“If you don’t play, you don’t stay!”
Cheerily announced by Randy Gilson as he hugged and took selfies with visitors, that’s the sovereign rule for experiencing Randyland, his wonderland home and garden in the resurgent Mexican War Streets district of Pittsburgh’s Northside.
Amid toys and visual delights such as mural-splashed building sides, plastic flamingos and welcome signs in dozens of languages hand-painted by visitors, joy animates this free-admission folk art landmark.
In 1982, Randy founded the Old Allegheny Garden Society to return beauty to his then blighted community. Creating “pop-up nature reserves” of flower-filled whiskey barrels, his concepts of turning “waste into wonder” and “people projects by people” attracted a following. Over time, the Society has produced some 800 barrels, 50 vegetable gardens, eight parks, trees and more.
Randy, also welcoming guests as a waiter at the Westin Convention Center hotel, is emblematic of the attention-getters, past and present, who give Pittsburgh its resilient energy and unique visitor appeal.
The story continues throughout Western Pennsylvania, including the Frank Lloyd Wright country of the nearby Laurel Highlands and beyond.
Open Canvas
Art and culture remain integral to Pittsburgh’s ongoing turnaround from now distant Smoky City days. Post-industrial decline halved the population from its 700,000-citizen heyday, leaving behind a vast urban infrastructure ripe for artistic takeover.
Randyland, about a mile from downtown, is one Northside treat for groups. Another nearby is the acclaimed Mattress Factory. Formerly a Stearns & Foster mattress warehouse, artist
Barbara Luderowski’s boundary-pushing center of installation art features provocative works along with flexible event spaces.
Housed in an industrial park by the Pittsburgh-to-D.C. bike trail in the Chateau district, Bicycle Heaven is the world’s largest bicycle museum and sales/repair shop. Founder Craig Morrow’s nearly 4,000-piece collection ranges from rare antiques to bicycles from Hollywood films. Amid bicycles, Beatles and Elvis memorabilia, bobbleheads and much more, the upstairs can accommodate events for up to 500 people.
Next door is Johnny Angel’s Ginchy Stuff & Music Museum. Lead singer of The Halos—founded in 1966 and still going strong—Angel is one “ginchy” (’50s slang for cool) dude often on hand to share stories amid his Doo Wop, soul, pop and rock memorabilia.
Staying on the North Shore, the Andy Warhol Museum features the definitive collection of the Pittsburgh-born Pop Artist’s works on seven floors and an underground area. Versatile function spaces for 20 to 300 people are complemented by gallery access, tours and activities such as making Warhol-style art or starring in a Warhol-esque “Screen Test.”
The Warhol is one of Pittsburgh’s four Carnegie Museums, along with the nearby river-facing Carnegie Science Center; the other two are in Oakland, Pa. Imagination also takes flight at the National Aviary, home to some 600 rare and exotic birds.
Crossing into downtown’s Central Business District, my first check-in was at the Kimpton Monaco Pittsburgh. Following the brand’s adaptive reuse model, this artful update of a 1903 Beaux-Arts building features 248 guest rooms, 13 suites and 11,300 square feet of meeting space.
With black steel columns and etched glasswork accentuating the industrial chic atmosphere, the 120-seat The Commoner restaurant commands the hotel’s cavernous basement. Raised in Pennsylvania’s Amish Country, Executive Chef Wyatt Lash delivers farm-fresh American fare, with whimsical cocktails from youthful lead bartender Alex Dando. Herbs and vegetables grow on the ninth-floor rooftop, adjacent to the outdoor Biergarten.
Art in Motion
Hats off to the engineers who conquered Pittsburgh’s mountain-bounded valleys and hills, creating a beguiling connective weave of tunnels, viaducts and, most famously, 446 bridges for the city’s 90 neighborhoods and districts.
Circling back to the North Shore, I passed by the event-capable Penn Brewery and H.J. Heinz plant smokestacks before ascending historic Troy Hill, where guided tours of Saint Anthony Cathedral reveal the world’s largest collection of public Christian relics outside of the Vatican.
Edging down Rialto Street’s 24 percent grade (Pittsburgh has some of the nation’s steepest streets) onto the landmark 31st Street Bridge, I wound into Polish Hill and Lower Lawrenceville, where Church Brew Works is the brewpub update of a 1902 church.
PageBreakIndustry and philanthropy merge in Oakland, Pa., where the Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, founded in 1896 by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, are musts for tours and events. Highlights include the Hall of Architecture, featuring 140 plaster casts of ancient architectural masterpieces, and a preeminent dinosaur collection.
Opened in 1893, nearby Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, the “Green Heart of Pittsburgh,” offers tours, classes and memorable private events.
Above downtown along the Allegheny River, the mile-long Strip District is a reclaimed industrial neighborhood bustling with restaurants, nightclubs, shops and food vendors. Near the David L. Lawrence Convention Center at the Strip’s western end, the Smithsonian-affiliated Senator John Heinz History Center, from 1834, is the home of the Pennsylvania story, and can host receptions.
