A new exhibition at Downtown’s 820 Liberty Gallery invites visitors to step into an alternate version of Pittsburgh imagined by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Titled “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania: The Pittsburgh Projects,” the show—on view through May 10, 2026—explores Wright’s unrealized designs for the city from the 1930s to 1950s through immersive videos, detailed models, and archival drawings.
Highlights include Wright’s ambitious 1947 proposal for a Point Park Civic Center, envisioned as a 10-story, circular concrete-and-steel complex featuring an opera house, convention hall, aquarium, and even blimp moorings. Other featured projects include a spiral parking garage linked to Kaufmann’s department store and a 14-story residential tower for Mount Washington.
Curated by Scott Perkins of Fallingwater and presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust with the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the exhibition uses 3D animations by Skyline Ink to visualize how Wright’s futuristic concepts might have reshaped the city skyline.
“These designs remind us to keep imagining what Pittsburgh could be,” said Anastasia James, Director of Galleries and Public Art at the Cultural Trust.
