Destination: Pennsylvania : River City Revival : Pittsburgh? Don’t laugh. This history-rich, cultural gem is one of America’s ‘most livable’

As an avid sightseer, I’m a collector of curiosities--that is, offbeat sights (or sites) that are unique or at least very rare. So I was pleased to discover, early into a recent first-time visit, that the city of Pittsburgh is a treasure trove of the unusual.

In pursuit, mostly on foot, I explored its historically rich streets with increasing enthusiasm, acquiring many intriguing additions to my mental collection.

To name but a few:

* Cinderella’s glass palace, which is the impression I got anyway of the soaring PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) Building--a 40-story glass skyscraper in a modern Gothic style with fairy-tale towers, a lush inside winter garden and a regal courtyard. This is the kind of place that a princess who owes her marriage and throne to a glass slipper would build.

* The Stephen Foster Memorial, acclaimed--as a brochure puts it--as “the world’s only concert hall, museum, research library and archive devoted to an American composer.” Foster’s cherished melodies are playing while you examine memorabilia from his short but productive life that began in Pittsburgh. I entered to “I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.”

* A permanent exhibit called “Eating” at the Carnegie Science Center, which overlooks the Ohio River. An informative, often humorous examination of international dining habits, it is sponsored by the H.J. Heinz Co. Foundation, an offshoot of the old Pittsburgh firm famous for its ketchup.

* The Monongahela and Duquesne inclines--twin thrill rides from the past. They still do useful duty as public transportation in hoisting riders up the steep green slope of Mt. Washington for panoramic views of the city and its three great rivers--the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio.

Given Pittsburgh’s rich historical heritage, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the abundance of fascinating things to see.

With its origins as a strategic frontier fort before the Revolutionary War, the city grew into a major inland shipping port and an international colossus of industry--the reputed “Forge of the Universe,” a smoky, pulsating mill town that fed the fortunes of such corporate giants as Carnegie, Westinghouse and Mellon, among many. Apparently doomed to decline along with domestic steel production after World War II, Pittsburgh embarked instead on a major renaissance effort that has both cleaned the air and earned it a reputation as one of America’s most delightful cities.

Most notably, perhaps, the city has ranked in the top five in the last four “Places Rated Almanacs,” one of the premier lists of North America’s most livable cities. In the latest survey, published in 1993 by Prentice Hall Travel (formerly Rand McNally), the authors rated 343 metropolitan areas on cost of living, job outlook, housing, transportation, education, health care, crime, the arts, recreation and climate, then combined the scores to get the overall rankings. Pittsburgh ranked fifth overall in the latest survey, edging out most other cities in North America, including many with considerably more come-hither reputations. Not just a flash in the pan, Pittsburgh ranked fourth overall in the 1981 “Places Rated Almanac,” first in ‘85, and third in ’89.

Two advantages from which the city has benefited over the years are important cultural endowments bequeathed by its civic leaders, and its lovely setting on the green hillsides and hollows past which its three famous rivers flow. Probably the most popular viewing site is at the top of one of the Mt. Washington inclines. But I was more taken by the prospect from Point State Park, the 36-acre triangular wedge at the foot of Pittsburgh’s commercial core where the Allegheny (to the north) and the Monongahela (to the south) join to form the Ohio, Pittsburgh’s historical pathway to the Mississippi River and America’s heartland. Standing there at water’s edge, near the earthworks of old Ft. Pitt, I somehow felt I was getting a better sense of Pittsburgh’s past and its present.

To the west, as the Ohio flows, I watched the passage of tugboats and barges and rumbling freight trains, all emblems of Pittsburgh’s old industrial clout. To the east, rising like a mammoth glass and steel screen, stood the gleaming high-rise office buildings of the Golden Triangle that represent the city’s new economic base founded on high technology.

Ethnically diverse, Pittsburgh is a city of close-knit neighborhoods--about 90 by one count--where many of the old customs (as well as the bakeries and cafes) still flourish. At the top of the Monongahela Incline, which was an easy walk from my downtown hotel, I stepped out onto Shiloh Street, a quiet little Mt. Washington byway that seemed decades removed from the urban bustle far below. Inside Knell’s Bakery, I treated myself to a sweet strawberry tart with definite Old European origins.

To add to the city’s flavor, Pittsburgh enjoys an unusual variety of sophisticated cultural organizations, such as the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Pittsburgh Symphony, a well-respected, much-recorded orchestra. And the city’s universities, among them the giant University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University, enliven the sidewalks and the night life. The current hot spot on the South Side (south of the Monongahela River) is East Carson Street, a turn-of-the-century commercial strip several blocks long lined with funky shops, small bookstores, eateries and pubs.

I spent two days in Pittsburgh, and even by hurrying I could not take in all it offers. On the first day, I explored the downtown area--the Golden Triangle--by foot, crossing both the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers to see close-in attractions on the North Side and the South Side. The next day, I rented a car to get to more distant destinations, including Oakland, the cosmopolitan neighborhood that is home to the Carnegie museums and the University of Pittsburgh.

