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The Downtown Gallery Crawl draws art lovers and music fans four times per year.
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On a fall Saturday night, a line of chilly coeds waiting to mingle, dance and drink, snakes around the building housing Station Square’s Matrix. Across the river in the Cultural District, a room full of twenty-somethings to empty nesters laughs between sips of drinks at the Late Night Cabaret. Over on Carson Street, a crowd hits the Cheesecake Factory after a movie as the South Side Works Cinema ends.
And people say that Downtown is dead.
“‘Downtown is dead’ is the antithesis of what I see and experience day-to-day,” says Veronica Corpuz, public relations director of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “I’m overwhelmed by the options.”
With a Steel City Renaissance underway, unique eateries, trendy clubs and cool condos are popping up around town faster than any true Pittsburgher can say “yinz.” And people are starting to notice. Beverly Morrow-Jones, head of marketing for Visit Pittsburgh,
feels a sense of momentum and excitement among national and international journalists who come to write about Pittsburgh.
“They’re always surprised by the entire experience. They say, ‘Who knew?’ Pittsburgh is where they want to be. They are blown away.
“There’s great shopping on the South Side, and in Shady Side and Squirrel Hill. The view from Mt. Washington is ranked as one of the most beautiful in the country, and we are also ranked as one of the country’s safest and smartest cities.”
All this, Morrow-Jones and others hope, will fuel some “contagious excitement” for their changing city.
More than 100 years ago, Pittsburgh set the stage for exciting nightlife when it became home to the first motion picture theater, the Nickelodeon on Smithfield Street in 1905. Today, the city continues its legacy of excellent entertainment with five theaters sitting on just four blocks. Their stages are graced by everything from opera, ballet and symphony talents to popular comedians and Broadway performers. More than one million people visit the city’s Cultural District every year where an average of 2,220 events are held annually.
In addition to near daily performances, including free jazz concerts held each Tuesday night, every three months the district is jumping with live music and visual art shows during Cultural Trust-sponsored gallery walks. Crowds of art enthusiasts fill the streets and the galleries, where live music plays and hors d’oeuvres are served. One of the year’s biggest events, Corpuz says, is First Night, held every New Year’s Eve. The alcohol-free, family-friendly event draws tens of thousands each year.
In two years, the district will welcome the African American Cultural Center, a $35 million tourist attraction located at the intersection of Liberty Avenue and Tenth Street. The center will house galleries, classrooms and a theater. Preliminary plans also include the International Center for Africana Music, a rooftop terrace and a music café.
Also on the horizon for the Cultural District is RiverParc, a $460 million condo, apartment and townhouse development, overlooking the Allegheny River, Penn Avenue, and Seventh and Ninth streets. It will be the country’s first master-planned “green,” mixed-use, arts/residential neighborhood, providing approximately 700 new residential units and 9,200 jobs for the region. The project is estimated to break ground in mid-2007.
The primary target for the residential spaces is empty-nesters. Across the river from the city’s cultural center sits Station Square, the Burgh’s old train station and biggest lure for tourist dollars. Attractions like Bessemer Court, the Gateway Clipper, Just Ducky Tours and the inclines draw in the outsiders. But on Friday and Saturday nights, especially in the summer, bars and clubs like Matrix, Margarita Mama’s and the new Buckhead Saloon and Palm Bar, draw crowds of locals. Native ‘Burghers also travel to Station Square for the wide variety of dining options. Joining the long list of eateries this fall is Napoli Pizza.
“Each restaurant caters to somebody else,” Tom Schneck of Forest City, the group that owns the 52-acre property, says. “The Grand Concourse is the most successful for families. It’s a little more pricey, whereas Hard Rock, Bar Louie, Red Star and Joe’s Crab Shack are more for the younger set who might also like to catch some live music.” Also available for the younger set are summer-time shuttles that run between Station Square and South Side Works, for anyone who wants to bar hop, catch a movie or do some serious shopping.
The area is getting ready for some serious upgrades. Plans are being laid to build in the property’s east lot where clubs like Matrix and Margarita Mama’s are now located. The building itself and the neighboring gas station will be knocked down to make way for a 1,250 condo or apartment complex in eight buildings with shops and restaurants on their ground levels.
“We’re doing phenomenal in the evenings. A tremendous addition would be building residential here. People would be here day in and day out.
“I’m really excited about that,” Schneck says.
The clubs and restaurants in the to-be-torn-down complex are on short-term leases. Schneck says some could relocate to properties in Station Square, particularly behind Joe’s Crab Shack.
So with all this just a T-ride away, why do so many native Pittsburghers buy into the “nothing to do” myth? “I think it’s easy to fall into a force of habit, staying at home, watching TV or DVDs,” says Corpuz. “But with a quick glance online to see what’s happening downtown, there’s so much out there to discover.”
“A lot of people don’t want to travel into the city, but that’s not unusual. With the continuing residential and shopping development we’ll see over the next few years, I think that will change,” Morrow-Jones says. “The Pittsburgh region’s new tagline, ‘Imagine
What You Can Do Here,’ invites local folks to take advantage of all the Pittsburgh has to offer. As younger people stay here and move here, and as they talk about the area to their friends, more young people will come. Their enthusiasm is contagions and more local folks will realize what so many of us know: that, yes, this is a great place to be.”
