Halftime Report on the Square

Okay, just in case you're not keeping score at home, we wanted to let you know that Market Square is on track for a banner year. Just the other day we were checking the record books and discovered that in 2008 — the last full year before the Square's dramatic makeover — 34 events happened in the Square. Which was actually a pretty good total. But at the mid-point of 2011 — the first full year of the transformed Square — we tallied up 32 events so far with even more to come.

So, during this holiday-shortened working week, we've put together a photo album of some of 2011's high points in the Square. And if you look closely, you might even see yourself in a shot or two.

Even during the dead of winter, the Pittsburgh faithful turned out to show their pride during a high-five contest between Pittsburgh and Green Bay fans. While the Green Bay won the battle on the gridiron, we triumphed in the Square. 

We're always proud of our Scotch-Irish heritage in Pittsburgh — especially on St. Patrick's Day.  This year's greening of the Square included special family friendly activities. 

Always a popular lunchtime destination, the Square's menu got even better with the opening of three new eateries this year, including Winghart's Burger and Whiskey Bar.  By the way, Wingheart's is now open until 8:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and Saturday noon - 5 p.m.

For one of the meatiest sandwiches in town, the debut of DiBella's rocked the boat with choice cuts on freshly made bread. 

With the opening of NOLA, diners in the Square can enjoy the cuisine of New Orleans and a taste of Mardi Gras all year round.  

 

The Mayor and other dignitaries gave us a little history lesson as they unveiled a plaque recognizing the Market Square area's role in the Underground Railroad and Abolitionist Movement.

Springtime brings the return of the Farmers Market — a bounty of fresh. from-the-field foods and homemade treats from June through November.

There's something going on in the Square for everyone — including the wee ones. Kidsplay is a great way to introduce the young ones to the Square on Friday mornings in the summer from 10 - 11:30 a.m.

Our Thursday noontime concerts are a great way to relax and enjoy some of Pittsburgh's best musicians. Plus, you can tap your feet with live performances during the Market Square Merchant Association's Monday and Wednesday lunchtime shows and special Friday Happy Hour concerts.

For those seekking something more active on their lunch break, the YMCA has been hosting free outdoor exercise classes every Friday from noon - 1 p.m.

Let's be frank. We take our championships seriously in this town.  Which is why we relished hosting a regional contest to select a male and female winner to participate in the annual Fourth of July Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship on the famed boardwalk of Coney Island. Though our champs didn't earn the ultimate crown,
they devoured the local competition with a throng cheering them on. 

Whatever the reason, the Square is just a great place to relax with friends — anytime of the day. 

At the end of the day, Carin Mincemoyer's Diamond Diamonds art installation lights the way
to the heart of Downtown — Market Square. 

To learn more about any of these programs, restaurants or attractions, visit DowntownPittsburgh.com/Market-Square.

Sparkle Plenty In The Square

Opening night in the Square and Diamond Diamonds scored rave reviews even before the morning papers hit the news stands. This dazzling new art installation, created by the talented Carin Mincemoyer, entranced passersby who strolled along Market Street, or as we like to call it, Pittsburgh's "Great Bright Way." On a perfect summer's eve, Diamond Diamonds lit up the skies with plenty of star power to fuel a long run in one of the city's hottest hot spots — Market Square. 

More than 15 months in the making, Diamond Diamonds was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and made possible through the work of the Office of Public Art and the City of Pittsburgh. Designed for daytime and nighttime enjoyment, it illuminates the Square's past as "the diamond" and serves as a guiding light to attract even more people to the Square and its many dining, shopping and recreational opportunities. 

But the real high-watt driving force behind Diamond Diamonds is Carin Mincemoyer. A CMU grad, the renowned artist led a team of welders, laser cutters and electricians to bring her stellar vision to light. The result is a brilliant scultpure in two parts, perched upon two city lamp posts on Market Street. Thus, her creation graces the street lights like a pair of Tiffany diamond earrings, Carin hopes that people will take a moment to look up. And what they'll see is a steel matrix of energy-saving LED lights twinkling inside 80 acrylic fixtures shaped like — what else? — diamonds. 

"I really want people to be surprised to see art hanging from the street lights when they're walking towards Market Square," Carin admits. "I picked the diamond theme to reflect on the Square's past and to play on the idea that a diamond is usually the focal point in a great piece of jewelry. I really hope that Diamond Diamonds will become a beacon that draws people from the Cultural District and other parts of Downtown to the Square." After teaming with Rick Frontera of Allegheny City Electric on a cloudy Tuesday morning to install Diamond Diamonds, Carin returned for the first night lighting with Rick, Renee Piechocki and Kate Hansen from the Office of Public Art, and Keny Marshall, artist, welder on the project and Carin's husband. 

As the power trio looked on, the turn of the century light fixtures flickered and then burned bright as Diamond Diamonds wowed onlookers, including Pittsburgh's own denizens and out-of-town visitors who stopped to snap a few photos for keepsakes. While Carin explained the theme behind Diamond Diamonds to admirers, Renee pointed out that "we really wanted to create something beautiful, thoughtful and interesting in this space. And to help people understand how it all ties in with the Square's history as Pittsburgh Diamond, we'll be installing be a plaque that details it all on each light pole."

Artist Talk and Reception
The Office of Public Art and Pittbsurgh Downtown Partnership invite you all to meet the artist in-person and view the sculptures.  On Thursday, July 14 the artist talk will take place on the 4th Floor of the Buhl Building, and the reception will take place in Market Street beneath the sculptures, block party style.  The event is free and open to the public but reservations are required.  For more info or to make your reservation, visit the Office of Public Art's webpage.

