Cultural District, Pittsburgh

The Cultural District features six theaters offering some 1,500 shows annually, as well as art galleries, restaurants, and retail shops.

The Grand Lobby was particularly impressive, with its 50-foot-high (15 m) vaulted Venetian ceiling, massive ornamental columns, marble staircase, bronze and crystal chandeliers and silk drapes.

After a $43 million restoration returning it to its original splendor, it reopened in 1987 as the newly renamed Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, and is currently able to host about 2,885 people.

Built in 1903, the then called Gayety Theater was a stage and Vaudeville house, and it featured stars such as Ethel Barrymore, Gertrude Lawrence, and Helen Hayes.

Brendan Lemon of The New York Times wrote, "To describe Pittsburgh's unconventional, un-Disneyfied remodeling of its Cultural District ... is to explore how theater can help transform urban identity."

The Cultural District is also home to the Pittsburgh Film Office, a non-profit organization that markets the greater southwestern Pennsylvania region as a great location for movie, television and commercial productions.

Since its inception in 1990, the PFO has assisted more than 102 feature films and television productions to southwestern Pennsylvania to generate an economic impact of more than $575 million for the region.