CITY LIFE - PITTSBURGH

America's steel city is forging a new name for itself as an incubator for cutting-edge tech, offbeat arts and innovative places to eat, drink and dance

- JOE SILLS

Arrive in Pittsburgh via the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and you’ll emerge to find one of America’s most striking skylines rising above you. At sunset, this is truly spectacular: the collage of shimmering glass towers, Victorian bridges and rippling rivers a thrilling system shock.

Here in Pennsylvania, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, a city that gained fame as a forge for US steel is being remade for a new future. Tech company Astrobotic Technology is launching a mission to the moon from Pittsburgh, while artists are finding refuge from global conflict within its walls at pioneering safe haven City of Asylum. And the opulent remains of the Gilded Age at places like the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens create form a spectacular backdrop to all that 21st-century innovation and creativity.

The birthplace of Andy Warhol, Pittsburgh embraces its creative side with quirky museums like Bicycle Heaven, Randyland outdoors art museum, and the Mattress Factory — not to mention a gallery dedicated to the enigmatic artist himself. The city’s Civil Rights legacy as a post-Civil War nexus for Americans fleeing the South is showcased powerfully at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.