Heyl: A Pittsburgh Ferris Wheel Finally Becoming A Reality (2024)

Community Corner

Apparently the city where the Ferris wheel was conceived finally will get a permanent one of its own.

Posted Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 8:04 am ET

We’ll get to that momentarily, but first a little history. The relationship’s high point occurred when George Ferris designed the first Ferris wheel for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He did so from his house on Arch Street on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

The low point? That likely happened in 1999, when Kennywood got rid of its Ferris wheel. Since that rare miscue by the amusem*nt park, the only Ferris wheels in the town in which they were invented have been temporary ones at carnivals, fairs and the annual Three Rivers Regatta.

Every year, disappointment follows the dismantling of the 90-foot-tall Wheel of Lights that’s set up in Point State Park for the regatta. Regular readers of mine (hi, Mom) probably recall that for several years around that time I’ve suggested that Pittsburgh should have a permanent Ferris wheel.

Thankfully, Lucas Piatt agrees. On Friday, the Millcraft Industries president and CEO disclosed plans for a giant Ferris wheel to be built as part of a large 13-acre development called Esplanade just to the west of the Rivers Casino.

“Pittsburgh has to have a Ferris wheel,” Piatt told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “George Ferris lived and died in Pittsburgh.”

Piatt gets it. He gets that it’s absurd that the city where the Ferris wheel was conceived doesn’t have one - especially because for years cities such as Las Vegas, Orlando, Seattle and Myrtle Beach have been using Ferris wheels as tourist magnets. Piatt compared the one planned for Pittsburgh to the one at the National Harbor near Washington, D.C., pictured above.

Wouldn’t it be great to gaze down at the city from Mt. Washington and see a sight like that on the North Side?

It’s important that someone in Piatt’s position is Ferris wheel-friendly. He’s a dynamic visionary who has had his fingerprints all over various projects that have helped revitalize Downtown Pittsburgh over the past 15 years. He has a proven track record of making things happen.

Need someone to transform a vacant Lazarus department store into a thriving building of restaurants, retailers and condos? Piatt’s the man. Need someone to turn your empty G.C. Murphy into apartments, retail space and a fitness center? Give Piatt a call.

Need someone to convert your stale old State Office Building into luxury apartments? E-mail Piatt. Need someone to put up a parking garage and condos on the Saks Fifth Avenue site? At the risk of being repetitive…

The wheel is just one element of Esplanade, which will include retail, restaurants, apartments and a hotel. But Pittsburgh already has all of those things. It lacks a Ferris wheel.

For the time being, anyway. Piatt said the project is still two years away from groundbreaking, so we’ll have to be satisfied with just the Wheel of Lights for a while longer.

But like a gondola car ascending into the sky, Pittsburgh’s relationship with the Ferris wheel once again is on the rise.

Eric Heyl is Patch’s Pittsburgh field editor. Reach him at 412-334-4033 or Eric.Heyl@Patch.com.

National Harbor Ferris wheel photo: Eric Heyl/Patch staff.