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 The Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh aren't the only gems in the city's crown. Here are more reasons to boast when Western Pennsylvanians talk about their home towns.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Formed in 1896, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has a rich history of top level music-making with renowned music directors Victor Herbert, Otto Klemperer, Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons and now Manfred Honeck.
With an enviable radio broadcast program, lauded recordings and successful tours, the orchestra built and now enjoys a status as one of the world's brilliant ensembles, particularly renowned for its warmth, versatility and old-world styling.
The PSO acknowledges today's best-known or emerging composers with an in-residence program that has included John Adams and Michael Hersch.
Heinz Hall, the orchestra's home since 1971, has served as an anchor of the Downtown Cultural District and a showcase for the Pittsburgh Pops under Marvin Hamlisch, touring artists and ensembles, Broadway shows and pop music.
On any given weekend, a patron can hear Beethoven, Brahms; Mozart or Mahler -- and some newer music -- performed as well as anywhere in the world. www.pittsburghsymphony.org.
-- Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette classical music critic
roboworld
Science fact and fiction meet head-on in "roboworld," the Carnegie Science Center's new permanent exhibition devoted to robotics.
Western Pennsylvania has a long history in robotics research and development, and with the growth of new high-tech industries has become a major player in the field. That's reflected in "roboworld," which features some of the technology developed locally.
The 6,000 square-foot exhibition is designed to appeal to all ages. Amid the interactive displays, visitors can pit their skills against robots in games like air hockey and basketball.
The Carnegie Mellon Robot Hall of Fame -- a display of famous fictional robots -- has a home here. It features a display of full size replicas of R2-D2 and C-3PO from "Star Wars," Hal from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and others. www.carnegiesciencecenter.org
-- Adrian McCoy, Post-Gazette staff writer
Dinosaurs in Their Time
The dinosaur skeletons on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History are among the city's finest treasures -- and represent one of the world's foremost fossil collections.
The museum's old Dinosaur Hall was a beloved institution, and in 2007 it moved into a bigger, better home: the museum's "Dinosaurs in Their Time" exhibit.
Visitors take a chronological walk through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, discovering the rich diversity of prehistoric life. Re-creations of dinosaurs, birds and smaller animals are placed in settings that replicate their natural habitats.
This $36 million renovated space houses the dinosaurs and other fossils in a soaring atrium illuminated by natural light. The dinosaurs are posed in active stances, reflecting the way scientists believe they moved. One highlight is two battling T. rex skeletons.
"Dinosaurs in their Time" features one of the world's best collections of dinosaurs from the Jurassic Age. Visitors will see complete fossil specimens of Diplodocus carnegii, Tyrannosaurus rex, Apatosaurus louisae, Camptosaurus aphanoecetes and a bird-like oviraptorosaur. http://carnegiemnh.org/dinosaurs/
-- Adrian McCoy
National Aviary
The National Aviary is an inviting refuge for birds and for people who enjoy watching them in free flight and in lush natural habitats. The sanctuary is home to more than 500 species of native and exotic birds, some of which are threatened or endangered in the wild.
The city's first plant conservatory stood on the North Side site until it was destroyed by a natural gas explosion in the 1920s. In 1952, it re-opened and added free-flying birds to the gardens. Forty years later, the institution was privatized, and in 1993, Congress gave it honorary status and it was renamed the National Aviary.
Today, the Aviary has many active conservation and research projects, including breeding rare and endangered species. Daily events include indoor and outdoor free-flight bird shows, along with chances for visitors to feed the birds and take guided behind-the-scenes tours. www.aviary.org
-- Adrian McCoy
Troupes
• Attack Theatre is impossible to pigeonhole as a dance company, although that's a key component of the interdisciplinary mix. Artistic directors Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope combine modern dance, original live music, multimedia and other art forms to present work in traditional and nontraditional spaces here and around the world. Attack Theatre was featured in Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch in 2007 and its "Games of Steel," selected for the 2006-07 National Dance Project, appeared in seven theaters nationwide. www.attacktheatre.com
• Squonk Opera touched down in 1992, and Pittsburgh has never been the same. Artistic directors Jackie Dempsey and Steve O'Hearn have said they were "inspired by a rust-belt love of spectacle and humor." In 2000, the company's off-Broadway hit "Bigsmorgasbordwunderwerk" transferred to the Great White Way, where it received an American Theater Wing Special Effects Design Award. Squonk performs all over the world with shows such as "Astro-rama," an interactive outdoor event that reaches out to galaxies far, far away. www.squonkopera.com
-- Sharon Eberson, Post-Gazette online features editor
The Andy Warhol Museum
When Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie International in 1896 to showcase the "old masters of tomorrow," you wonder if he could have envisioned another Andrew, a complete original in the artworld, who would come along just a few decades later.
