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!