. History walls will feature Martin Delany, a 19th-century author, newspaper editor, physician and abolitionist, and Frankie Pace, a 20th-century activist against the destruction of urban renewal. A 21st-century dancing sprite named Keisha was created as an animated character with a voice and flying braids, a tour guide who will educate visitors about the park’s features on another wall. http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/diana-nelson-jones/2017/12/04/Walkabout-Diana-Nelson-Jones-Crosstown-I579-cap-Downtown-Lower-Hill-connect-Virgil-Can…
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