PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The best word students at Pittsburgh CAPA use to describe their rooftop playground is ‘barren.’ But with the help of some grant money, that is all about to change.

Students say there is a lack of personality on CAPA’s rooftop and that it is a total misuse of a great urban space.

“It’s a great area and it’s refreshing to come out here once in a while instead of being in a stuffy classroom all day,” said eighth grader Sagar Kamath.

After receiving over $10,000 in grant money from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, students from the Garden Club started working on how to “green up” the space. Their initiatives attracted other students to help with the project.

Students already got their hands dirty, upgrading a vacant area on the second floor of the school into a mini atrium. Working with a landscape architect, the students drew up their plans to make this space theirs.

“I think the most exciting part of this is that the students are going to be able to enjoy nature in such an urban atmosphere, considering that our high school is right smack dab in the middle of Downtown,” said senior Erica Harding.

One of the features that student designers and teachers are excited about is an outdoor classroom that will have a great view of the city, surrounded by a garden. It is something that students from sixth grade all the way up to the senior class will be able to use and enjoy.

“We have a lot of environmental studies classes and biology classes that study plant life and how things grow and different types of root systems and that would be nice to see firsthand, instead of reading it out of a textbook,” said Harding.

Students are hoping to break ground this summer and expect to complete the project by early fall.

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