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ASLA-NCC

American Society of Landscape Architects
Northern California Chapter

Awards

2015 Awards

Design: General

Merit Award

Buhl Community Park at Allegheny Square
Pittsburgh, PA
Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
Principal in Charge: Andrea Cochran
Project Manager/Landscape Architect: Jennifer Knott
Landscape Design Team: Landscape Designer: Amir Kunin
Susan Hughes, Emily Rylander, Shanti Levy
Client: Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Visually permeable from the street, the new park feels safe and inviting.
Bluestone walls showcase notable North Side Residents, creating a sense of place.
A stone donor wall celebrates the community spirit that shaped the par,
A bioswale connects visitors with local ecosystems while educating them about sustainability.
Plants native to the region coontrast with paved areas and provide shade.
Families cool off in Ned Kahn's sculpture during the Pittsburgh Mini-Maker Faire.
A clover meadow replaces lawn; flexible spaces accommodate a variety of activities.
Site Plan
apartments, offices, and cultural institutions surround the park, a civic green space.
A seamless connection between art and landscape was fundamental to the design.

In June 2012, the revitalized Buhl Community Park at Allegheny Square opened to the public in Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood. Spearheaded by the adjacent Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the project transformed an underused, 1960s concrete plaza into a vital community space. The park design emerged through a highly collaborative process, beginning with
a national, invited competition and evolving through a series of meetings with the community. Today, the park breathes new life into the site and neighborhood, with flexible spaces for a variety of activities, an inviting “community green,” and accessible pathways linking adjacent uses. The planting design is composed exclusively of species native to the region and includes a bioswale to process the plaza’s stormwater, connecting visitors with the experiential qualities of local ecosystems. Cloud Arbor, a stunning interactive mist sculpture by artist Ned Kahn, integrates seamlessly with the park landscape and fosters a connection with the nearby museum.