A green vision for a former steel town
Youngstown — Posted on December 1, 2009 at 8:42 am“The decrepit former department store is not unusual. Many original buildings are in disrepair. Urban islands of grass and flowers are now concrete parking lots. Vacant storefronts and boarded-up buildings dot a main street that is just a whiff of the packed sidewalks, restaurants and boutiques of yesteryear.”
This sounds familiar to anyone who has walked down West Federal Street. The description is not, however, of our steel town. Vandergrift, Pennsylvania is a town of just 5,000 people situated northeast of Pittsburgh. Designed by Central Park architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the town is using a National Science Foundation grant to offset downtown energy costs with power generated from the Kiskiminetas River, which runs through the town.
The bigger picture is even more ambitious:
“To create an energy independent, ecologically low-impact, economically viable town from the ashes of its post-industrial wasteland. It aims to renovate buildings with sustainable materials, from carpet textiles to solar roof panels. A farmers market has been expanded. Trees are being planted.”
There is a Youngstown connection here, for what it’s worth. Charles Eliot was a landscape architect who apprenticed under Olmsted beginning in 1883. After traveling through and observing European landscape designs in 1885, he opened an office in Boston the following year and received a commission for Mill Creek Park (then Youngstown Gorge) in 1891. In 1893, Eliot became a partner with Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and John Charles Olmsted (Olmsted, Sr.’s stepson) in Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot.
Returning to Vandergrift, this is a fascinating vision for the town and will be instructive to watch. If we likewise establish a vision for a sustainable, walkable downtown, we can take important strides in improving our quality of place. Without the vision, we’ll get nowhere.
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Tags: economy, green
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7 Comments
Tyler,
It might be mutually beneficial for a Youngstown contingent to visit Vandergrift and see the redevelopment project.
Jim, great idea. Sounds like a cool town to see anyway.
The second biggest problem with downtown Youngstown is the lack of real green space. The biggest problem is that many dont consider that a problem. I would really like to see Mill Creek expand itself all the way into the downtown area. And the more I think about it, the more I would like to see the Wean building torn down next to the Mkt Street bridge and the whole area turned into green space (including a shallow pond space – water is aesthetically pleasing).
Let me know if there is a trip there. I’ll bring the Fritos!
Connecting Mill Creek Park to downtown and then to the university would be a real game-changer. When I first visited Youngstown, the most remarkable part of Janko’s tour was Mill Creek Park:
http://burghdiaspora.blogspot.com/2008/07/liminal-youngstown.html
There has been talk for a while (in the six years that I’ve been at YSU) that a bike trail would be built from campus, down Fifth, across the Mahoning Commons, and up to either Fellow’s Riverside Gardens and/or the other Mahoning Avenue entrances to Mill Creek Park.
This should be done in my opinion. A strong(er) connection between the University and Mill Creek Park is long overdue. For that matter, I think the University doesn’t have very good ties with other Youngstown institutions (Powers, Stambaugh Auditorium, Oakland et. al.)
It’s interesting to read that Vandergrift is harnessing the energy of their river. Can the Mahoning river be a power source?
Poland’s Town One Streetscapes is looking into a project to install two hydraulic ram pumps in Yellow Creek to irrigate all the flower boxes on the 170 and 224 bridges. Does anyone know what a hydraulic ram pump is?
Hi Tyler,
Until this past year, I used to visit Vandergrift on a regular basis, as there were several good antique stores (gone now) in their downtown area. There are still remnants of its early charm, mostly in the neighborhoods surrounding the business district. I remember my first visit to the town – I’d never heard of it, but it was recommended as a possible source for a certain antique I was seeking – and driving in, I was struck by just how everything “curved”. Now I know why!