Heinz Hall
600 Penn Avenue
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SAT: 10:00am - 1:00pm
YOUR EXPERIENCE
Experience spectacular Heinz Hall your way. Let your imagination run wild as the star of the stage, capture photos in a legendary space, learn more about the Pittsburgh Symphony, or test drive theater seats from every angle.
Wheelchair-Accessible Entrance: YES
Wheelchair-Accessible Restrooms: YES
Public Restrooms: YES
Photography Allowed: YES
ABOUT THIS BUILDING
Originally constructed as a Rococo-style movie palace, Heinz Hall opened in 1927 as Loew’s Penn Theater. Marcus Loew built the opulent theater in the Golden Age of Hollywood, purposefully including a stage for touring acts and musical numbers in addition to a screen.
The original theater boasted a state-of-the-art ventilation system, a moveable stage and modern lighting. Loew installed a Robert Morton organ, which contained five-hundred miles of wire and could produce the sounds of a variety of instruments such as harps, chimes, drums, flutes, oboes, and tubas.
The original architects were C.W. and George L. Rapp of Chicago and New York. Rapp and Rapp envisioned a fifty-foot-high, vaulted Venetian ceiling with bronze and crystal chandeliers in the Grand Lobby and Breche opal and Lavanto marble in the Mezzanine. Plaster work depicting allegorical figures covered the ceilings and complemented art works in the lobby, including a miniature bronze of Diana the Huntress and a painting of the Battle of Hastings.
Time took its toll on the Loew’s Penn Theater. The 1936 St. Patrick’s Day Flood claimed the Morton organ, and the crowds slowly dwindled at the downtown movie theater. In 1964, the theater closed, but then had a brief comeback in 1967 featuring Carol Channing in “Hello, Dolly!”. Even with this final resurgence, financially the Loew’s Penn Theater could not survive. The movie palace seemed destined for demolition until H. J. Heinz II and the Pittsburgh Symphony Society stepped in.
In need of a new performance venue, the Pittsburgh Symphony decided restoration was the best way forward for a multipurpose performing arts center. Funds from the Howard Heinz Endowment purchased the Penn Theater, and the architectural firm of Stotz, Hess, MacLachlan, and Fosner oversaw the renovation. The acoustical consultant, Dr. Heinrich Keilholz, attested to the theater’s acoustic suitability for the Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Opera, and others.
Work on the theater included extending the back wall of the theater to increase the size of the stage and transforming the commercial space on the corner of Sixth Street and Penn Avenue from shops and a diner into the theater’s street-level box office with administrative offices above. The main entrance was also relocated to make way for the thirty-foot window at the end of the Grand Lobby. Overall, much of the original craftsmanship of the theater was retained.
In the auditorium, twelve crystal chandeliers were designed by J. & L. Lobmeyr of Vienna, who also created the chandeliers at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The renovation included the addition of a reflector above the proscenium and an acoustic shell over the front of the stage to better transmit the sound of the symphony. At the time of the renovation, the number of seats in the auditorium was reduced to provide more comfortable seating for audiences and to improve the aisles.
The theater’s grand reopening as Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts took place on September 10, 1971, with Dr. William Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in its first concert at the symphony’s new home. Since 1971, while serving as a Cultural District cornerstone and a key player in the revitalization of downtown Pittsburgh as a center for the arts, Heinz Hall has undergone several minor renovations and the addition of the Garden Plaza on the corner of Sixth Street and Liberty Avenue.
In August 2016, Heinz Hall became the first theater in western Pennsylvania to install the Dauler Hearing Loop, providing better sound to hearing aid and cochlear implant users.
NOTE: Participating buildings and event hours for each subject to change; please check the website regularly for any updates.