Heinz Hall Marks A Half-Century As A Premier Pittsburgh Performance Space

PITTSBURGH, PA — When the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra takes the stage at Heinz Hall on Friday, the occasion will be more than just the first time that a live performance has occurred there in 18 months. It also will be a belated birthday celebration.

On Sept. 10, 1971, the former movie theater at the corner on Penn Avenue, Downtown, debuted as a performing arts space with actors such as Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones and Gregory Peck on hand to mark the occasion. It would be the new home of the symphony, which had performed at the Carnegie Music Hall and Syria Mosque in Oakland.

In non-pandemic times, the symphony performs more than 40 weeks of concerts there annually and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony also plays there. Heinz Hall also hosts select Pittsburgh Broadway Series performances, the Pittsburgh Speakers Series, Pops concerts and children's concerts.

Those attending events in the opulent space might not realize that shell of the building that was transformed into Heinz Hall came extremely close to being demolished in the late 1960s.

The building had been the Loew's Penn Theater from 1927 until 1964, when the theater closed and sat vacant for five years and nearly was razed for a parking lot. But Pittsburgh philanthropist Henry J. Heinz II and Pittsburgh Symphony Society Charles Denby spearheaded the effort to transform the rundown structure into a state of the art space for the symphony.

A Howard Heinz Endowment gift to the symphony helped make what the society termed a theater "to encourage, foster and perpetuate the performing arts in the Greater Pittsburgh area." Judging from the money still being poured into it, Heinz Hall will continue that mission in the luxurious surroundings to which patrons long have been accustomed.

According to the symphony website, the hall received a $3.5 million refurbishing this summer to help mark its 50th anniversary. Work performed while the space was closed included painting and restoration of the ornate plaster gold leafing and glazing in the Grand Lobby and Grand Tier Foyer. The backstage areas and the Dorothy Porter Simmons Regency Rooms were spruced up, and several accessibility projects were completed.

The work were being funded by private foundation sources, the Allegheny Regional Asset District and matching funds from the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, according to the symphony.

Those renovations will be on display Friday and will be observed by symphony attendees who will notice other changes to Heinz Hall, these ones pandemic-related. For example, new touchless faucets have been installed in all restrooms.

Symphony officials have said that through testing and investments, the hall's excellent ventilation and air quality is guaranteed. Enhanced cleaning and sanitizing techniques will be used in all spaces used by audiences, musicians and staff.

Heinz Hall will adhere to whatever mask mandates might be in place by government authorities. Symphony officials called it a mask-friendly building where people who prefer to wear masks can do so regardless of vaccination status.

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