Pittsburgh's Downtown 'Backyard' space to be open daily after makeover

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust revealed the Backyard at 8th and Penn, a new outdoor venue to stage performances and other applications Downtown in June 2022 when Pittsburgh began coming out of the COVID-19 restrictions.

A half-block blacktop lot between Penn Avenue and Fort Duquesne Boulevard was utilized for First Night, Three Rivers Arts Festival, and productions of concert series and other Trust events in the Cultural District later on. The rest of the time, most of the time, it just stand idle.

That’s about to change. The Trust along with the Texas based Better Block Foundation is in the process of transforming the Giant Eagle Foundation sponsored Backyard into a full-time tool.

It’s things like benches, tables, and hammocks where people can sit (or lie) at/in and new lights. New lines for two pickleball courts have been drawn on the asphalt; however, instead of painting it, a mural has been created. And three days a week there will be programmed events: pickleball on Tuesday and Thursday and a themed night market with live music focused on fashion on Wednesday.

“The motive of this refresh is in a way to breathe the entity into existence 365, seven days a week for our Downtown community,” said James Hill, the Trust’s director of government affairs and District initiatives.

Trust to host summer Gallery Crawl, the upgraded space near Benedum Center will be officially opened on the Friday.

The financial help for the upgrade was procured from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Other partners in the initiatives include the Pittsburgh Sports League which is conducting the pickleball and the Pittsburgh Downtown Neighbors Alliance which is conducting the night market.

Hill was to point out that the new look, which has been widely criticised was intended in a part to put a new lick of paint on what could have been an ugly execution that has age. It was also to dovetail other other plans to revitalize Downtown, specifically, the Allegheny Conference’s June 2024 vision plan which mooted changes to the Downtown area and a new ‘civic space’ at the intersection of 8th Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard and the Allegheny River.

“Honestly, we see it as it as just an opportunity for the public to enter the Backyard in a new manner along with the Cultural Trust and see how we can be better neighbors in the pursuit for a better Downtown,” said Hill.