With Opening Night reviews in, Diamond Diamonds will be the sight to see when the lights go down in the city and the bright lights of Market Street switch on. 

For more background, see our previous blog posts on:
     The history of Market Square as "the diamond"
     Our first big post on the project
     Our first introduction of the project at the PDP Annual Meeting

Pittsburgh is full of great public art - check out this Pop City article.  In the "Oscar's of Public Art" Pittsburgh had three big wins.  Hear about these 2010 national winners and check out their nod to Carin's installation.  Kudos to the Office of Public Art, the artists and the many institutions that made these works possible!

Looking for the next big art project?  Point Park University and Riverlife have joined forces to improve the pedestrian access to the Mon Wharf via Wood Street. Wood Street - Mon Wharf Connection Project

Diamonds in the Square

You don't really need a map to find your way to Market Square. But do you think you could locate the biggest Diamond in the City? Here's a clue... it's not in a jewelry store. Truth is, the "Diamond" is the historical name of the Square, which is why Forbes Avenue once was called Diamond Street. These days, we like to think that the Square is a glittering diamond that's at the heart of Downtown. So, let's take a look at how a once rough and tumble frontier spot transformed into a Diamond and then a rock solid stellar Square of a city showplace.

Now everyone knows that the British chased the French out of the region between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers to establish the settlement in 1758. The Diamond officially took shape 20 years later when the Penn family surveyed the land nearby their manor home at Ft. Pitt at the Point. In a big time act of generosity, the Penns signed over to the city the deed to the land so that it could be put to good use as a social, civic and merchants' gathering spot. At its four corners, the Diamond pointed north, south, east and west and served as a compass for visitors who enjoyed the taverns and inns around the Diamond. Kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it?

While the British settled the area, the Diamond bears strong traces of our City's heavy Scotch-Irish heritage. Even today, one of the streets leading to the Square is called McMasters Way. And it turns out that Diamonds can still be found throughout the northern area of the Emerald Isle in places such as Rapahoe, Clones and a town called Donegal, which just happens to have a counterpart here in Western Pennsylvania. Donegal's Diamond is pictured above, used just as Pittsburgh's was before the court house and market was built. In Architectural Heritage of Western Pennsylvania, Charles Stotz writes, "Public squares or "Diamonds" were common in many early American towns, intended as 'practical provisions for the overnight parking of coaches, wagons, and horses rather than for beautification . . . [and as] social centers for towns.'"  And just across the Allegheny River, the land that sits in front of the former Buhl Science Center — now part of the wonderful Children's Museum — was a grassy expanse known as Diamond Park. Back then, it was the center of Allegheny City and just across the street from its very own Market House. Seems that Diamonds and Market Houses made good partners.

Well, very soon, diamonds will sparkle again in the Square thanks to artist Carin Mincemoyer, whose installation of 8-inch tall Plexiglas "diamonds" will accessorize lamp posts at the entrance of the Square. At night, LED lights will make the diamonds glitter and glow as people pass below to dine in the Square or just spend some time enjoying the summer winds and sounds of live music from NOLA and other hot spots. And, yes, we introduced you to Carin's creativity a few months ago, right here in this space. If you need a refresher course, just click here.

Okay, the lesson's over for today. And don't worry, there's no test — as long as you promise that we'll see you soon in the Square.



Special thanks for the historical information:
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation; Louise Sturgess, Al Tannler and Frank Stroker
Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art; Raymund Ryan, Curator of Architecture

Diamonds Are A Square's Best Friend

Oh, there will be sparkle plenty early next year when the street lamps on Market Street sport a bit of bling, thanks to artist Carin Mincemoyer. With a playful turn on the Square's original name — The Diamond — Carin got the idea to design "diamond" studded accessories to dress up the lighting that leads the way to Downtown's favorite gathering place and historic crossroads.

With all the improvements on Fifth Avenue and in Market Square it just makes sense that the street connecting them should shine as bright.  The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership reached out to the Office of Public Art (a public-private partnership between the City of Pittsburgh and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council) to solve the problem.  When the city's Office of Public Art sounded the call for high-watt ideas for a way to connect the Square with the Cultural District and First Side, Carin flipped on her creativity switch to come up with this brilliant plan. Carin worked hard to win the project.  A jury of property owners and art professionals sorted through all the qualifications from local and national applicants and Carin came to the top.  Just take a look at some of the past work highlighted on her website, including a temporary sculpture that was at the Children's Museum on the North Side - a dreamy cloud mobile made up of recycled plastic bottles, electronics parts and other stuff that people throw out. 

Just in case you never get a chance to see the Hope Diamond up close and personal, we're giving you a big time sneak peek at the Market Square's "Diamond, Diamonds" right here. Much of Mincemoyer's work investigates the space where nature and man-made products intersect.  This project references the history of the Square but also juxtaposes the diamond in its natural state versus man-made shape.  Individual 8" cut diamonds made of plexiglass and lit with LEDs will be suspended in the chemical shape of a diamond molecule.  The cluster will be mounted on the two poles in the middle of Market Street and it will appear as if the diamonds have encrusted the top of the lamp post.  When the poles light at night, the street light will add it's glow to the LEDs and they will have the effect of a halo around the central light glowing within.  When the project's complete this spring, clusters of gems will shimmer and shine every evening, drawing pedestrians back and forth along that magical pathway that links the Allegheny River to the banks of the Mon.

Of course, we're glowing that Carin got the nod for this project. But in addition to Carin's work, this project could not have gotten anywhere without the Office of Public Art, lighting consultant Hal Hilbish and the members of the committee.  They were plugged in from start to finish on this electrifying project.

So, remember to keep your chin up in the months ahead to keep track of an illuminating idea that we think is, well, just brilliant.