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Pittsburgh Botanic Garden (PBG) is a non-profit organization holding a 99-year lease from Allegheny County on a 452 acre parcel of land adjacent to Settler’s Cabin Park, 20 minutes west of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The organization was established by the Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania in 1988 to build a regional botanic garden to be named the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania. In 2010 the name was changed to Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. This will be the region’s first comprehensive outdoor botanical garden, a complimentary initiative to the world-renowned Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, also in Pittsburgh. The master plan was done by MTR, a nationally recognized landscape architectural firm from Pittsburgh that designed the Missouri Botanical Garden, Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Chicago Botanic Garden. The master plan includes:
- 18 thematically distinct gardens and 5 diverse woodland walks and hiking trails for brisk exercise. The Garden will provide peaceful settings inviting one to linger to enjoy the solitude and renew the spirit.
- a visitor's center, an amphitheatre for outdoor performances, a celebration center to accommodate large outdoor or indoor weddings and corporate events
- a center for botanic research and education. There will be hands-on classroom experiences to both inspire amateur gardeners and school children.
There are abandoned coal mines under two-thirds of the site, polluting the Chartier's Creek and the Garden’s future water sources with extensive acid mine drainage. Remediation requires that the mines be collapsed. Working with Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Office of Surface Mining and Mashuda Corporation, PBG is extracting the residual coal before collapsing the mines. The sale of the coal will pay for the reclamation. Work also includes building of 3 irrigation ponds, capable of holding 2 million gallons of water to eliminate future reliance on municipal water. Reclamation will be complete by 2014. Work on developing five temperate "Woodland Gardens of the World" is currently proceeding on approximately 50 acres outside the reclamation area. Opening of this section of the Garden is planned for the fall of 2012.