Riverlife’s ‘to be determined’ (‘tbd’) program is looking for the next big idea for the riverfront under the Fort Duquesne Bridge in downtown Pittsburgh. After a worldwide call for artists and designer teams last December that resulted in 52 submissions, the “tbd” jury has selected three semifinalists to develop concepts for a temporary installation under the bridge.
First, we want to thank everyone who expressed interest in “to be determined” and the Request for Qualifications. Our jury was truly impressed by the dozens of talented teams that submitted themselves for consideration.
Meet the Semifinalists
Congratulations to the three semifinalists, listed alphabetically:
Balmori Associates, New York, NY
Team description:
We believe LANDSCAPE + DESIGN can provide a ground from which to base a healthy and exciting quality of life and to fuse together new ideas from the worlds of arts, ecology and the sciences. Our team promotes a unified practice of landscape and ecology to create collaborative interactive systems that integrate nature and culture, people and the environment.
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“Temporary projects like “tbd” are great testing grounds for new ideas. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to develop an installation that interacts with all Pittsburgher living things – people, birds, bats, bees, fishes and plants. Our installation will transform and inform, amaze and inspire.”
Future Green Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Team description:
Future Green Studio is a distinctive and innovative landscape design firm based in Brooklyn, New York. We are thoughtful stewards of our changing climate and creative shapers of our built environment. As careful observers and good listeners, our approach to the design process begins with detailed observation of what’s already happening on a site and close communication with clients and communities. In that way, we unearth inherent value and beauty. We reveal hidden assets, cultivate existing ecological niches, and figure out how new landscapes can enhance our daily lives and experience.
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“Future Green is honored to have been selected as a semifinalist for Pittsburgh’s “tbd” installation under the Ft. Duquesne Bridge. We look forward to working with the local community to create a dynamic vision. Through an exploration of the site’s social, economic and historical traces, we can transform an underutilized corridor into an active event space that combines art, urban ecology, and landscape architecture.”
STUDIOGRUBER, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Team description:
STUDIOGRUBER’s work spans architectural design, urbanism and research with a particular interest in practices of commoning and the bottom-up transformation of cities. Past projects range from large scale urban design strategies, such as ‘Magnetic Urban Field’ for Graz, Austria to temporary interventions in public space, such as the ‘Wishing Table’ in Dessau, Germany or most recently ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ in downtown Pittsburgh. Based in Pittsburgh since 2016, STUDIOGRUBER was founded in 2006 and has been recognized internationally.
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“I’m interested in exploring the duality of the site, in that it is at once extremely central while feeling quite remote—for Pittsburghers this presents an opportunity for an extraordinary waterfront experience without travelling far.”
What’s Next?
Each of the three teams has been awarded $5,000 to participate in a site visit and meetings this month with key stakeholders and community members. The teams will introduce themselves during a free public open house on Friday, January 26 from noon-3:00 pm at Bricolage Theater downtown and conduct community engagement activities to gather feedback from Pittsburghers about the potential of the riverfront space under the bridge.
Once their proposals for the temporary installation are developed after meeting with community members, the three semifinalist teams will then present their ideas to the jury next month. The winning proposal will continue to be refined by the team, with the goal of final installation under the Fort Duquesne Bridge later this spring.
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RSVP here for the free open house on Friday, January 26 at Bricolage Theater
