PEC, with funding from the Colcom Foundation, facilitated a design exploration for the entrance to Point State Park in the summer of 2011. On October 12th, the five design teams, selected through a competitive process, submitted their final proposals. Check out submissions at www.portaltothepoint.org.

To facilitate public feedback and information about the explorations, a public exhibition of the finalists’ presentations will be displayed at multiple Pittsburgh locations. The first exhibition was held at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Hall of Architecture from October 19-23.

Please check back for more details about additional exhibits, as well as a public symposium by the participating teams, and a book to document the process and the results. The book will be available online and will establish an extended platform for the dissemination of information about the project.

The five creative teams, who were selected from a pool of submissions from North American architects, landscape architects, designers and artists invited to submit their qualifications, were:

Marlon Blackwell Architect, Fayetteville, Arkansas
www.marlonblackwell.com
Marlon Blackwell; Kendall Buster, Guy Nordenson & Associates, dlandstudio, Renfro Design Group

MAYA Design, Pittsburgh, PA
www.maya.com
Dutch MacDonald; The Gray Circle

SCAPE / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, New York, NY
www.scapestudio.com
Kate Orff; The Living

Weiss/Manfredi, New York, NY
www.weissmanfredi.com
Marion Weiss, Michael Manfredi; Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Green Shield Ecology, Mark Dion

wHY Architecture, Culver City, CA
www.why-architecture.com
Kulupat Yantrasast; Reed Hilderbrand, WET Design

SPRINGBOARD Design serves as the project advisor and manager. Project partners include DCNR, Riverlife, and PennDOT. An Advisory Committee comprised of nationally-recognized architects, artists, educators and CEOs, as well as key stakeholders, was convened to assist in reviewing the qualifications submissions and offer selection recommendations.

Portal to the Point is focused purely on the development of ideas. Whether or not one of the proposals is commissioned is ultimately outside the scope of this exploration.

This design ideas exploration, which sought to design the entrance to the park, including the Portal Bridge and Reflecting Pond area,  coincides with extensive ongoing renovations, started in 2007, led by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation of Natural Resources (DCNR), the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Riverlife, and others, to restore and enhance some of the iconic features in the original design.

Point State Park, originally dedicated in 1974, is located at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio River. This 36-acre park, a National Historic Landmark, is home to the Fort Pitt Museum, the Fort Pitt Block House, and plaques and markers to commemorate the historical significance of this French and Indian War site.