Bottle Works Pop Plaza
Johnstown, PA
Pop Plaza transforms an existing parking lot into a flexible outdoor space for hosting festivals, outdoor art display space, green infrastructure for managing stormwater runoff, new signage, and improved parking.
Street trees provide shade for benches lining the Festival Lawn that hosts concerts, performances, and the occasional impromptu neighborhood flag football game. A large rain garden extending the width of the site collects runoff from the parking lot. A gabion retaining wall along the back edge of the rain garden aligns with what used to be the wall of the Beer Storage building of the former brewery. Acrylic disks within the wall light up at night and reflect the site’s history of producing carbonated beverages.
Concrete sculptures by artist Norman Ed, located in the rain garden and along the wall, help interpret the history of what once stood on-site and the path of stormwater. Metal grated pedestrian bridges ramp across the rain garden and connect the parking to the rest of the space.
