The Colcom Foundation is initiating a new public arts project celebrating the completion of renovations to Point State Park next fall.

“We see Point State Park as the city’s crown jewel,” said President and Treasurer Tim Inglis.

The park encompasses 36 acres fanning from the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge to form the Ohio River. The renovation, the largest public park project ever undertaken by the state, was shepherded by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which owns the property, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Riverlife, among others. It began in 2007 and includes the restoration of original design features of the park’s iconic fountain, which was created in 1974. The fountain will resume spouting during the third quarter of 2012.

Inglis described the project as “an artistic statement to stir the imagination and be unique.”

It also is very open to interpretation. Colcom, which is Pittsburgh’s fifth-largest foundation, has made a $375,000 grant to the Pennsylvania Environmental Council Pennsylvania Environmental Council to begin the process. PEC tapped South Side-based architectural firm SPRINGBOARD Design, to serve as project advisers and managers, “quarterbacking the process,” Inglis said.

That starts next month, when around 30 architectural and design firms from across the country will be invited to submit their qualifications to SPRINGBOARD. The respondents will be culled to five, whose ideas will be presented as sketches or models this fall at an exposition. “There will be an opportunity for the public to see the works and to weigh in on what they’re interested in,” said Paul Rosenblatt, SPRINGBOARD founding principal. He said a website will be developed to enable citizens to provide input on the project. At that point, Inglis said, other entities in the community may be brought on board to fund the project. “We’ve never done a design project like this,” Inglis said. “We don’t know if it will be light or sound or water or a structure. It may or may not result in a physical structure.”

Colcom had been considering some sort of arts project since last summer. It was a funder of DinoMite Days, a summer 2003 citywide art project in which artists painted 100 dinosaur models that were placed around Pittsburgh, then sold to bidders, with the proceeds benefiting Carnegie Museum of Natural History Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Colcom kicked around a similar event, possibly with penguin statues, and other ideas such as topiaries, in keeping with its mission of supporting conservation environmental projects and cultural assets, before deciding on something to celebrate the park.

“We’re looking for inspiration,” said Davitt Woodwell, PEC Western Region senior vice president. “This is a great project with a lot of different partners who have been working in Point State Park for several years and another part of really bringing the park up to its impressive standards. It should be very cool.”

Rosenblatt said he’s not aware of another project like this in the region.

“Colcom is asking a variety of different kinds of creative people to do the thinking for the city, on their dime,” Rosenblatt said. “Instead of saying the park needs an exhibition or sculpture or pavilion, they’re saying, ‘What do you guys think would enhance Point State Park and make it even more of a positive public space in the city of Pittsburgh?’ It’s very forward-thinking.”