How a Parks and Rec Department Created a One-of-a-Kind Free Bouldering Park

Bouldering and rock climbing are two of the parks and recreation industry’s hottest emerging sports. What was once reserved for enthusiasts with private gym memberships is gaining newfound accessibility as one Pennsylvania county’s popular outdoor rec offering.

“It’s a really cool project — probably the most unique project that we’ve done here in a long time,” says Joel Perkovich, landscape architect at Allegheny County Parks.

Perkovich isn’t excited about just any county park renovation. He’s discussing the Boyce Park bouldering park project.

Today, Boyce Park is home to one of the country’s largest, free outdoor bouldering parks. The 6,000-square-foot project includes seven bouldering walls with climbing routes designed for beginners and long-time climbing enthusiasts alike.

Perkovich, who has been with Allegheny County Parks for almost 10 years, designs and manages capital projects and substantial site improvements to the parks. He says the bouldering walls have “transformed that space entirely. It’s busy year-round.”

The project was inspired by a study from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council that looked at ways to improve accessibility and exposure to adventurous, outdoor recreation in underserved communities. Boyce Park, which is already home to a skatepark and a wave pool, was identified as a prime location for the bouldering park due in part to the flat landscape of the site in a community where level, open spaces are a rarity.

“We customized the equipment for this particular site,” Perkovich says. “We didn’t just buy equipment out of a catalog and say, ‘Hey, let’s drop this here.’ We worked with engineers to design the foundations and landscape architects to make the site flow. We made it look nice and be functional.”

Perkovich says that achieving this highly customized and cutting-edge project would not have been possible without leaning into the local climbing community. “One of the strengths of this project was having a talented team of experts,” he says. “It was a very collaborative design process.”

Allegheny County first reached out to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Climbers Coalition for input on the project. SWPACC connected the team with climbing wall company Walltopia and Iron City Boulders, a local climbing gym, to construct the bouldering walls.

“We weren’t trying to think that we could do it all on our own,” says Perkovich, before offering this advice. “Get involved in the climbing community. From day one, get a team of experts and get their expertise. You’ll have a much more dynamic and appealing space for people who climb.”

And the local collaboration did not end with the ideation and construction of the bouldering project.

“Our park is different,” Perkovich says. “We treat it like a gym. We will change the routes twice a year to keep it fresh. We have a contract with Iron City Boulders, so they will go out and change the routes. They’ll take a week to take down all the holds and then they will design and put up new routes. It keeps it fresh and interesting to people who climb. I think that’s one of the real distinctions of our project.”

That expert advice and local input have paid off for the Boyce Park bouldering project. Perkovich describes seeing a wide range of age groups use the wall, but he notices the space being used by an especially high percentage of older teens, a notoriously difficult demographic to attract.

And there is still more to come for the team at Allegheny County. “We are working on getting a climbing competition with Iron City Boulders,” says Perkovich, noting that there is also public and department-wide interest in hosting classes for kids, teens and adults.

“Public reaction has been really positive,” Perkovich says. “We would love to see more projects like this get built.”