Schenley Plaza Eat’n Park plans clear hurdle

Plans to turn part of Schenley Plaza into an Eat’n Park restaurant have taken a step… Plans to turn part of Schenley Plaza into an Eat’n Park restaurant have taken a step forward.

The Pittsburgh Art Commission approved a conceptual plan for the restaurant from the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group in late May, allowing the planning to continue.

The commission, which tabled the application in April, approved it after the group made several changes to the restaurant’s plan.

The planned restaurant’s footprint will be on the west side of the plaza, on the patch of grass across Schenley Drive from the Hillman Library.

The restaurant, slated to open next spring, will be different than most of Eat’n Park’s 27 locations. Though there will be both indoor and outdoor seating areas, the planners have reduced the building’s size to lessen “encroachment on the main walkway” according to the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group’s application.

In the application to the Pittsburgh Art Commission, the restaurant included a number of “green measures,” including minimizing the use of synthetic materials in construction, outdoor and rooftop planting areas and an outdoor dining area.

The restaurant plan needs to gain further approval for the project to continue, including a final approval by the Art Commission and approval from the Historic Review Commission.

The application stated that they intended to start construction in late 2010 and open in the spring of the following year.

When the plaza was built in 2005, it originally had a space to house a restaurant in the planned location of Eat’n Park.

According to the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group’s application, the original developer backed out, leaving the planned space undeveloped.

Representatives from the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group were not immediately available for comment.