For the 2017 Cortile Courtyard of Italian Macchina there are some big plans in the works to make Sunday July 16th a MUST SEE event! The Cortile is very excited to announce "Wine on 9"

With the restoration of the Westinghouse Pond now complete, with the help of Cortile participants gracious donations and support to the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy for this restoration project, we now have the most opulent trackside viewing area of any of the car shows during the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.  In conjunction with the 35th anniversary of the the PVGP we are very excited to announce that we will be taking full advantage of the newly renovated Pond area located on Turn 9 of the track.

Mazza Winery has partnered with the Cortile to host a private wine tasting during the PVGP Parade and opening ceremonies on Sunday July 16, 2017.  The VIP area is only open to registered Cortile Car Show participants and will kick off around 11am.  

The entire area is shaded within the tree lined track. It's one of the very best places to watch the vintage races cars jockey for position into the apex of Turn 9 and the execute passes on their way up to German Hill.

"Wine on 9" is the brainchild of Deb Schurko,of Pittsburgh Opera gala's fame. According to Deb, "This is really how we've got to use such a gorgeous place! It's so beautiful to begin with and what better place to sit back, savor some good wine and watch vintage racing! It's just the kind of classy thing that the Cortile has become known for!"

We could not agree more! 

The major renewal of the Westinghouse Memorial started in 2011 in Schenley Park is now complete!

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy partnered with the City of Pittsburgh in 2009 to renew this remarkable space with the financial help and support from members of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix's Cortile Italian Car Show participants. The fully restored Westinghouse Memorial includes a reestablished lily pond; renewed memorial sculpture; native plant landscape; new nighttime lighting; and stormwater management and we will be celebrating on the newly completed restoration this July 15- 16! 

While two of the three bridges remain, many of the attractions to which they provided access in the 1890s have disappeared. Among them: a 120-foot circular electric fountain on Flagstaff Hill that offered nighttime light shows; the marvelous Schenley Casino (on the site of the present-day Frick Fine Arts Building), which featured Pittsburgh's premier indoor ice skating rink but was destroyed by fire after only a year; and a band shell designed by architects Rutan and Russell on the site of the present-day Anderson Playground.

1907-1909 saw the development of park features that are still present today: the Schenley Oval and racetrack, the tufa bridges in Panther Hollow, and Panther Hollow Lake, which was created from an existing small body of water. 

The park also underwent large-scale planting in its early years. Bigelow's reports indicate that the land was mostly barren when the City acquired it, and he pursued the highest standards of horticulture in hiring William Falconer, who was trained at London's Kew Gardens, to take charge of Phipps Conservatory and of the park's landscape. Falconer's tenure lasted from 1896 to 1903.

Schenley Park underwent a second period of growth in the 1930s and 1940s during Ralph Griswold's tenure as the Director of Public Works. Griswold designed several gardens around Phipps Conservatory, but the park's biggest change was the construction of the Anderson Bridge, which brought the Boulevard of the Allies through the park and linked Squirrel Hill to Downtown. Since then, there have been few major changes to the park as a whole, as certain amenities (like the Panther Hollow Boathouse) have disappeared while others (the ice skating rink) were introduced.
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