Basic Information for Color Park
Address: 1 S 6th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Hours: 24/7
Website: https://www.facebook.com/TheColorPark/
Admission: Free
Transportation: Bus stop near the park that requires some walking. Parking available off of S. Fourth Street along the riverfront. Bike access from Great Allegheny Passage's Heritage Trail with onsite locking.
Access: The park can be accessed through multiple paths from the bus stop, some including stairs. Elevator available through the Highline on Terminal Street. You must provide your own paint if you wish to paint the park.
About the Color Park
Welcome to the most colorful place in Pittsburgh, where creative expression in the form of graffiti is not only legal but welcomed. The Color Park is located in the South Side of Pittsburgh along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail between Liberty Bridge and the 10th Street Bridge.
The Color Park officially opened in the spring of 2017 after a lot of consideration. Local artist Baron Batch had been tagging the trail and other places in Pittsburgh for several years. His work on the Three River’s Heritage Trail where the Color Park now sits was finally noticed after his works were reported to the police as vandalism. This opened discussion and debate about public art versus vandalism and eventually spring-boarded the creation of the Color Park.
Batch’s vision was to make this run-down industrial area colorful, welcoming, and engaging through graffiti art. It’s important to understand what this area looked like before the Color Park was opened. The space is in the back end of a rusty truck yard on the edge of the Monongahela. Looking inland, you see sets of railroad tracks, semi-truck trailers, chrome, rubber, and cement blocking. Before the Color Park opened, it was lifeless and cold. Today, it is vibrant and breathtaking thanks to Batch and the rest of the city's creative community.
When the park was being developed, Batch invited individuals from around Pittsburgh to come and paint cement blocks in the park solid colors. He then opened the park to any and all, allowing anyone from skilled graffiti artists to regular pedestrians of the path to come and put their mark on the new Color Park. People are free to express whatever they want, wherever they want around the park (and trust us they most definitely do). With all the new art created in the past five years, Color Park has become one of the most “Instagrammable” places in Pittsburgh. We recommend you head down to South Side and put your artistic and photographic creativity to work!
By and for the People
Graffiti is a public form of artistic expression that is largely misunderstood resulting in graffiti being viewed as meaningless and destructive. Despite large distain for graffiti, many still acknowledge and appreciate the messages and work of graffiti artists. Graffiti’s modern beginnings are rooted in social protest and rebellion in response to discrimination and the struggles of city living as well as lack of access to museums and art institutions (“Graffiti: History, Purpose, Types”).
Concrete Coloring Book
Color Park’s radiant magnetism attracts all sorts of crowds, from amateur to highly skilled artists, where the quality of the work does not define the meaning behind the work, it is all about how the art affects fellow visitors, and snowballs into a melting pot of thought. Artists with an intent to leave a mark on unsuspecting visitors never learn of their impacts on others or even who they impacted.
What Do You See?
With COVID-19 imposing a world-wide self-quarantine, things have been changing dramatically.
City Outside Greyscale
Satellite images of the Color Park reveal a nook of beautiful pastels among an otherwise dreary stretch of trucking facilities hugging the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh’s popular South Side neighborhood. The space is a vibrantly colorful delight to any pair of eyes who happen upon that section of Three Rivers Heritage Trail.
The Community of Color Park
The city of Pittsburgh is filled with all sort of hidden gems and cool attractions. There are a lot of things to discover when in Pittsburgh, but what people do not often know is the stories behind these locations. Color Park is a vibrant area along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in the South Side of Pittsburgh, with funky art and a beautiful view. It attracts people from across the country and Pittsburgh and unites them under one interest: art and expression. Anyone is allowed to paint or spray at Color Park, creating a community like no other.