Crossing to the South Side, it was up Mount Washington (riding the historic Duquesne and Monongahela inclines are also memorable options) for spectacular city views before relocating to the LEED Gold-certified Fairmont Pittsburgh.
Offering 185 rooms (including a presidential suite and 19 one-bedroom suites) and 12,000 square feet of meeting space, distinctive touches at the property include artful displays of the glass bottles, dishware, doll heads and numerous other artifacts unearthed during the glass tower’s excavation. Programmable for events, the sleek lobby features casual dining at Andys (named after Msrs. Carnegie and Warhol), while Executive Chef Jean-Paul Lourdes is scheduled to introduce a new restaurant concept this fall.
Close to Cultural District performing arts anchors Heinz Hall and the Benedum Center, as well as iconic PPG Place—Pittsburgh’s magnificent glass castle—the Fairmont is an easy walk from Allegheny Riverfront Park. Enjoying a farewell evening stroll here, by the artfully illuminated “Three Sisters” bridges (Roberto Clemente, Andy Warhol and Rachel Carson) and sail-like roof of the LEED Gold- and Platinum-certified David L. Lawrence Convention Center, I watched a nighttime kayaking group (Kayak Pittsburgh, from Venture Outdoors) paddling on the river.
The name of the meetings game in Pittsburgh? Come for business, stay to play.
Focal Points
From Pittsburgh’s scenic surrounding regions and beyond to Erie’s sandy shores, people projects power the group scene in artful, elevating and playful ways.
Winning their fifth Stanley Cup this year, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins are one trophy shy of the six-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. In Butler County, covering 800 square miles north of Pittsburgh, groups can ice the agenda at the multiuse UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, the Penguins’ training facility.
Opened in 1914 as a vaudeville and silent-film palace, the Strand Theater in picturesque Zelienople was a Main Street mainstay before being shuttered in the early 1980s.That’s when a local citizen, Ron Carter, formed the non-profit Strand Theater Initiative and galvanized friends, family and other locals into restoring the venue. Reopened in 2009, the 287-seat Strand is once again North Pittsburgh’s premiere cultural and social center, presenting live programming and films, and offering private event space.
Butler, the county seat, is the birthplace of the Jeep; thousands of enthusiasts come here each June for the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival. At the North Country Brewing Company in downtown Slippery Rock, groups can sample 100-plus beers at the on-site brewpub, take guided facility tours and hold events at the 1856 Harmony Inn.
Other Butler County group lures include historic Armstrong Farms; Succop Nature Park for outdoor receptions; the Regional Learning Alliance Center; and Saxonburg Museum, offering tours by appointment of the 1840 workshop where suspension bridge pioneer John Roebling, of Brooklyn Bridge fame, made his first wire cable.
“Location is everything!” said Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau. “Butler County sits just 20 minutes north of Pittsburgh and is easily accessed by the PA Turnpike, major highways and Pittsburgh International Airport. Delightfully diverse with its busy hub of Cranberry Township featuring several newly constructed hotels and restaurants, our county continues to grow, and we look forward to hosting more meetings and events.”
East of Pittsburgh, convention groups can pair bookings at the Monroeville Convention Center with tours of the National Historic Landmark Carrie Furnaces, part of the Rivers of Steel
National Heritage Area. From May to October, former iron workers offer guided tours of these circa-1881 blast furnaces on the Monongahela River.
Along with some 23 covered bridges, unique attractions in beautiful Washington County, southwest of Pittsburgh, include the Heinz History Center’s Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, featuring three re-created villages at North America’s oldest known place of human habitation.
With sports and other action at the newly renovated Cambria County War Memorial Arena, Johnstown groups can ride the legendary Inclined Plane. Opened in 1891 following the city’s devastating flood of 1889 (commemorated at the Johnstown Flood Museum), the world’s steepest funicular navigates a 71 percent grade hillside.
An hour east of Pittsburgh, rural Indiana County is Jimmy Stewart country. The late acting legend’s namesake museum is a popular coordinate for tours and events in his hometown of Indiana.
Located on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the 148,500-square-foot Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex incorporates the 17,000-square-foot Conference Center; 6,000-square-foot Corporate Training and Executive Conference Center; 5,000-seat arena; 630-seat auditorium; and adjacent 128-room hotel.
With its prime lakefront location, Erie, Pennsylvania’s fourth-largest city, invites groups to enjoy diverse venues and experiences. Located on the shores of Lake Erie’s Presque Isle Bay, Bayfront Convention Center offers northwestern Pennsylvania’s largest banquet venue, plus two connected hotels, the 200-room Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel and new 192-room Courtyard Erie Bayfront hotel.
Group attractions include the Warner Theatre, Union Station, Erie Art Museum and Lake Erie Wine Country.
