Facing another year of having to reinvent itself in 2008 because of ongoing Downtown construction, the Three Rivers Arts Festival seems to finally be saying, "What the heck, why not go all out?"

So it's shedding for good the familiar yellow pavilions that for years sheltered the visual arts component of the festival, and doing away with the professional curated exhibition, as well. In their place will be 10 huge shipping containers -- a hot unit that's turning up all over in applications as varied as exhibition spaces to pre-fab homes and apartment buildings.

To be sure, the 17-day festival will have some familiar favorites when it kicks off its 49th rendition Friday, including the artists market, food booths, children's area and other staples of past festivals. It also will occupy a similar footprint to last year's, the main changes being a shift of the food area to a more expansive space along the inbound side of the Liberty Avenue extension between Stanwix Street and Commonwealth Place, freeing up more space for audiences around the main Music Stage.

But the most notable change will be the 10 shipping containers, which will be placed on Forbes Avenue between Market Square and Stanwix. Borrowing from an idea used at Art Basel Miami Beach, a high-end international art fair, artists submitted proposals for installations to be built within the containers, and 10 were selected.

When festival executive director Elizabeth Reiss first saw shipping containers employed as mobile exhibition spaces at the Miami Beach fair, she knew she wanted to bring them here. At first, she says, their application in Miami -- housing young galleries that couldn't afford access to the main sites -- was very humble. But as she witnessed the possibilities broadening, she realized how flexible they were.

Reiss compares the festival's containers, strung along a Downtown street, to "a dotted line -- you can put them anywhere." She, festival operations coordinator Cory Cope and festival visual arts committee chair Vanessa Sica traveled to Miami for a closer look, with

the understanding that if they brought them here, the containers would be here to stay, permanently replacing the old yellow pavilions.

"We didn't want to do this unless it was long term," Reiss says. "This is a new format for us.''

Ten of the 8-by-8-by-40-foot shipping containers were purchased and refurbished for $35,000. The price would have been twice that, Reiss says, had not Pitt Ohio Trucking and American Bridge donated trucking costs and refurbishing manpower.

Among container advantages, Reiss says, is that they're weatherproof and lockable, reducing security expenses.

Perhaps best, she says, is that they offer the festival "all the freedom in the world to put anything we want in them."

Following last year's outcry when an artist's video was pulled from the annual exhibition because it showed her bathing nude with milk and honey in a woodland setting, Reiss says she suggested to her staff that they "make spaces that we can be free to do whatever we need to do with."

Reiss makes a distinction between open public spaces and those with entry points, "what I call a threshold. By going through that threshold, you've agreed to see what it is I'm presenting."

Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning play "Take Me Out," which will be presented indoors by barebones productions as one of the festival's performing arts 4th River Project, contains nudity. That's noted on the festival Web site and ticket buyers are advised, Reiss says. "It's about a baseball player who comes out of the closet mid-season. Ultimately, it's about the love of baseball," Reiss says.

Reiss says she doesn't know yet whether the shipping containers will be used at other events, such as Flux parties highlighting local artists and performers, which the festival now produces, but they will definitely continue to be a part of the summer arts festival. Down the road, she hopes to purchase more.

This year the call for artists went out late, in March, and the proposals were reviewed by Reiss; Sica; Renee Piechocki, director, Pittsburgh's Office of Public Art; Susan Sparks, vice president, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, and director of external affairs, Mattress Factory; and Pati Beachley, president, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, and assistant professor of art, Seton Hill University, Greensburg.

About half of the presenters are Associated Artist members, and half are from outside the organization. Each artist was given a $1,000 stipend, which included materials, and offered a variety of technical assistance.

Other visual arts highlights at this summer's festival, which runs through June 22, include "Icing on the Cake," nonedible cakes celebrating Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary made by Associated Artist members, at the PPG Place Wintergarden; site-specific installations by ceramists Jeffrey Mongrain and Nicholas Kripal in Trinity Cathedral, Downtown; an interactive sculpture, "Dream Machine," by Nathan Green in Market Square; and "Magarac Attack," a 4th River project sculptural celebration of Pittsburgh steel worker folk hero Joe Magarac, in Market Square (beginning June 14).

The 4th River projects also include a new installment of the popular Tom Sarver organized Art Olympics; "Along These Rivers," a poetry reading, photography exhibition and book commemorating Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary; "The Unintended," a new play by Paulo Nzambi inspired by refugee Afghani children in Pakistan, performed by Pittsburgh Playback Theatre, and accompanying photography exhibition; and a series of professionally staged readings of new plays by Pittsburgh playwrights.

Music and performance will be presented on the Festival Main Stage, in the Stanwix Triangle, and weeknights on the Market Square Stage; 300 artists and crafters will sell their creations in the Duquesne Light Artists Market in Gateway Center Plaza; and the UPMC Health Plan Family Festival will concentrate on environmentally conscious hands-on art experiences in the Gateway Center Hertz Investment Group Plaza.

The festival also has put effort into having a green face this year, aided by the sustainability consulting firm Restorative Events, which has been following the festival process from planning to presentation and evaluating the annual event.

The greatest impact on the environment is made by garbage, much of that from the food booths and their consumers, says Ryan Walsh of Restorative Events. So "TRAF cans" marked for composting, recycling and waste will be put out, along with informational signs on the "Three Rivers Arts Festival Zero-Waste Initiative."

Volunteers also will be available to answer questions, Walsh says, adding that in the future, he hopes to encourage more visitors and festival-goers to use transit "to reduce the carbon and greenhouse gas footprint."

The festival, which budgets $1.1 million for the summer event, expects approximately 500,000 visitors and to generate $2.4 million in sales in the artists market alone. And festival organizers say that VisitPittsburgh estimated that last year's festival generated $23 million of economic activity for Downtown businesses.

While realigning such things as bank accounts and health insurance coverage has become a priority in light of the festival's impending split from Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Reiss envisions future development of more partnerships and growth as an agency that produces artistic events.

And the staff is eagerly planning for next year, the festival's golden anniversary. The public will have a chance to participate in that preparation this summer with The Three Muses -- "dressed as an '80s Girl, a '70s Girl and a '60s Girl" -- who will circulate through the crowds of attendees, talking to people, photographing them and recording their arts festival memories.

Thursday's Weekend Magazine will have information on all of the festival activities, plus related stories. To reach the festival offices, call 412-281-8723 or visit www.artsfestival.net.