From riverfront parks and bike trails to kayakers, floating tiki bars and lunchtime anglers, Pittsburgh uses its three rivers a good deal. But nonprofit group Riverlife says it believes people want even more.
The latest step in Riverlife’s long-term plan to more fully incorporate the city’s largest waterways into everyday life is Shore Thing, a 4,800-square-foot recreational barge anchored on the North Side between the Clemente and Warhol bridges, with a panoramic view of the Downtown skyline.
The barge, which includes plentiful seating and a food-and-drinks concession and will host live music, DJs, yoga classes and more, opened Tuesday. It’s free to board and will be open six days a week until 10 p.m. into October. (Kids under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.)
“Folks can come down for respite, recreation, they can really experience the riverfronts in a way we really just haven’t had in Pittsburgh before,” said Riverlife president and CEO Matthew Galluzzo.
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The project, which cost $1.2 million, is part of both Riverlife’s vision plan, Completing the Loop, and the Sister Bridges Experience, an initiative to better connect the North Side riverfront to Downtown. Initial funding came from the taxpayer-funded Allegheny Regional Asset District, with help from the Pennsylvania Waterfront Development Tax Credit Program, through which businesses including Duquesne Light Company, First National Bank and UPMC Health Plan got involved.
Galluzzo said inspirations included Donzi’s, the nightclub that was part of the Boardwalk, an entertainment complex anchored upstream, in the Strip District, in the ’90s and ’00s.
Shore Thing is not a single barge but an assembly of 10 linked modular industrial barges, each 40-feet-by-10-feet. The barges were purchased “gently used” in Dubuque, Iowa, Galluzzo said, and outfitted in the Pittsburgh region.
Visitors board the barge from a concrete walkway near the canoe launch beneath the Clemente Bridge, accessible from Allegheny Landing park.
“It’s really focused on being an extension of a park, which we’ve seen in other cities,” said Galluzzo.
The barge deck sports a shipping container that serves as the concession stand, with food and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) served by Braddock’s BG Brewing. The concession stand is off the power grid thanks to a solar array from Zero Fossil Fuels. Seating includes nine picnic tables and other tables and chairs under a shade canopy with a capiz shell installation by Carlow University instructor Fran Flaherty and her students. Other art includes a mural by Janel Young.
The middle of the deck includes more tables and seating and six nets, each 6-feet-by-6-feet, that let users feel like they are floating over the river’s surface. The far end of the deck is a lounge area, with drink rails at water’s edge and six birch trees in movable wheeled containers.
As an outdoor river amenity built on a floating steel foundation, Shore Thing will have to be depopulated during lightning storms, Galluzzo said.
But otherwise, there are many possibilities for additional programming. Riverlife plans to continue teaming with teaching artists, cultural groups and more, and remains open to suggestions
“There’s really opportunity to make this what Pittsburghers want,” said Galluzzo.
Galluzzo called Shore Thing “a permanent asset.” He said after it closes for the season, the barge will be sent back to RJ Brown River Towing, in Kittanning, for storage until next April. But he added, as a movable venue, it could potentially be anchored at any number of other locations along Pittsburgh’s rivers.
