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\n\tBy SHANNON O. WELLS<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the past century-plus, Schenley Plaza on Forbes Avenue has morphed from farmland gully to leveled-off asphalt parking lot to the beloved, multi-faceted greenspace in the Cathedral of Learning\u2019s shadow it has been since 2006. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAlong with considerable vision and force of will, the transformation required substantial investment of capital from governmental entities, institutional partners and individual contributors. Like with many community improvement projects, coming up with the $12 million required would be, hands-down, the hardest part.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tCELEBRATE ON JULY 25<\/p>\n
\n\t\tThe Schenley Plaza 20th Anniversary Jubilee<\/a> will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 25. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy describes the free, open-to-the-public Saturday event as a \u201cjoyful day of music, family fun, and community celebration in the heart of Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tThe jubilee will feature free PNC Carousel rides, live entertainment including a 21-piece big band from Azure Family Concerts<\/a>, fairytale character appearances, balloon artists, face painting, caricatures, local vendors and \u201cmore surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a really festive celebration truly for people of all ages to come enjoy,\u201d Wenk emphasized. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a lot of family-friendly attractions there, but it\u2019s something that, even if you don\u2019t have little ones, you\u2019re able to come out and enjoy what we\u2019re going to have at the celebration. And it\u2019s free and open to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, this was Oakland in the early 21st century. A more powerful factor was at play.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cProbably the biggest obstacle was people\u2019s reluctance to lose the parking,\u201d noted Richard Reed, who serves on the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy\u2019s<\/a> Board of Directors. \u201cAfter that it was raising the money for the construction.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tParking was, in fact, considered in the plaza\u2019s original design, as a grand entrance to the sprawling Schenley Park in the early 20th century. Its immediate proximity to Forbes Field, then home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers, hastened its transformation to more utilitarian use.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt ended up discouraging people from actually enjoying the space that was there. That\u2019s why it became converted fully to parking years later,\u201d said Alana Wenk, the Parks Conservancy\u2019s director of marketing and communications. \u201cThen Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy enters the conversation, and Pitt was a big supporter of this, obviously, the city, the state, many key players made this happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTaking parking out of Oakland, of all places, and transforming into a green space back in the early 2000s \u2014 that was a big deal. And obviously met with supporters and opposers,\u201d she added. \u201cUltimately, we rallied together, and the vision came to life.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn June 2006, Schenley Plaza officially reopened as the central gathering place it is today. Operated and managed by the Parks Conservancy, the 4.5-acre space boasts gardens, a one-acre \u201cEmerald Lawn\u201d of grassy, wi-fi-accessible park space, a Victorian-style carousel, a big-top tent, food kiosks, benches, picnic facilities and a full-service restaurant.<\/p>\n \n\tRichard Reed served as the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy\u2019s chairman when it was relatively new organization with what he called a \u201csuccessful track record of restoring parts of the city\u2019s parks.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere was a discussion across the city and particularly in Oakland on the possibility of restoring the plaza,\u201d he explained, noting that Conservancy founder and then-president Meg Cheever recognized it was \u201cimperative for the long-term credibility of the organization that we, rather than any other group, take on Schenley Plaza, given it is part of Schenley Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was the most high-profile and expensive project we had ever undertaken,\u201d Reed noted.<\/p>\n \n\tOther supporters of excising automobiles to return Schenley Plaza to a more natural state included the city of Pittsburgh, which owns the park property; the state of Pennsylvania, and the University, whose community the space largely serves, along with neighboring Carnegie-Mellon University. