Pittsburgh man who won design competition for iconic Point State Park tree left in the dark
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Two years ago, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate won a competition to redesign the iconic tree at Point State Park.
But Ben Towne told KDKA-TV that he does not expect to see it anytime soon.
"When I saw this contest come up, I thought it would be great to be able to contribute to that and leave a legacy here in Pittsburgh," Towne said.
He won first place in Duquesne Light's 2022 crowdsourcing competition to redesign the tree. He landed the first place $10,000 prize but says he has sat in the dark ever since.
"It looks like it was announced who the winner was on July 1, 2022," Towne said. "But the actual winning design has not been publicly announced or unveiled and looks like it probably never will be, which is fine."
KDKA-TV reached out to Duquesne Light to figure out what happened.
"He was paid for his winning design concept last year as a condition of the contest and we moved forward with a model that met the engineering requirements of the display at Point State Park," Duquesne Light said in a statement.
"The design was a lot of work, and the follow-up was a lot of work," Towne said. "And the tax paperwork was a lot of work. And the construction contract would have been a separate contract. And I don't think that my teammates were even invited to bid on it, which is too bad."
He said you win some, you lose some. And even if you win, it doesn't always pan out.
"It was a fun project to work on, and it was fun to dream and imagine what it could be like and to submit and win," Towne said.
He said any local municipality that would like to use his holiday design can contact him on his LinkedIn page.
