About Us

About Riverlife

Our Mission

We create, activate, and celebrate Pittsburgh’s riverfronts, connecting people through exceptional places and experiences.

Our Vision and Our Values

At Riverlife, we envision a Pittsburgh where thriving world-class riverfronts are essential to the region and belong to everyone. We believe Pittsburgh’s rivers bring life to our region.

We elevate social equity. We center our work on the idea that the riverfronts belong to everyone and must be a model for community-driven, equitable development.
We embrace innovative ideas. We tackle big challenges with creative solutions that drive transformational change.
We advocate for great design. We cultivate riverfront experiences that are elevated by high-quality, community-focused, and regenerative design.
We collaborate and connect. We nurture broad-based partnerships with community, philanthropy, and key stakeholders to advance our mission.
We are a trusted leader. We advance a shared vision through our unique position at the intersection of economic development, arts & culture, and sustainability.

A History of Working Together

Riverlife’s staff team works every day with developers, land owners, and neighborhood groups on issues of riverfront design, access, amenities and programming in Pittsburgh and the region. Find out how you can work with us.

Riverlife is a nonprofit organization formed in 1999 by people like you who saw the opportunity to create a plan for the redevelopment of Pittsburgh’s downtown riverfronts. We conducted hundreds of public meetings and gathered feedback from thousands of residents and visitors, asking:

“What would you like to see along Pittsburgh’s riverbanks?”

Working from the feedback of the community, Riverlife released a vision plan in 2000 for Pittsburgh’s 15-mile, 1.055-acre loop of riverfront parks, trails, and public open spaces. The riverfront park system has been realized piece by piece, with Riverlife working with land owners, developers, neighborhood groups and elected officials to build and connect Pittsburgh’s downtown riverfront experience. Through Riverlife’s leadership, more than 85% of the 15-mile loop has been established and improved for public use. In 2022 Riverlife released the Completing the Loop plan for how we intend to close the remaining gaps and make major improvements to the loop over the next decade.

Great Riverfronts Benefit Everyone

Riverlife has led a $150 million investment in creating Pittsburgh’s downtown riverfront experience over the past 15 years. That investment helped catalyze nearly $4.2 billion in total riverfront and adjacent development in downtown Pittsburgh. In addition to real estate development, that also means new public trail connections, parks and amenities on Pittsburgh’s riverfronts.

For more information about accessibility on the riverfronts, please contact Riverlife’s Accessibility Coordinator, Maria Riley, at maria@riverlifepgh.org or 412-258-6636, ext. 107.