Places: Downtown

Pittsburgh’s Downtown is packed with 250 years of history and heritage, but it also has a lot… Pittsburgh’s Downtown is packed with 250 years of history and heritage, but it also has a lot to offer the students of the surrounding high schools, colleges and universities.

Downtown-pronounced “Daahn-tawhn” by those who have lived in the city long enough to learn its unique dialect -houses some of Pittsburgh’s largest and most important businesses, government offices and even a sports arena.

Traveling down Fifth Avenue on the way into town, the first thing that comes into view is the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Igloo, Mellon Arena.

Here, students can buy leftover Pens tickets for $20 if they’re willing to stand in line for hours before the puck drops.

If hockey isn’t cool enough for you, there is plenty of shopping available Downtown as well.

For starters, there is an enormous Macy’s department store in the center of town, not to mention a Saks Fifth Avenue (which is, oddly enough, located not on Fifth Avenue but on Smithfield Street), a Burlington Coat Factory and countless other shops, boutiques and even some high-end clothing retailers spread throughout the city.

If you’re looking to turn a shopping trip into an all-day adventure, then it is helpful to point out that Downtown Pittsburgh is also the location of an incredible number of restaurants guaranteed to suit even the most discriminating diner.

Seinfeld fans out there might be interested to know that there is even a soup shop themed after the famous Soup Nazi “No soup for you” episode called The Original SoupMan.

Broke? Why not enjoy the priceless architectural beauty of the city itself? The city of Pittsburgh’s Grant and Ross streets strip is the home to some of the oldest and most aesthetically pleasing buildings in the area.

Take the city’s courthouse and juvenile courthouse (formerly the city’s jail), for example. These buildings, with their 100-plus-year-old stone edifices, stand opposite each other connected by a stone bridge above the street.

Built by H.R. Richardson, the architect behind such amazing buildings as the Marshall Field Store in Chicago as well as the Trinity Church in Boston, the courthouse and juvenile courthouse are both recognized as historical monuments.

Geographically unique Downtown Pittsburgh is located at the confluence of three rivers: the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio.

When viewed from above, they form what has been aptly dubbed the Golden Triangle.

At the tip of this triangle is Point State Park. At the point, a student can stroll along the river walks, enjoy water sports – boats and jet skis are constantly zipping down the rivers during summer months – or just soak up the sun in the newly renovated Point State Park. The multi-million-dollar project is expected to be completed this summer.

Still haven’t touched on anything that tickles your particular fancy? Why not take a trip to the city’s cultural district, located on Penn Avenue Downtown?

From the Civic Light Opera to off-Broadway productions to long-running plays and musicals to concerts and operas – many of which offer a discount to students – the Cultural District has something to offer anyone and everyone that is interested in the fine arts.

Finally, Downtown plays home to many of the city’s most popular and well-attended annual events.

One of these events is the Pittsburgh Arts Festival, where local artists, musicians and artisans meet to show and sell their wares in the summer.

There’s also the Three Rivers Regatta, where many come to participate in the festivities as well as the boat race itself, and Light Up Night and First Night, the city’s celebration of winter holidays and the New Year.

There is even an outdoor ice-skating rink constructed in the middle of PPG Place every winter – Pittsburgh’s answer to skating in New York’s Rockefeller Center.