Pittsburgh architectural historian Franklin Toker has said that Bloomfield "is a feast, as rich to the eyes as the homemade tortellini and cannoli in its shop windows are to the stomach.

Here the provincial frame rowhouses give way to stand-alone brick Victorian homes, which were built larger on each street heading east.

The East Busway is set into Skunk Hollow, a ravine that separates Bloomfield from Polish Hill to the west, North Oakland to the southwest, and Shadyside to the south.

In Bloomfield, the Steps of Pittsburgh quickly connect pedestrians from the main residential area to the lower-elevation streets of Lorigan, Juniper, and Neville.

In addition to the two churches and Western Pennsylvania Hospital, the street has many restaurants and bars, a supermarket and Italian market, tanning and hair salons, a gym, bookstores, barber shops, and more.

A small park beside the Bloomfield Bridge holds public bocce courts, a playground, a softball field, a skateboarding area, and a dek hockey rink.