Restoration of Mellon Square inspires book about the modernist landmark

DEC 6, 2014 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Seven years ago on a cold January night, landscape architect Charles Birnbaum urged local leaders to restore Mellon Square, the modernist jewel of a park that opened in 1955 in Downtown Pittsburgh.

As president and founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C., Mr. Birnbaum championed the project because he knew of other significant landscapes that had already disappeared from cities and parks.

Six months later, in June 2007, Meg Cheever, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, took Susan Rademacher on a tour of the city’s historic parks — Frick, Schenley, Riverview and Highland — plus the Hill District. Read full article