Posted on October 1, 2017
2017 Great Public Space: Aspinwall Borough’s Riverfront Park (Allegheny County)
Environment Great Places Urban Design & Placemaking 2017
Aspinwall Borough residents led a grassroots effort to reconnect their community with its Allegheny riverfront and to link it to Western Pennsylvania’s expanding trail system. The result was a master plan for 11- acre Aspinwall Riverfront Park, which opened in 2015. The Park offers many amenities, including a riverfront promenade, spontaneous play area, boardwalk, “raindrop gardens,” amphitheater, wellness trail, limited-service marina, welcome center, restrooms, and kayak rentals. More broadly, the Park exemplifies sustainability through brownfield redevelopment, green infrastructure, a hierarchy of material palettes, and reuse of demolished building materials and old curb stones as trail base, benches, and tables. It is the place to be for families and has captured the public’s imagination as one of the most memorable greenspaces in the Pittsburgh region.
