PART IV: Notes on Parks and Recreation Facilities
Pittsburgh: Main Thoroughfares and The Down Town District
Frederick Law Olmsted report to The Pittsburgh Civic Commission, 1910
page 103
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the city all about, gives it not a little value, and there is reasonable doubt if it should not be saved even at some sacrifice. An increased use of this valley would give further reason for its preservation; and the proposed taking of Junction Hollow for park purposes (discussed below) furnishes the opportunity. By carrying an informal park treatment from the valley below up the ravine and under the bridge to Forbes Street,and having plenty of walks and benches and attractive planting therein, this ravine becomes an interesting and inviting branch of the park, and serves also as an informal entrance to the lower park levels such as Junction and Panther Hollows. The use and the value of the ravine are thus materially increased.
University Buildings at Berlin, suggestive of the grouping proposed at the entrance to Schenley Park
In plan B the ravine is filled and the bridge abandoned. The present Grant Boulevard approach is changed to a more direct and dignified approach from Fifth Avenue and the Boulevard by widening Tennyson Avenue and cutting a broad street through from Fifth Avenue and Tennyson to Forbes Street on the axis of the new park entrance. This new entrance is a formal court enclosed by the Carnegie Institute on the east, by proposed public buildings on the north and west, and by a terrace overlooking the valley, on the south. By narrowing the area between the Institute and Forbes Field, a court of good proportions is obtained, and ample space is left on land already owned by the City for the enclosing building on the west. The strong axial approach in reality extends the park entrance to Fifth Avenue; and the court at Forbes Street, while adding to the dignity and character of this entrance, becomes a fitting plaza around which will be grouped the buildings of a public character. At the southern end of this court are the terrace, overlooking the park to the south, and the two driving entrances, one over Junction
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