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tReed further credits community leaders such as Pitt Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg; Jim Rohr, former chairman of PNC Bank; and former H.J. Heinz Company executive George Greer, for what was \u201ca very successful capital campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was a $12 million transformation made possible by a combination of state funding, institutional partners and individual contributors,\u201d Reed said. \u00a0<\/p>\n \tTransformed landscape<\/p>\n \n\tSchenley Plaza was originally developed by filling in a deep gully known as St. Pierre Hollow near the end of St. Pierre Street, now Bigelow Boulevard, Patricia Lowry wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2022. In 1898, the former stone-arch Bellefield Bridge was built over the hollow, which with the Schenley Bridge<\/a>, provided a park entrance from Forbes Avenue.<\/p>\n \n\tBy 1911, a location was sought for a monument to Mary Schenley, whose family property became Schenley Park.<\/p>\n \n\tA national competition drew 45 proposals for the site. The winning design, by Horace Wells Sellers and H. Bartol Register of Philadelphia, afforded “the simplest and least-confusing plan of driveways; the circulation is good; and provision is made for automobile parking space,\u201d the Pittsburgh Press reported.<\/p>\n \n\tThis was one of only two entries to provide parking, Lowry noted, as automobile accommodation was not mentioned in the brief for the competition.<\/p>\n \n\tBy 1914, St. Pierre Hollow was filled in and leveled off, consuming the Bellefield Bridge, which is said to help support some weight of the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain<\/a>, dedicated in 1918 .<\/p>\n \n\tWith some modifications from Sellers\u2019 and Register\u2019s design, the remaining plaza was finished in 1921. By the 1930s, however, the plaza began to accommodate increasing parking demands from Pitt students and patrons of Forbes Field<\/a> immediately to the west.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the 1990s, many more vehicles rumbled into the plaza after the city removed its central oval space, effectively turning Schenley Plaza into a dedicated parking lot, Lowry noted.<\/p>\n \n\tDriven by the partnership between the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the city of Pittsburgh, work to transform the utilitarian space back to its original vision as an Oakland oasis began in 2004.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Schenley Plaza renovation won the Silver Award in the Environmentally Sustainable Project category<\/a> at the 2009 International Awards for Livable Communities held in the Czech Republic city of Pilsen. Meg Cheever presented the project to a panel of judges and an audience representing 15 countries.<\/p>\n \tMecca for music<\/p>\n \n\tSince then, Schenley Plaza\u2019s role in enhancing quality of life in Oakland is evidenced by the daily hum of activity \u2014 including hundreds of students relaxing on blankets and chairs, studying, tossing balls and flying discs \u2014 that only the most drenching rainstorms or extreme weather can temporarily curtail.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt has become the community center, a green oasis that has added tremendous vibrancy to Oakland,\u201d Reed observed. \u201cWhen you see Pitt prospective student tours, it is always highlighted a great asset of the campus \u2014 even though it\u2019s actually part of Schenley Park (for which) the plaza also provides a connection, which is an amazing green space in the middle of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe annual WYEP Summer Music Festival, held in late June, as well as other community events, brought notable pop, folk, singer-songwriter, and alternative-rock performers to the plaza through the years, including Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Juliana Hatfield, Jason Isbell, Dar Williams, Lucius, and most recently, Michigander.<\/p>\n \n\tWenk said the upcoming jubilee marks a celebration of the plaza\u2019s ongoing value to the community as well as the spirit of fulfilling planners\u2019 original vision.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIts original intention was to be this gathering space. Then for so long it became a space that it really wasn\u2019t intended to be \u2014 a fully (paved) parking lot. I think it\u2019s unique to see that enough community members cared to transform that space into something that could be so much greater than parking in Oakland,\u201d she noted. \u201cYou don\u2019t see something like that every day, you know? \u2026<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou have a carousel there, you have restaurants, it is almost like a little Bryant Park in New York City<\/a>, right here in Oakland. It\u2019s rare, and also something just very special that we\u2019re lucky to have here in Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRichard Reed said his favorite recollection involving the plaza\u2019s revitalization came from a Pitt student who, during an interview, \u201cinverted\u201d the chorus lyrics from \u201cBig Yellow Taxi,\u201d a catchy, classic Joni Mitchell song about the perils of manmade progress.<\/p>\n \n\tThe new lyric? \u201cThey took a parking lot, and made it a paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share? Share<\/a> it with the University Times.<\/p>\n