History

You’ve probably heard it before. Pittsburgh: a city with a past mired in soot and smoke. Polluted rivers lined with mills. An urban landscape ravaged by industry, “hell with the lid off.”

Fast-forward to the present, and you’ll find a different Pittsburgh. A surprising Pittsburgh that looks and feels nothing like what you’ve heard. A breathtaking city of rivers, bridges and hills, those industrial black clouds long gone. A city of character and innovation moving forward and reclaiming its natural assets.

Though the transformation hasn’t happened overnight, there have been huge leaps forwards as the Pittsburgh community has united to forge a plan for a new chapter in the city’s history.

Riverlife

In 1999 a group of Pittsburgh community leaders, business owners, environmentalists and urban planners saw the need to develop a master plan for Pittsburgh’s most valuable asset: its rivers and their miles of shorelines.  The opportunity was enormous; the solution called for an organization to be the “keeper of a dream.”

Their vision led to the creation of Riverlife (then known as Riverlife Task Force). In 2001, following a public planning process that gathered the input of thousands of Pittsburghers, Riverlife presented a plan for Three Rivers Park: a grand, urban-scale waterfront park at the confluence of the three rivers in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. The result, A Vision Plan for Pittsburgh’s Riverfronts was the winner of the 2002 AIA Honor Award in Urban Planning and Design and the 2002 Merit Award in Planning from the International Downtown Association.

Three Rivers Park is coming to life as Riverlife and its team of experts champion the transformation of Pittsburgh’s riverfronts, from the city’s industrial corridor to its shared living and recreation space.

Riverlife Task Force officially shortened its name to Riverlife in 2008, reflecting the organization’s growth and transition from a “task force” to a governing board of directors. As Riverlife celebrates 10 years of existence in 2010, it is remarkable to assess the impact Three Rivers Park has had on Downtown living, recreation and the economy.

Through Riverlife’s leadership, more than half of the 13-mile Three Rivers Park loop has been established and improved for public use.  Key projects comprising the next phase of the Park are under construction as a part of our current capital improvement projects, and Riverlife has a plan in place to complete the remainder of the Park over the next ten years.