From the completion of the Great Allegheny Passage a hiking and biking trail connecting Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., to an amazing Festival of Lights, Pittsburgh is celebrating in a big way! As part of the festivities, Point State Park, located in downtown Pittsburgh, is undergoing a $35 million renovation. About 120 of the world’s best young cyclists will bike from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh as part of the American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania.

What’s Hot in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s new August Wilson Center for African American Culture will open in 2009. The $36 million center, which is being built in the heart of downtown, will feature Pittsburgh’s contributions to African-American art, culture and history. The 80,000-square-foot facility will include a 500-seat theater, galleries, bookstore, café and space for education and research.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History opens the final phase of the new $36 million “Dinosaurs in Their Time” exhibit with the return of T. Rex in June 2008. The new exhibit is triple the size of the former Dinosaur Hall. With more than 103,000 specimens, the museum has the finest Jurassic dinosaur collection in the world and is the world’s third largest repository of dinosaur fossils. Visitors can see real dinosaurs, dramatically posed in their natural habitats. It’s been named one of the best places to see dinosaurs by the Discovery Channel and Forbes magazine.

Carnegie Science Center will open “Roboworld,” the nation’s largest and most comprehensive permanent robotics exhibition in spring 2009. The $3.4 million exhibition will feature more than 30 hands-on interactive stations in three areas: robotic sensing, thinking and acting. 

Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium unveiled an exciting new exhibit, called “Water’s Edge.” This exhibit features polar bears, sea otters and walruses. Visitors can walk onto a pier to get another view of bears from eye level and under water. The Pittsburgh Zoo is one of only four places in the country that’s home to all three of these beautiful creatures.