Riverfront Revitalization Rolls On in Pittsburgh

"After a $128 million investment in trails, parks and public art that has leveraged an estimated $4 billion in private development, the shores of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers are both the symbol of a revitalized city and a destination that lures kayakers, cyclists, yachtsmen, sports fans, lunch-hour duck lovers and little kids," writes Christine H O'Toole in detailing the dramatic impacts precipitated by the Pittsburgh Waterfront Master Plan.

O'Toole describes many of the key moments in the riverfront's revitalization, as well as detailing some of the projects that are still in the pipeline. The public projects that lie ahead, "such as a pedestrian walkway on the West End Bridge, the trail connection to the Mon Wharf and a development near the North Shore’s Carnegie Science Center," will likely will require another $100 million to complete, says O'Toole, "but the momentum generated by the completed projects has prompted Pittsburgh to raise the riverfront development bar."