Frick Environmental Center

Legacy buildings and more modern buildings, but state of the art environmental structures do not exist here....yet. It is a small footprint adjacent to an urban green space public park of some 600(?) city acres. Allows vetted and volunteer scientists and general public to be in an urban designed outdoor landscape and .....then...if mindful...to witness city wildlife, transient east coast wildlife and local botanical specimems thrive, die and regenerate over their existing natural life cycles.

This is an awesome place to bring the family for a nice, relaxing walk in the woods and enjoy the extremely well-designed and informational environmental center. The building is a stellar exemplar of green architecture and thoughtful design including benches made from planks of fallen trees recycled for the purpose, large windows to allow lots of natural light to avoid electricity use, and solar panels over the parking lot to shade cars while powering the building. The staff is very friendly and helpful, willing to answer any question you have about the building or park. There is a large room for kids to learn about the park’s wildlife and even watch the bird feeders. I was here today for a meeting of the Pittsburgh Young Birders Club. By the looks of it, there were many young people interested in this startup public club, so I’m looking forward to see how it progresses. Today we got to see a gray morph Eastern screech-owl while learning much about raptors, particularly owls. The group also split into several smaller groups to take a small bird walk, introducing birdwatching to the participants. What a great, if a little cold, day to be out!

Frick Park is a beautiful city park with so many trails good for walking, running, and mountain biking. The Environmental Center is something to see, great for adults and kids. All the trails around it and the beautiful wood deck are beautifully maintained and showcase our local Flora and fauna. Birds and pollinators love the gardens and the woodland areas. I recommend it specifically for kids so they can start learning and getting close to nature. I love this place, even just sitting on a bench in the clean, well kept entrance. There are restrooms and water fountains here and some others along the trails near the parkings. For the trails: dogs are allowed and not always kept on leash. Bow hunting is now allowed (I saw a hunter just today) in Frick Park albeit in a very controlled number and locations so stay on trail. If you unleash your dog during bow hunting season make sure it's wearing an orange vest. Very recommended for working out or just for a relaxing stroll.

Best place ever. Came across some deer on my way to my favorite spot.

Amazing area to rest, relax, and learn about the natural elements & history of the park.

Great place for the kids, also some really great hiking trails.

There is often a friendly staff member posted at the front full of helpful information. The center is open as far as I've noticed despite the weather. In the center is very nice and clean bathrooms, and lots of books and coloring things for kids. Books range from kids books to adult books. There is a bird watching balcony and binoculars you can borrow. It's just a cozy feeling space that you can hang out without needing to buy anything with friendly staff members excited to talk about the park.

The first time I visited this place was for yoga and singing bowls on the terrace overlooking the park, on a Saturday morning. It left me with a permanent good impression. The building is beautiful and functional and all the events I've attended thereafter have been well organized and insightful.

Its name may lead Yelpers to conjure different pictures of what this center has to offer its patrons. The site includes a modern architecture LEED Platinum and Living Building. I have taken both yoga and tai chi adult wellness classes in the building and they offer a host of experiential environmental educational classes inside the classrooms and outside focused on children. There is a From Slavery to Freedom Garden on the grounds as well. As there is available free onsite parking, it makes for a great entrance to the trails of Frick Park's wooded 644-acres.

An amazing building that beautfully showcases sustainable building practices. It's a hub for environmental education, and a gorgeous entrance to the park. They continue to improve the building by adding new measures to protect birds and discourage them from colliding with the windows. I've been to several events at the Center, and the versatility of the building makes for great indoor and outdoor spaces. The staff is always very friendly and helpful. One particularly fun feature of the building is the small child-sized entrance beside the adult entrance, I've never seen that before, bit it's hilarious and fun.

Free battery recycling in the main building. It looks like a really nice park with several walking trails and community events. I specifically only dropped off batteries but I'm excited to go back soon.

