In June 2022, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust unveiled the Backyard at 8th and Penn, a new outdoor spot to host performances and other attractions Downtown as the city emerged from the pandemic lockdown.
The half-block blacktop lot stretching between Penn Avenue and Fort Duquesne Boulevard has since been used during First Night, the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and for concert series and other Trust productions in the Cultural District. Most of the rest of the time, it sat empty.
That’s about to change. The Trust, working with the Texas-based Better Block Foundation, is revamping the Giant Eagle Foundation-sponsored Backyard to become a full-time resource.
It’s adding benches, tables, and even hammocks for people to hang out at (or in), along with new lighting. A new mural on the asphalt incorporates lines for two pickleball courts. And three days a week, there’ll be scheduled activities, including pickleball on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a fashion-themed pop-up night market with live music every Wednesday.
“The point of this refresh is to kind of give it life 365 [days], seven days a week, for our Downtown community,” said James Hill, the Trust’s director of government affairs and District initiatives.
The upgraded space, located near the Benedum Center, will be unveiled Friday as part of the Trust’s summer Gallery Crawl.
Financial support for the upgrade came from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Other partners in the initiatives include the Pittsburgh Sports League, which is managing the pickleball activities, and the Pittsburgh Downtown Neighbors Alliance, which is organizing the night market.
Hill said the makeover was meant in part simply to refresh a faded paint job. It was also intended to complement other plans to enliven Downtown, including the Allegheny Conference’s June 2024 “vision plan” that proposed changes to the Downtown landscape including a new “civic space” near where 8th Street meets Fort Duquesne Boulevard and the Allegheny River.
“We really just view this as an opportunity for the public to come into the Backyard in a new way with the Cultural Trust and see how we can be better neighbors in our efforts to improve Downtown,” Hill said.
