Place Profile: Washington's Landing

Washington's Landing along Pittsburgh's Allegheny River waterfront combines a number of employment uses with a residential neighborhood. A modest but effective marina (foreground, right) at its core provides the neighborhood meeting spot and has become a destination within the city for those on foot, bike, boat, and car.

In a city defined by water, a look at one way to get to it

The City of Pittsburgh, like many of its formerly industrial brethren, has made a number of moves to reclaim the working waterfront as active places for human activity. In most cases, this involves installing trails in linear parks with recreation nodes in place of the mills and plants that once relied upon water access. In these cases the recreational and riparian reclaimed edge pushes back buildings and their uses from the water they so desperately want to be on. The marina at Washington's Landing provides one exception where use of and engagement with the water occur as a matter of course.

In this simple analysis, we'll look at the six core characteristics that make it work:

1. The Allegheny River is the critical element to success just as it is the conduit to moving the region's economy. The river brings boats, recreation, fishing, and cools the temperature.2. The River's Edge performs a number of duties. It contains the north shore trail that connects trail users downstream to downtown and the stadiums; stabilizes soils to prevent erosion; and cleanses stormwater runoff. It is one of the major conduits connecting the marina to a broader ecological and recreational system.3. The neighborhood provides critical stability to Washington's Landing and to the marina's restaurant, Redfin Blues. The island (map below), contains a range of uses, from residential to light industrial and office (not pictured). 4. The Terrace for Redfin Blues is the most active public space on the island. It is where the river is accessed, where boaters land, and where food and beverage is consumed. The trail plugs directly into the terrace.5. The marina restaurant building will not win any AIA awards but it does perform without frills its duties extremely well. It is not too big, lending it to always feeling full (and why would one come to the marina and prefer to sit inside?). The building also has a bar that is dual aspect connecting inside to out. A small amount of office space is perched on top of the restaurant giving it another layer of mingled uses.

6. The Marina itself is a crucial ingredient here. Not only does it bring marina users to support the other commercial activity to be had here, but it provides vital movement of people actually working on the waterfront. Here, boats are constantly moving between dry and wet docks through a complex boat fork lift and elevator that mitigates the change in elevation on the river's bank. Diners are also onlookers viewing the cheap entertainment at the water's edge. Without this exchange, the viability of the marina would diminish greatly.

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Comments

[Cory Hartman]

Nice analysis, we should do lunch there on Sunday.