RENDERING BY FIELD OPERATIONS COURTESY OF THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST

[Updated: The Pittsburgh Planning Commission on March 11, 2025 unanimously approved this project.]

It’s now called Arts Landing — that 4-acre 8th Street Block Civic Space that is poised to be “one of the most transformative projects” in the Cultural District in 25 years, said Kendra Whitlock Ingram, the president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

She and other dignitaries unveiled detailed plans Thursday at the Greer Cabaret Theater for the $31 million project that aims to not only bring more people Downtown but to extend their time Downtown.

RENDERING BY FIELD OPERATIONS COURTESY OF THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST

The heart of the project will be a 1-acre Great Lawn with a bandshell and a beautiful view of the Allegheny River and its Sister Bridges. Surrounding this will be other designated areas — the Flex Zone that will open with three pickleball courts and other amenities, the Backyard as a relaxation area with seating and space for pop-up events, the Play Room for family-friendly activities and a Garden Walk, a pedestrian-only linear space that will replace Eighth Street.

There also will be a Visitors Center created out of the first floors of the Cultural Trust-owned buildings at 819 and 821 Penn Avenue that will offer public bathrooms.

A soft opening of the project will occur just before the NFL Draft, to be held April 23-25 2026. The grand opening will coincide with the start of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival the following June. Arts Landing will be the permanent home for the arts festival starting in 2026.

No ground-breaking date has been set, but it will occur in April, about the time the Goodyear Auto Service building will be demolished on the edge of the Cultural Trust-owned property along Fort Duquesne Boulevard.

Ingram said the Trust spent months gathering input from regional leaders, advisory councils, residents, ticket buyers and more to come up with the name Arts Landing for the space that’s now mostly a barren open space and parking lot.

A big goal is to get the project completed by the NFL Draft, Ingram said. “We anticipate that 50 million viewers worldwide are going to see Pittsburgh,” she said. “We are going to be on display to hundreds of thousands of fans that are coming to the city. And the economic impact of the draft will be between $100 and $200 million.”

David Holmberg, CEO and president of Highmark Health and chairman of the Trust’s board of trustees, said the draft gives the Trust a forced timeline “where we know that we invited 200,000 people over for Thanksgiving, figuratively speaking, and you know they’re all going to show up. So we want to have our best foot forward before we get there.”

He emphasized that the project is not a short-term fix or an incremental improvement to an existing space. “This is reimagining and building an entirely new destination that will delight and benefit our community.”

The project has been designed by Field Operations, the landscape architecture and urban design firm that designed New York City’s High Line, Waterfront Seattle and other projects around the world.

Lisa Switkin, partner with Field Operations who lives in Brooklyn, said the aim of the project was to build on Downtown’s key strengths “which is the compactness and sort of walkability of Downtown, its connections to the river and really its identity as a destination for arts and culture.”

“From the beginning we recognized the potential to really design something truly extraordinary at 8th Street/ Arts Landing…We knew it had to sort of embrace the creative spirit and the identity of the Cultural District.”

The $31 million is a mix of public and private funding and part of the 10-year $600 million Downtown revitalization plan announced by Gov. Josh Shapiro last fall. Also this week, the city’s Historic Review Commission approved plans for another part of the $600 million plan — a rehab of Market Square. Under those plans, which still need approval by the city’s Planning Commission and City Council, traffic would be allowed only on the north side of the square and all parking would be banned.

The plans also call for a half-moon pergola to be erected along part of the square for a gathering spot and programming area.

Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, who also spoke at the Arts Landing presentation, said the Cultural Trust project builds on efforts by regional leaders to bring improvements to the city.

“Yinzers deserve nice things,” she said.