HeART this City by Ed Trask

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Riding through Point State Park we came across artist Ed Trask working on this temporary mural. He was happy to talk with us and explained that it was part of an Alternative Spring Break project sponsored by American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and the Student Conservation Association (SCA).

AEO and SCA have been organizing these conservation projects for seven years now. This year’s theme is HeART This City and student volunteers have taken on projects in San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and here in our own backyard. In each location the volunteers work to improve parks or to accomplish other conservation efforts. Along side the students, they’ve brought in established artists to create murals promoting the theme. Ed Trask was the artist assigned to Pittsburgh, and given the task of creating a graphic image to represent the project.

Mr Trask said his initial idea was something that showed more of the history of the area – specifically the dichotomy of how the steel industry was detrimental to the environment versus the incredible philanthropic contributions from the steel magnates. The CSA wanted a more simple graphic though. They asked for the image to include the HeART This City phrase and symbols or images for the city woven into the design and done with the city’s colors featured. So Mr Trask has started off featuring one of our iconic bridges. He’s filled the right side of the mural with the hypocycloids that we all immediately recognize from the Steelers logo (which was originally from the American Iron and Steel Institute and US Steel Corp). Other imagery symbolizes what Ed Trask calls the Creative Renaissance of Pittsburgh. He uses triangular shapes to represent the three rivers and superimposes them on top of gears that represent industrial Pittsburgh. He sees all the bike trails, green spaces and cultural venues as part of the renaissance. Former Pittsburghers returning home are participants in the transition and renewal of the city. In the center of the mural the tracks represent the strong railroad presence here and its contribution to industrial Pittsburgh. We, of course, see them as a symbol for the Rails to Trails program, which created the Great Allegheny Passage – which starts (or ends, depending on your perspective) at the Point – which is a part of that Creative Renaissance previously mentioned. (I love it when it all ties together!)

While the mural is under construction, the student volunteers have been busy planting native plants around Point State Park. The SCA is a conservation corps, working to protect and restore parks and green spaces across the country. In the past they’ve focused on National Parks for the spring break project, but this year have focused efforts in urban areas. Here in Pittsburgh they took on the task of restoring native plants to the historic Point. Working with some of Penn State’s Master Gardeners they removed invasive species and replaced them with 170 natives including winterberry, wild geranium, clethra and blueberries.

They were working hard on the landscaping improvements and we appreciate it!

The mural was due to be completed by late April of 2014. We took the above photos on the 26th but when we returned the morning of the 27th the mural was already gone.

In May 2014 we arrived at the Bike–Pgh Bike to Work Day commuter cafe station in front of American Eagle Outfitters buildings on the Southside and discovered that the completed mural had been relocated there. It was there for a few months and then removed.

Cafe at the Point Relief, artist unknown

About Pgh Murals
Spreadsheet of Pittsburgh Public Art and blog archives
Map of Pittsburgh Public Art

There’s a small – sort of fold–up – café in Point State Park. When it’s closed up, the stainless steel front has this great etched map of what this location used to look like. Included in the etching is this explanation:

This map depicts Fort Pitt and its extensive outworks and gardens lying at the Forks of the Ohio River. The original manuscript, produced by British military engineer Lieutenant Elias Meyer around 1761, is held by The National Archives of the United Kingdom.

They also give a description of how the area was used for gardening:

The King’s Garden:
Feeding Pittsburgh in the 18th Century
You are standing on what was once the parade ground of Fort Pitt, one of the largest military fortifications in 18th century North America. British and colonial American soldiers built this massive Fort between 1759 and 1761 in order to control the strategic Forks of the Ohio River (now Point State Park). The town of Pittsburgh grew up around Fort Pitt.
To feed the growing population, Fort Pitt’s British commanders set aside nearly forty acres of land along the Allegheny River for the King’s Garden, named for the British King George III. Stretching three–quarters of a mile along the Allegheny River from Fort Pitt, the Garden included a bowling green, a fenced deer park, a large orchard, and a series of fields, pastures, and garden plots laid out in geometrical patterns. The plantings that make up the green or living walls of the cafe reflect the Garden’s patterns.
Fort Pitt’s garrison raised fruits, vegetables, and grains in the King’s Garden. These local crops, rich in vitamins and nutrients, supplemented the typical military diet of salted meat, flour, dried peas, and rice. Pittsburgh’s early inhabitants enjoyed strolling the grounds for many years and continued to use the term the King’s Garden even after the colonists declared their independence from King George III.

Living wall on the side of the cafe.