'Trail Meander:' New Fern Hollow Bridge art project given the green light
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Pittsburgh's newly revamped art commission gave the go-ahead for a special project under the rebuilt Fern Hollow Bridge.
"The design that I created is called 'trail meander'," said Carin Mincemoyer, a Pittsburgh artist.
With the Fern Hollow Bridge reconstructed it's almost time to give new life to the portion of Tranquil Trail located under the bridge.
Pittsburgh artist Carin Mincemoyer designed a unique art installation that will allow people to take the slow path, pause and reflect on the trail by Fern Hollow Creek.
"I am proposing to restore the trail instead of in a straight line, it's going to be a curving winding path that widens out and it's got a couple of islands in it that will have seating and plantings and then there's seating elements, sculptures that go up the sides of the ravine as well," Mincemoyer said.
On January 28th, 2022, the Fern Hollow Bridge gave way and fell into the ravine in Frick Park. 10 people were hurt, four of those people were taken to the hospital.
Mincemoyer said she's creating sculptures and benches for the trail that will look like river boulders and driftwood. The driftwood ones will be made of trees taken from the collapse site.
"When the bridge fell, they had to remove some of the trees from the site and the city actually has those saved, so we're going to bring back some of the trees to their home and they will be used as benches and sculptures in the installation," she said.
The City of Pittsburgh's Public Art and Civic Design Commission approved the project this week.
The artsy trail will not be a memorial of the bridge collapse. But Mincemoyer designed it for a wide variety of uses, including quiet reflection, meditation, or remembrance.
"I'm really taking the trail and kind of offering a place to take the slow path, and slow it down, and even offer a place to stop. So, that was one of my goals with this was to make the space under the bridge an area to relax, spend time with friends, you can meditate, you can have some quiet time," she said.
Mincemoyer said a large team of organizations is involved with the restoration of the trail. She believes it could be complete by at least Summer or Fall but said there's a lot that needs to be done.
"It's a huge honor to be able to contribute something to be built in an environment that's going to be here for decades and have something that people can hopefully enjoy for decades to come is really special and it really means a lot," she said.
Some of the Public Art and Civic Design Commission members said in their meeting that they could consider adding a memorial of some sort, maybe a plaque, to memorialize the bridge collapse and victims who were injured sometime down the road.
This is the second Fern Hollow Bridge artist project approved by the commission, they said the other project will be an upper deck experience.
Funding for the art projects is funded by the Federal Highway Administration construction budget for the bridge.