This environmental center is absolutely beautiful! Really rivals the welcome center in Ohiopyle that was built as far as architectural beauty. Multi-level with classrooms (and really nice bathrooms). It has porch that overlooks the park and it most importantly environmentally friendly. They treat all their water on site and are sustainable. It is a beautiful building that I would give 5 stars to. HOWEVER! My only (and biggest) problem is that in building this environmental center, they massacred many, MANY trees in doing so. The view that you see from the balcony as of right now looks like you are overviewing complete deforestation. They claim on the signs that it is because these trees were invasive species, but they have to replace these things slowly or else there is just a big pile of logs!! They also massacred the meadow in the Meadow trail... my favorite in the summer! I am endlessly angry about it.

Beautiful, sustainably built building that offers a well thought out entry to many of the trails in Frick. There are also great views from the back porch. When the building is open they have free maps of the trails. Unfortunately, if you're not here for an event, there is very little to do at the environmental center. There are basically no permanent exhibits. I expected there to be more educational exhibits and info about the park. They could have done a million times better. Also, the environmental center is basically inaccessible for pedestrians. The sidewalk cuts off not far north of the building. There is also no crosswalk on Beechwood Blvd near the building, so if you are walking from the adjacent neighborhood you have to cross the busy street at a high speed curve, which is very dangerous. If there is a better way to access this building on foot from Squirrel Hill, please make the route more apparent!

Wonderful city park. The environmental center was built to the highest standards and is simple and functional. They are doing wonderful educational work for people of all ages. Martha

Pretty raw, in-progress park. Renovaations expected to be completed this year. I'm coming back with Daughter to explore and picnic.

The Frick Environmental Center is the center of nature education at Frick Park. The current Frick Environmental Center began offering environmental education programs in1979, and has since hosted thousands of area children for field lessons, nature hikes, and summer camps. Currently, the Center offers year-round programs for the public, including birding, composting, weed identification, and nature photography. The Center's also offers outreach programs that will bring environmental education into local schools. Unfortunately, the Center's main building burned down in 2002 and the Environmental Center staff currently hosts courses in the gatehouse buildings. There are proposals for a new Environmental Center, which would provide the space necessary for expanded programs. Pittsburgh Parks Conservacy has produced a business plan, selected a design team and has begun accepting proposals for a new building. Educational programming plans are underway and public meetings have been held to find out what the community wants from a new Environmental Center. This all would be a tremendous boon for the city because the Frick Environmental Center offers programs for people of all ages on the park's habitats and ecology. The Frick Park Environmental Center serves as the gateway to the 151-acre Frick Woods Nature Reserve. Henry Clay Frick wished that the people of Pittsburgh have an undeveloped wildlife area to enjoy and so he bequeathed this area of the park in his will. This section of the park is filled with native plants and provides an extensive wildlife habitat. A good proportion of Frick Park consists of wetlands, feeding into the Nine Mile Run Watershed. These wetlands provide the basis for the fauna and flora in the Frick Woods Nature Reserve and you can read more about them here http://www.pittsburghparks.org/userdocs/10-natural-features-report.pdf On Earth Day, 1991, the woods were rededicated as the Frick Woods Nature Reserve. Few, very few cities have a forest preserve such as this within their boundaries and we should be proud to have one. The Frick Park Environmental Center oversees the activities within the woods and hopefully a new facility will be built soon to better serve our needs.

Really disappointed In the Nature Center we've waited for for so long...There is nothing there. What a huge, missed opportunity. Yes, it's a beautiful building that I'm sure cost lots of money to build. It consists of a few classrooms (that appeared to be geared towards younger children, but they were empty). And offices, really? I know they are still working on it, but I couldn't help but compare it to the facility at Ohiopyle. It's less than half the size, but it is so interesting and interactive. My family spent over an hour exploring it. What about some current and historical photography, murals, art, history, replicas, etc. Trees, ecology, vegetation, the different paths, wildlife. Nine Mile Run and Alcosan...golden opportunity to educate people, missed by these groups. Instead of a few classes a week, this could have benefited everyone who visited and been a real destination. So many groups could have worked to make this an engaging and truly educational place for everyone. Sigh.