“Arts Landing,” a $31 million new park in Downtown’s Cultural District, officially opened last Friday — just in time for the NFL Draft.
The park, which officials presenting at the opening ceremony said is four acres in size, features a massive, roughly one acre lawn, local art and other recreational space.
Initially pitched 22 months ago, Cultural Trust president and CEO Kendra Whitlock-Ingram called the opening of the park “unbelievable.”
“This transformational new civic space builds on the Cultural Trust’s impact by creating a place Downtown where people will gather, they will stay longer, and they’ll return more often,” Whitlock-Ingram said.
“Arts Landing” has a multitude of corporate-named features, some of which weren’t yet complete by the time of its “soft opening.” The space where two, still-unfinished features are slated to be built— the Giant Eagle Foundation Backyard and Highmark Courtyard — was still an asphalt lot during the unveiling.
The Backyard will be completed sometime in June, and the Courtyard sometime in July.
All other features of the new park seemed just about ready. Fences surrounding its perimeter are slated to all be removed by the time it officially opens after the draft.
The Dollar Bank Stage crowns the new massive lawn, and according to a press release will be the new, permanent home of the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
True to its name, “Arts Landing” is littered with local art, almost half of which was donated by the family of the late Thaddeus Mosley, a Pittsburgh-native and globally-renowned sculptor famous for his wooden carvings, who died earlier this year.
Mosley’s installation, “Touching the Earth,” made up almost half of the art featured in the new park. It’s a series of eight bronze pieces Mosley sculpted from 1996 to 2021; most notably, “Gate III,” a huge arch which was placed at the edge of the park leading into its playground feature.
His son, City Councilmember Khari Mosley, who represents the city’s ninth district, said the collection was a testament to the fact that his father “will be forever as one with our surroundings.”
“ … when you look at these magnificent pieces, you can feel his presence,” Mosley said. “It’s almost as if he is still touching the earth.”
The works of other artists were prominent, too, particularly Shikeith’s “Hold,” a roughly nine-foot-tall black oblong vessel with a blue neon tube outlining its interior.
Another piece, Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis’s “Bird Circus,” kept the outdoorsy theme of the new park. It’s an almost 11-foot-tall tangle of skinny poles holding various bird houses, fit for any flying feathered visitors to “Arts Landing” to hide away from the park’s visitors.
A press release on the park said that installations will rotate about every six months.
Beyond the art, there is plenty of space for Pittsburghers of all walks of life to play. Security and surveillance, according to the Cultural Trust, will be maintained 24/7 when “Arts Landing” officially opens.
A massive wooden fortress for kids, the Grable Playground, sits about near the middle of “Arts Landing.” Kids could be seen clambering all over the wood conglomerate, and Mayor Corey O’Connor even gave its slide a try.
“This is how we start having that long-term conversation about families,” O’Connor said in remarks to attendants of the park’s opening, “about opportunities, about why you want to raise your kids and your families in Pittsburgh.”
The park is across the street from Pittsburgh CAPA, a school for kids grades 6 through 12. During State Rep. Aerion Abney’s remarks, a gaggle of students from CAPA could be heard cheering triumphantly from on top of the school’s roof.
Abney said that while the park was ratified as part of efforts to prepare Pittsburgh for the coming NFL draft, it will remain to give kids like those on CAPA’s roof a “safe space.”
“It is my hope that as we continue to develop Pittsburgh, and redevelop Pittsburgh, that we can do it with an intentionality that considers the pride and the promise of our future,” Abney said. “That we can build for the posterity of both current and future generations.”
Additional pickle ball courts and a running track are slated to be complete for use sometime in July. Public restrooms will be available to the park’s visitors when it officially opens to the public.
In a press conference following the unveiling, Gov. Josh Shapiro lauded the ongoing effort to revitalize Downtown. Shapiro last year announced a nearly $600 million plan to overhaul the city’s business hub.
“We’ve got a multi-phase project agenda here for Downtown,” Shapiro said. “And I think it shows a rebirth of the Golden Triangle. I think it shows how much we care about the city of Pittsburgh.”
The park will open again during the NFL Draft for its first public event, a “Pitt Block Party” for students of the University of Pittsburgh. “Arts Landing” will officially open to the public in May.
