Harmony of Public & Private = Harmony of Public Space

I worked as an intern in the Pittsburgh City Planning Office for about six months this year. In most of my role, I was assisting the Public Art Manager and the Senior City Planner. Throughout my internship I caught snip-its of conversations across the open office floor. Conversations about veteran memorial proposals, neighborhood murals, tree plantings next to roadways, RFPs, and unmaintained parks. This weeks' readings made me reflect on how the City of Pittsburgh leverages the balance between public and private funding when it comes to its public spaces. This balance between public and private support reminds me of a specific urban park space in downtown Pittsburgh--PNC Triangle Park. Most Pittsburghers probably don't know this park by the specific "PNC Triangle Park" name. The sign designating the name of the space is unnoticeable unless you are searching for it. This triangle of land sits between Market Street, Fifth Avenue, Liberty Avenue, and adjacent to PNC Plaza, which is the location of the various PNC offices. If you know the park by any name it is probably simply "Triangle Park". The park is enjoyed throughout the day by bus commuters waiting for their connection, professionals taking lunch breaks, construction workers taking coffee breaks, and a couple vagrants napping. It is a peaceful triangle of green amid the busy Liberty and Fifth Avenues. In the summer months, office workers from all the surrounding buildings can be seen on the Triangle Park benches, eyes closed, basking in the warm sunlight. The space is particularly pleasant because it is well designed and very clean. It features a variety of seating options, types and levels of vegetation, and shade covering in areas. Because it is owned and operated by PNC, it is always free of litter and debris. The plants are watered and pruned regularly. And as a result of PNC's immaculate upkeep of the park, hundreds of Pittsburgh citizens enjoy using it every day. One must consider what the triangle of land would be if PNC had not decided to purchase it and make it into, essentially, a public park. Based off of the city's track record of establishing and maintaining urban parks, I would say the chances of Triangle Park existing without the support of PNC would be slim. The city, which is pressed for funds, is just trying to get a handle on maintaining the parks it already has, many of which are in severe disrepair. While PNC, as a company, is probably motivated largely by something other than social good, it has managed to make a gesture that suggests otherwise to the City of Pittsburgh. PNC did not have to develop the triangle on Fifth and Liberty into a pleasant public space. They could have very well have converted it into parking, or an additional office space. What they did create now benefits individuals who use the space, the City Planning office who now has a space they don't have to maintain, Pittsburgh as a city which now looks more beautiful because of the space, and PNC whose image is now raised to a new height because of this public gesture. As a past intern for the City Planning Office, I believe that more public spaces should be created by a partnership between the public and private sectors. The development of a public space by a private business allows there to be a public space without the city spending money and resources on that space. It is also a social good paid for by a private company, who will be seen as a good Samaritan in the situation--using their money to benefit the public. The money and resources of most public parks departments, if they are anything like Pittsburgh's, are running thin. It would be in the best interest of the public parks departments and local private companies to create partnerships such as the one executed in PNC Triangle Park.