Andy Warhol, the father of pop art, didn't dwell publicly on his roots here as Andy Warhola, but he would have to be pleased with The Andy Warhol Museum, the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single artist.
Opened in 1994, the North Side museum houses more than 4,000 works of art by Warhol, plus more than 600 cardboard boxes, cabinets and a shipping container filled with his collections and memorabilia, everything from receipts to cash.
Exhibitions in the spirit of Warhol's legacy and live music are also part of the attraction draw. It's unique place in popular culture is being acknowledged as a Pittsburgh site on the G-20 leaders' must-see list. www.warhol.org
-- Sharon Eberson
The Jimmy Stewart Museum
When World War II was over, Jimmy Stewart returned to a hero's celebration in his hometown of Indiana, Pa., where a "Welcome Home Jim" banner was draped across the county courthouse.
On May 20, 1995, Stewart's 87th birthday, he was embraced in a different way with the opening of The Jimmy Stewart Museum on the third floor of the public library. The actor had requested that any attraction devoted to his life be located on Philadelphia Street, the main thoroughfare, and in an existing structure.
Like Clarence earning his wings in "It's a Wonderful Life," Stewart got his wish. The museum celebrates the town's favorite son, war hero, poet and philanthropist. To many, the award-winning actor will always be George Bailey or or a former detective with a fear of heights or a reporter covering a high-society wedding or countless other characters.
The museum has a small theater along with awards, photos, posters, military uniforms, costumes, a red leather booth from now-closed Chasen's restaurant, the oak door from his Beverly Hills home and other memorabilia.
Stewart, who died in July 1977, saw the museum only through videos. The thousands of visitors who have made their way to the attraction, about 60 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh, know it is not big or flashy.
It has small-town charm, just like the man it honors. www.jimmy.org
-- Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor
Famous Houses
• Clayton: Industrial magnate, philanthropist and art collector Henry Clay Frick moved his family from Pittsburgh to New York at the turn of the 20th century, but his daughter Helen never lost her love for her former home, Clayton.
Frick purchased Clayton in 1882 for $25,000, when the house was an 11-room building on 1.43 acres. In 1891, architect Frederick J. Osterling retooled Clayton into the 23-room chateau-style mansion visitors see today.
Helen Clay Frick left the house to the city and today it's much as it was in 1905, including most of the interior artifacts. There's also a greenhouse and children's playhouse that has served as a visitor's center since the home was opened for public tours in 1990. www.frickart.org
• Fallingwater (pictured above): The most iconic of the private homes created by architect Frank Lloyd Wright was built starting in 1936 as a vacation home for the Edgar Kaufmann family, which owned Pittsburgh's major department store. The structure sits atop a 30-foot waterfall in Bear Run, Fayette County.
The house realizes the architect's vision of merging man-made structures with existing environments, and it is the only major Wright-designed house to open to the public with its furnishings, artwork and setting intact. More than 4 million people have visited since the site became opened to visitors in 1964. www.fallingwater.org
-- Sharon Eberson
PNC Park
Since 1992, when Baltimore unveiled the new Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Major Leagues has been in the era of the traditional, baseball-only ballpark. More than a dozen such parks have sprung up since then, including PNC Park, the popular home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The more generic, two-sport Three Rivers Stadium was imploded to make way for the Steelers' Heinz Field home, and just down the road along the North Shore, PNC Park, which was ready for its close-up in 2001.
Pedestrians can cross the Allegheny River on the Robert Clemente Bridge or reach the park via a boat-ride from Downtown. Once inside, the city skyline serves as a scenic backdrop for the natural-grass field. A well-hit home run has been known to plunk down in the river, where kayakers await a souvenir.
PNC Park employs a throwback, intimate design with the highest seat just 88 feet from the irregularly-shaped, natural-grass field. A feature of the park is the right-field wall that rises to 21 feet, in honor of the Pirates' once and forever No. 21, right-fielder Roberto Clemente. The inviting left-field wall drops down to just 6 feet.
Statues honoring Clemente and Willie Stargell greet visitors outside PNC Park, a destination whether the Pirates are winning or losing, and a sure sellout on a fireworks night in Pittsburgh. www.pirates.mlb.com
-- Sharon Eberson
Saint Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church
The unique murals that cover the interior of humble Saint Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale were painted by Croatian artist Maxo Vanka in 1937 and 1941. His representations of the Virgin Mary in ethnic dress and images of the homeland speak to the important role churches played in the lives of the many immigrant groups that made Pittsburgh home in the early 20th Century. But even more stunning are Vanka's critiques of capitalism and of war that manifest in images such as justice wearing a gas mask, mothers mourning their sons lost to war in the old world or to the coal mines of the new, and an anguished Mother of God interceding between two soldiers about to shoot one another. The small church is a treasure equal to any in Europe. http://stnicholascroatian.com/Murals_1.html
-- Mary Thomas, Post-Gazette art critic
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