Pittsburgh Botanic Garden — Attraction in North Fayette Township

On land that was once part of Settler's Cabin county park, an effort was made to conceive, build, develop a botanical garden, that could be used for paid admission visits, events, receptions. The land that was there before had pollution from mining, abandoned mining equipment, and petroleum leaks seeping into the waterways. Alot of water testing was done into conceiving this project, I know because I met some of the people that were taking water samples, and telling me that there was a botanical garden project in the future. I did go visit recently, and I see what it has become. It's all very nice, but I would not pare it at the same level of world-class botanical gardens. It is more a space that is spectacular and rewarding to a paying visitor. Given that Pittsburgh greater area did not have a "botanical garden" but other cities within 200 miles radius did, I can see the political forces coalescing to create an admission-fee space that could be used for bridal receptions, special receptions for private parties, and revenue-generating seasonal exhibitions, such as in Christmas and Halloween holidays. I was somewhat shocked that a family of 2 adults and 2 children would pay $60 to visit this "botanical garden", but then, such admission fees are now the norm in fee-based museums such as the Heinz historical center museum in the city of Pittsburgh. I am not sure what the alternative is for a demographic section of the population whose subjection to a fee of $60 to visit what is essentially a beautified park. While at the same time city of Pittsburgh residents cannot get a water spigot opened in city parks because there is "only one plumber on duty" and it will take a month to have all the water fountains operational, I am comforted that if I travel to the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens, and pay the admission fee, I WILL find an operational drinking water fountain. So, it's a Tale of Two Cities, one where the public parks are decrepit and free, and one where beautified-for-bridal-photos spaces are fee-based. I am ok with that. It's basically a Phipps on county land, that was once a polluted mining scar that was quite disgusting, and now has a charm that approaches Disneyland. BTW, for families that want to make the best, join with family membership at $120, and that is paid off with two visits. Also, in September, there will be a free-admission day as part of RAD days. Oh, btw, on the other side of the road to the east, in a seldom-visited part of Settlers Cabin county park, there is still mining equipment, scars and holes and pits on the slag terrain, and polluted streams and marshes. ...

Update:

The Owner reaching out is a JOKE. Don't believe when they try to "make it right". The email they gave out is to a separate entity and all they did was tell me it's my fault for not showing up on time. WHICH I STATED IN MY ORIGINAL REVIEW. Don't try to show face and make it seem like you care just to rub salt in the wound.

Original Review:

Honestly super disappointed. We TRIED to go to the Christmas lights show but were turned away.

To start with, this place is in the middle of no where and super hard to find since they have no signage, lights, or people directing traffic. We passed the entrance without even realizing it and once we finally found a place to turn around (3 miles down the road) we tried to turn into the parking lot but were stopped and told we weren't allowed to park without a specifial pass. Even tho the parking wasn't even half full. This was at 8:50pm. So we were given a different address to go park and take a shuttle that was about 7-10 mins away. Keep in mind, we got the latest tickets available which was 9pm-10pm.

Once we got to the parking lot, we had to wait and flag down a shuttle driver because they weren't going to stop. Then we made the 7-10 min drive back to where we just came from.

We were dropped at the "entrance" which was closed. Confused we found a worker and were informed that they closed at 9:10pm and they weren't allowing anyone else in. We got there at 9:15pm. They told us we could try to ask for a refund or get tickets for a different day.

After going online, it became very clear that this company is not interested in helping you. It's plastered all over the website that they don't do any sort of refunds or changes.

I understand that this is all information that you have when you buy your tickets but the lack of consideration, customer service, or just general human kindness from all of the employees is heartbreaking. Not a single person we interacted with in the process of getting there told us that the doors were closing at 9:10. There were so many opportunities for someone to either help our chances of actually getting to see the lights or at least let us know that there was no point in trying to park and ride the shuttle because we would be getting there too late.

This is a very detailed and long winded review that I'm sure will fall on deaf ears. We're not from here and were really excited to go see the Christmas lights for our first Christmas in Pittsburgh. Where I'm from, people go out of their way to help you and make exceptions to provide the best customer service and experience...

The first issue I take, as someone with a great deal of experience in landscape architecture and bioregional design in the Pittsburgh area, is that this garden simply shouldn’t be called the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden’; it is categorically a smaller, much less formal garden compared to most botanical gardens that have the City in their name: Chicago Botanic Garden, New York Botanic Garden, etc. Moreover, Pittsburgh’s sense of nature - its green hills and valleys - are essential to our sense of place, and while I mean no disrespect to the creators of this Garden - it simply is not located near downtown Pittsburgh, and it is fundamentally misleading to call it “Pittsburgh Botanic Garden” and leave people comparing it to those of other historic / industrial/ Midwest cities. Phipps Conservatory is, of course, Pittsburgh’s ‘botanic garden’, for all intents and purposes. I also don’t see how Pittsburgh Botanic Garden would survive if it was asked - by the City of Pittsburgh, to change the name to something more accurate, without the name Pittsburgh. Moving beyond the name, I want to point out the buildings and natural areas (woods / meadow) and trail is fine and characteristic of the Pittsburgh region, and I appreciate those parts (so I’m not unhappy with my visit). As for the designed horticultural spaces of the gardens, it’s simply not of an intellectually, fashionably, ecologically, or otherwise high quality contemporary design that is on par with other places that have the name city_ Botanic Garden. Sorry, as someone who cares about socioeconomic and environmental causes in the Pittsburgh area, I would like to see the local school district and state take this property - would be a perfect Montessori primary school when the Botanic Garden closes because everyone realizes it’s not something that should have ever been allowed the name ‘Pittsburgh Botanic Garden’; it is essentially a form of false advertising. That doesn’t mean everything about the garden is bad or anything, it’s just simply not a garden that reflects the qualities of the name; and is therefore more than a little misleading. Actually, I knew I may take issue with this place, so I didn’t go for years; I went after I realized it was built on a former mine. When I thought they bulldozed an existing natural area to make this, I was definitely not going to pay the entrance fee. Seriously; let’s turn it into a a Montessori school now so we quit misleading visitors who go here instead...