Monastery Street Park is the transformation of a formerly overgrown and unsightly green space in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes neighborhood. This lighted figure/ground map, located at the corner of Monastery and Brosville Streets, marks a key location, but with much more than a “welcome to the neighborhood” sign.

A canvas of cor-ten steel plate with digitally fabricated openings captures a vignette of neighborhood buildings, parks, and public staircases. Overlaid on this perforated background is a dimensional network of cor-ten bars representing streets and steps.

By day, the surfaces create a pattern of shade and shadow. At night, concealed LED lighting illuminates a constellation of buildings, parks, and steps. Steel materials recall the historic industrial lifeblood of the neighborhood and will oxidize naturally over time without intervention.