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Pittsburgh has played an integral part in U.S. history since its founding on November 27, 1758. Known as the “Gateway to the West” in the early 1800s, Pittsburgh’s prime positioning at the intersection of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers that forms the Ohio River helped vault the city to the top of the trade industry for coal, timber, glass, natural gas, iron, and limestone.
By 1911, Pittsburgh was home to half of the nation’s steel manufacturing. As steel production all but disappeared from its landscape in the 1970s and ’80s, the Steel City reinvented itself again as a hub for education, medicine, small manufacturing, and research.
Currently home to an estimated 310,000 residents and welcoming more than 20 million visitors to Alleghany County, Pennsylvania’s second-largest city, is undergoing another evolution.
“A major opportunity that the post-pandemic economy has given us is the ability to reimagine and rethink our downtown,” said Jake Pawlak, Pittsburgh deputy mayor & director of the Office of Management and Budget. “… As people change the way they work, including hybrid or working fully remote, we’ve seen enormous and exciting growth in the residential communities they live in because they’re spending more time and money in their neighborhoods.”
At the heart of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods is its downtown. As the home to many of the city’s major corporations, including Heinz, PNC Bank, U.S. Steel, and PPG, Downtown Pittsburgh welcomed an average of 132,136 residents, employees, and visitors per day in 2019.
But as work-from-home mandates rose at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 causing a major shift from the traditional in-office workforce to more hybrid and remote work, Downtown Pittsburgh’s numbers dropped to an aver- age of 92,223 daily visitors last year.
Hardly immune to the shifting priorities of its workforce, Pittsburgh officials unveiled plans to convert the city’s primary business hub of half-full office buildings into a residential neighborhood that offers as many residences and amenities as it does employment opportunities.
Three areas are key to Downtown’s impending facelift. Officials want to transform Market Square into a more welcoming piazza full of outdoor cafes and open-air dining with less cars. There are also plans to convert the eastern end of Point State Park into a more people-friendly place of activity and recreation. Officials also proposed turning an empty lot on Eighth Street and Penn Avenue into a sprawling public park with entertainment spaces and a promenade to connect Downtown with the Allegheny Riverfront and the North Side region of the city.
While the impending Downtown revitalization project, which also includes converting unused office buildings into residential and commercial complexes, is garnering much of the headlines, it’s one of the many recent, ongoing, and future projects aimed at ushering Pittsburgh into its new era.
Groundbreaking for the first phase of the $600-million Esplanade project in the North Side is planned for the fall. The project includes 300 apartments, a parking garage, food emporium, amphitheater, and a marina. A grocery store, condo building, aquarium and green space are included in future phases.
Not only is the city prioritizing more residential and recreational opportunities, but it’s bolstering public transportation and connectivity to it all as well. A $150-million, multi-year project to improve Pittsburgh’s light rail system started in April. Originally multiple projects intended to be completed individually, however, Pittsburgh Regional Transit announced it will combine the projects in an effort to streamline operations and minimize disruptions, with both occurring back-to-back through 2028.
“Everyone is committed to a vibrant future for Pittsburgh, and we’re working together to align shared visions across sectors and organizations,” Visit PITTSBURGH President & CEO Jerad Bachar said. “Together, we strive to break down silos and create a lasting impact—one that enhances the quality of life and experiences for both residents and visitors alike.”
Image Source: Brian Cook – Golden Sky
The city’s evolution—and future—isn’t solely reliant on balancing businesses and residences. Alleghany County’s arts and culture scene resulted in $1.3 billion in economic activity between June 2022 and June 2023, according to a report from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.
Highlighted by institutions including the Andy Warhol Museum, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Carnegie Museum network, the arts supported 18,538 jobs and contributed $267 million in tax revenue to local, state, and federal governments during that time span.
“This is an area where Pittsburgh definite- ly punches above its weight and ability to compete with arts and culture offerings in major cities around the country,” Pawlak said. “… From the big to the small, from the well-established to the cutting edge, we’ve got a really vibrant scene in the visual arts and performing arts here in Pittsburgh that has something to offer for everyone.” Pittsburgh also prides itself on providing ample green spaces and outdoor activities to residents and tourists. Situated in the heart of Central Appalachia, Pittsburgh’s proximity to two major national forests (Allegheny National Forest and Monongahela National Forest) and the Laurel Highlands, gives outdoor enthusiasts a variety of nearby options. The city also boasts six major regional parks as well as hundreds of playgrounds and smaller parks within city limits.
As the City of Bridges with multiple surrounding waterways, Pittsburgh provides residents and visitors with seemingly endless riverway access for recreational activities.
With so much in place and even more on the horizon, including hosting the 2026 NFL Draft, Visit PITTSBURGH recently launched the city’s first 10-year tourism development plan designed to enhance and grow the tourism sector through experiences, connectivity, and industry development.
Having built its reputation from its founding as a key hub for particular resources and industries, Pittsburgh plans to continue evolving with the times while prioritizing the needs of both residents and visitors.
“It’s a little cliche to say, but we have big-city amenities and small-town charm in the same place while being located in a part of the country that has absolutely fantastic access to nature and outdoor activities,” Pawlak said. “Folks looking for a lot of different things as a place to live or visit can find them all cheaply and close to one another here.”
While the question posed recently in a short video by city planning expert Jon Jon Wesolowski, known on TikTok as the “Happy Urbanist,” is not a common one for many people, the answer is critical and likely speaks to the economic development and quality of life efforts of your city.
A program-based city relies primarily on events, venues, and amenities that drive visitors to support its economy. A lively city develops housing, businesses, and amenities that enhance the quality of life for residents to support its economy. While concepts appear to be two sides of the same positive coin, they couldn’t be more different–both in origin and impact. As the Happy Urbanist explains, through its zoning laws, American cities have been inhibited from evolving with time (sub- urban residential neighborhoods tend to stay that way, as do industrial areas). Because of this, growth in many cities focuses on downtown areas as they are the places with an influx of people flowing in and out. “American cities have become glorified business centers. Places that have disproportionately attracted a population to work and are only busy two times a day: in the morning when they show up and, in the evening, when they leave,” said Wesolowski in his video.
The Happy Urbanist contends that this reliance on the business community has made many downtowns vulnerable be- cause the departure of a large corporation can deeply damage a city’s economy. He further explains that these cities rely on weekend events to combat that volatility and drive economic activity. Further ex- acerbating this issue was the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent emerging interest in remote work. Wesolowski says this is why the program-based city concept is so appealing to cities. However, it’s equally volatile.
Below is a breakdown of the differences between a program-based city approach vs. a lively city.
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