Just three miles east of downtown, Oakland was created by Pittsburgh’s 19th-Century elite as a second city--a sparkling cultural and educational antidote to the blue-collar grime of the thriving old mill town at the city center. As I toured this unusual and vibrant mix, I rapidly added other oddities--all, by my definition, worthwhile attractions--to my collection.

From my downtown hotel, the nicely refurbished Westin William Penn, I plunged into narrow streets that cut between the high-rise office buildings like the canyon corridors of New York City. More than anything, this resemblance to Manhattan awakened me to the economic might of Pittsburgh’s commerce. Here’s where I found the PPG Building, the fascinating glass complex designed at the outset of the 1980s by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Patterned in part after the British Houses of Parliament, it created a sensation when it was built. From amid these towers, I suddenly turned into Market Square, a throwback to a town square of a century or two ago. Adorned with gas-lamp-style lighting and brick streets, the square is ringed by colorful old buildings that house a gourmet coffee shop, a bakery, a bagel shop and the Original Oyster House.

After taking in the view at Point State Park, I crossed the Allegheny River on the Ft. Duquesne Bridge to the Carnegie Science Center, passing en route Three Rivers Stadium, the North Side home of both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers. In its shadow is Roberto Clemente Memorial Park, named for the baseball star who was killed in a plane crash in 1972.

One of the pleasures of a city walking tour is examining its statuary, and Pittsburgh is graced with many interesting pieces. The “Eating” exhibit at the science center--an abstract sculpture in gray and red--occupied me for an hour, and then I trekked to another North Side attraction, an authentic oddity called the Aviary. Plunked in the middle of West Park, it offers what is believed to be North America’s third largest collection of bird species. More than 700 birds of all kinds are displayed--from a giant Andean condor to tiny hummingbirds--many in a large free-flight tropical greenhouse.

I am a strong walker but by now even I was wearying. So once I had crossed the Allegheny back into the Golden Triangle, I boarded one of the city’s trolleys, called the “T,” which run underground in the downtown area. It carried me quickly across the Monongahela to the South Side and Station Square, a busy mall of 60 shops and cafes that occupy several restored railroad warehouses. Here I boarded the Monongahela Incline for the short but unnervingly steep ride up the side of Mt. Washington. Opened in 1870 to give Mt. Washington residents easy access to the city, it is reputed to be the oldest operating incline in the nation.

Next morning, I headed by car for the Strip, once the city’s wholesale produce market and still a center for ethnic food shops and cafes and fresh fruit and vegetable stalls. Located just north of the Golden Triangle, its principal streets are Penn Avenue and Smallman Street between 16th and 22nd streets. Saturday morning is prime time for the Strip, when many vendors set up street booths.

*

By 10 a.m., I was in Oakland, and in fact I needed most of the day to do the neighborhood justice. First stop was the Carnegie, an immense gray building shared by the Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History. Born to a poor family in Scotland in 1835, founder Andrew Carnegie came to the United States with his parents at age 12.

For the Museum of Art, he sought contemporary artworks, thus creating, as a museum pamphlet points out, “what could be considered the first museum of modern art in the country.” It boasts a fine collection of Impressionists, and I wandered among the paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Klimt, Cezanne and others.

From the museum, I crossed Forbes Avenue to visit the Foster Memorial, where the composer is cited for the “beautiful ideals” given voice in his enduring music--which I sang with enthusiasm in grade school.

I have more collecting to do when I return for another visit someday. This spring, the Carnegie Institute unveiled its new Andy Warhol Museum, which occupies a restored eight-story industrial building on the North Side. More than 500 works of art by pop artist Warhol, a native son of Pittsburgh, are on exhibit--making the collection what the Carnegie claims to be “the most comprehensive single-artist museum in the United States.” The new museum is another genuine Pittsburgh oddity, and I most certainly want it in my collection.

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GUIDEBOOK

Pittsburgh Pursuits

Getting there: USAir flies nonstop LAX-Pittsburgh; connecting service is available on United, American, Continental and Delta. Lowest restricted fares start at about $430 round trip.

Where to stay: For convenient sightseeing, the best choice is one of the hotels in the city center. I stayed at the Westin William Penn (telephone 412-281-7100), a stately hotel on Mellon Square where a room for two begins at $125 a night. You get historic ambience at the William Penn, but in many rooms the view is limited. For grand river views in a modern high-rise, try the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers, 600 Commonwealth Place (tel. 412-391-4600); a river-view room for two can run $170-$190 a night, depending on occupancy.

The Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau offers a Weekend Package Brochure, listing special weekend rates and discounts at local hotels and motels. For a copy, call the Weekend Package Hotline, tel. (800) 927-8376

Where to eat: The word about food in Pittsburgh used to be that quantity not quality is what counted. With the growth of high-tech industry, this apparently is changing.

On my first night in town, I dined quite nicely in William Penn’s Terrace Room on blackened mahi-mahi, but I liked the experience as much for the room’s old-fashioned charm. Full dinner for one with wine, about $30.

Elsewhere, seek out the offbeat cafes in such bustling areas as the Strip, the South Side’s East Carson Street and Station Square.

For more information: Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau, Four Gateway Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, (800) 366-0093 or (412) 281-7711.