Pittsburgh's Strip Show!

[Evergrey]

Pittsburgh's Strip District is a long, flat, slender strip of land just east of downtown on the southern shore of the Allegheny River. It goes from 11th to 33th streets, where Lawrenceville takes over. It is hemmed in on the south by the steep slopes of the Hill District.

The Strip District first rose to prominence in the 1800s as a center of manufacturing and industry due to its flat land and easy river access. In the early 1900s, the Strip transformed into a center of wholesalers of fresh meats and produce. This then spun off into restaurants and grocery and specialty stores. The Strip at its peak was a lively scene of fruit auctions, shipping functions and mill activity.

The mid-1900s saw a severe decline in The Strip. The dominance of trucking over rail and river resulted in the relocation of many wholesalers. The population of the neighborhood took a huge hit as well.

In recent years, the neighborhood has scene a renaissance. Though its population is a puny 275, it has attained status as a cultural, shopping, dining and entertainment center for Pittsburgh. The streets of the Strip District are jammed by day with people shopping for fresh vegetables, Italian sausages, fresh baked biscotti, Steelers merchandise, coffee beans, olives and Asian spices. Ethnic grocers and restaurants line the main thoroughfares. Live music floats out of chic venues and on to the sidewalks. Art galleries coexist with saloons.

By night, the Strip is transformed into one of Pittsburgh's hottest nightlife scenes. Nightclubs from the stylish to the rowdy keep Smallman Street bumping and grinding late into the night... and the party-goers follow up their nights of debauchery with the definitive Pittsburgh sandwich at the original Primanti Brothers on 18th.

Pittsburgh: STRIPPED

before hitting the Strip... I parked on the North Side near the 16th Street Bridge... because parking in the Strip is very hard to come by on a Saturday morning

The Strip District... with the 16th St. Bridge and floating nightclubs in the foreground

The Heinz Lofts are located on the North Side just across from the Strip District... formerly the Heinz food processing factory... it has several hundred residential units http://www.heinzlofts.com

The Armstrong Cork Factory in the Strip District... now under conversion... will become 298 residential units and will impact the population of the Strip District dramatically

The golden gleam of St. Stanislaus Church... with the Hill District... on the hill

trucks bringing produce to the Strip

Smallman St.

a mural on Wholey's warehouse... Wholey's is where you get your fish

a church transformed into a nightclub

the best biscotti in the world... inspired the movie "The Bread, My Sweet"... starring Scott Baio as a biscotti baker in the Strip District... I had the hazelnut

get yer t-shirts and your cheese

houses clinging to the slopes of the North Side

old buildings find new uses

the eastern half of the Strip isn't as active... dominated mostly by warehouses and small manufacturers... but there are still interesting restaurants, galleries and bars interspersed throughout

legendary olde-style ice cream parlor

Air Supply is actually playing a show in Pittsburgh in the near future

getting back to the west side of the Strip... Here's the Armstrong Cork Factory again... vacant for decades... about to become new homes for hundreds of Pittsburghers

Washington's Landing... a maritime-themed housing community on Herr's Island in the Allegheny River

looking towards Mt. Troy

North Side stuff

Club Zoo... an all-ages nightclub and concert venue

[UrbaniDesDev]

Armstrong Cork Building

[TheGerbil]

Great pics; thanks for posting. The Air Supply thing made me laugh

But you didn't get a picture of one of my favorite Strip District restaurants: Boomerang Barbeque. Heheh.

[Evergrey]

Great pics; thanks for posting. The Air Supply thing made me laugh

But you didn't get a picture of one of my favorite Strip District restaurants: Boomerang Barbeque. Heheh.

I apologize... I walked past it... but I didn't want to take a picture of EVERY building in the Strip... just 90 percent...

how is that place... is it Australian cuisine?

[UrbaniDesDev]

I'm kind of disappointed in the slow progress of development in the Strip. This area has very large, many mostly vacant, flat(unusual in Pittsburgh) blocks walking distance to downtown with little major development outside of a lot of great restaurants.

[mercurypa]

This is a great photographic essay about the Strip. It's one my favorite places in Pittsburgh. I think it would be cool if we could get one going for everyone's favorite areas in the CITY, or in your neighborhood. Im thinking of doing one for Highland Park/ East Liberty. East Liberty is really booming now, especially with the new neighborhood association going to effect this summer. Cleaner streets, more security, new residential.

As far as lack of development in the Strip, I think its going at a healthy pace. The nightclubs and restaurants in the area are worthy of NY style. Plus with more residents being added it can only go up from here!

Keep the faith my friends!

[PghUSA]

Great shots as always Evergrey, speaking of the progress and slow rate of it I seem to remember a news item about them tearing down the Wholey's (or the warehouse?) I forgot what for but I want to say a hotel. I know I posted it on here, it'd be interesting to do a PG or BizJournals search on the developer and see whatever happened to that, glad to see that the Mission Impossible that was the Armstrong Cork complex is finally getting done . . . but alas where will the boys from Ft. Bragg and County SWAT play night combat/helio games (while scaring the absolute *$*@ out of residents at midnight) without the vacant dino that was the AC complex.

[tooluther]

I think the missing component in the strip is residential...I'd live there. I guess for now the other residential (esp. downtown) areas around it benefit.

[UrbaniDesDev]

Well, the Armstrong Cork building might be the catalyst. At long last the Cork building has been restored and its future is ensured. One of the best buildings in the city!

The parking structure included in this project could have been 3 times larger. As development will inevitably hit the Strip, parking will be at a premium. It already is.

[TheGerbil]

I apologize... I walked past it... but I didn't want to take a picture of EVERY building in the Strip... just 90 percent...

how is that place... is it Australian cuisine?

LOL it's okay. It isn't really much to look at from outside anyway. They have barbeque stuff and pizzas mostly, but it's Australian themed. Best darn BBQ sauce I have ever tasted. Great cole slaw too.

[tooluther]

Well, the Armstrong Cork building might be the catalyst. At long last the Cork building has been restored and its future is ensured. One of the best buildings in the city!

The parking structure included in this project could have been 3 times larger. As development will inevitably hit the Strip, parking will be at a premium. It already is.

The cork factory looses some appeal to me b/c its a little to far for a nice walk to downtown. now if there was some LIGHT RAIL running along the AVR tracks it would be a whole different story

[SouthJersey7]

Now that's true grit! Like to visit there sometime.

[Frankie811]

Good Grief!!!!!!!! When I look at Evergrey's photo's I think I'm looking at pictures from my hometown of Providence, which by the way has 22% of the buildings on the National Historic Trust. In fact it's entire downtown area is listed on the registry. But I was wondering if Pittsburgh was big on preserving it's historic buildings. It would appear so from some of these photo's.

[PghUSA]

Frankie, great point, the state and National Registry has added lots of these buildings around downtown Pittsburgh to their list, though I don't believe many in the Strip have gained national protections. As you can see with some of the churches around town though, many locals value preserving architecture even if it is for a second use.

[balistpgh]

Check this article out:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06069/668039.stm

Great to hear that more funding for improvements between the Strip District and Downtown!

[UrbaniDesDev]

Where is the Hampton Inn planned? Hampton Inns are not exactly architectural gems but it's a start.

Good article. More needs to be done there. Liberty Avenue, between 11th and 31st street needs to be completely redone