Mr. Rogers

Five reasons to appreciate Pittsburgh International Airport

Airport shops, Celebrities, Exhibits, free Wi-Fi, Fun Stuff, Layover, Shopping, Wi-Fi, , , , ,

Chocolate hockey puck from PIT

Despite the van driver’s assurance that we’d get stuck in rush hour traffic, I arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport yesterday with plenty of time to poke around before my flight.

Good thing. Because in addition to the free internet access, there really are plenty of reasons to appreciate spending time at this airport.

Here are just five of them:

The dinosaur

Dinosaur at PIT

The shopping.  Plenty of it – and a shoe store. Enough said

Nine West shore store at PIT

The mobile by Alexander Calder in the center core.  This is a great art treasure to have at the airport.

Alexander Calder mobile at PIT

The shrine to Mr. Rogers, who filmed his long-running running TV show in Pittsburgh.

Mr Rogers shrine at Pittsburgh Airport

And, just across the way, a wall covered in Andy Warhol self-portrait wallpaper, along with several pieces of his artwork.

Andy Warhol Wallpaper at PIT

Party at Pittsburgh International Airport

Air Travel, Art, Entertainment, Events, Exhibits, free Wi-Fi, Fun Stuff, Kids, , , ,

To celebrate five years of service to Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Southwest Airlines will be throwing a little party at its PIT gates starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Gate games and decorations are promised, but with Southwest, well, you never know quite what will happen.

Even without a Southwest party, Pittsburgh Airport has a few special amenities worth applauding.  There’s this giant  aluminum and iron mobile by Alexander Calder suspended over the air-side central atrium:

PIT also has free Wi-Fi, exhibits from The Andy Warhol Museum, a T-Rex model on loan from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and an exhibit honoring Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

Celebrate sweater day at Pittsburgh Int’l Airport

Art, Celebrities, ,

Today, March 20th, is the birthday of the late Fred Rogers, the much beloved main character of the long running public TV show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

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Rogers was as well-known for his button down sweater as he was for his neighborliness, and so on March 20th the new tradition is for neighborly folks everywhere to wear a sweater in his honor.

A great place to show off your sweater is at the Pittsburgh International Airport, where the recently refurbished exhibit about Mr. Rogers and the characters from the neighborhood are on display.

Mister Rogers back at Pittsburgh Int’l Airport

Kids, ,

After a six-month vacation, the Mister Rogers exhibit at Pittsburgh International Airport is back in place at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).

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Repaired, refurbished and now technologically up-to-date, the exhibit still includes one of Mister  Rogers’ signature sweaters, his sneakers, a miniature Neighborhood of Make Believe and clay models of the show’s characters, including King Friday and Henrietta Pussycat.

But now the exhibit also includes updated graphics and a video about the public television show, which was originally taped in Pittsburgh.

David Newell, better known as Mr. McFeely or “Speedy McFeely,” the postman on the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood show, told me the exhibit is back just in time: Mister Rogers’ birthday is coming up and so is Sweater Day, March 20th.  On that day everyone is encouraged to wear a sweater – especially if they’re going to the airport.

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You can see the refreshed Mr. Rogers’ exhibit on Concourse C at Pittsburgh International Airport, next to a children’s play area. Of course.