The Regent Square Gateway Project

The Regent Square Gateway Project is bringing together community members, municipal officials, nonprofits, and businesses to create an entrance to Frick Park that cleans stormwater and educates people about the Nine Mile Run watershed and stormwater problems in our region.

The project builds upon concept drawings developed by the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and the Rocky Mountain Institute in their report Re-Evaluating Stormwater: The Nine Mile Run Model for Restorative Development. To see the full report click here.

The new design incorporates sustainable stormwater management and beautiful landscaping to clean and manage excess rain and snowmelt, a problem that currently wreaks havoc on Nine Mile Run by eroding streambanks and flooding it with pollutants. To see samples of the schematic designs for the site, click here.

This project will demonstrate how innovative environmental infrastructure development can improve aquatic and riparian habitat in an urban park, and enhance community access to open space and clean water. In addition, it will safeguard and enhance the considerable investment that both local and federal governments and private foundations have already made in Nine Mile Run and the surrounding park, an investment which is now still at risk during large storms.

NMRWA is currently seeking funding for the construction phase of the project. To help in this effort, please contact executive director Brenda Smith.

The Team

NMRWA  hired Cahill Associates, a firm specializing in environmental planning, stormwater management, and sustainable site design, to lead the design process. They enlisted the help of Atelier Dreiseitl, a renowned German design firm whose best known project was the spectacular Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.

The Regent Square Gateway Project schematic design phase was made possible with funding from the Babcock Charitable Trust, the Canaan Valley Institute, the Garden Club of Allegheny County, the Heinz Endowments, the Henry J. Simonds Foundation, the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation, the Laurel Foundation, the PA Department of Community and Economic Development, and the Western PA Watershed Program.