A couple, searching for a place to develop their talents and raise their children, never even considered Pittsburgh, until a fateful road trip to visit old friends put their search into sharp focus.

Brian Cohen and Ilyssa Manspeizer were happily ensconced in Binghamton, N.Y., with their four children. The duo had moved there, pre-children, while Ilyssa went to graduate school. After some years, as the four little Cohens began to grow, they found themselves thinking about a more urban place to perch.

Not strangers to nomadic living, they had met in Israel in the late 1980s. The British-born Mr. Cohen was working there at the time and Ms. Manspeizer was on a semester abroad. After a romance in the land of milk and honey, he had to return to England and she returned to the United States.

"We spent a miserable year apart," Mr. Cohen said. They got married in America and moved to London, and then on to Oxford. Ms. Manspeizer had her master's in nature conservation, so they moved to Ethiopia for a year, where she administered an elephant conservation program.

"It was great, and as a photographer, I was doing my thing," he recalled. It was after that, they moved to Binghamton. "I decided there wasn't much opportunity to be a photographer there, so I went to graduate school, as well. We ended up with two Ph.D's and four kids," said Mr. Cohen. (Today they are 15, 12, nearly 10 and 5.)

These globetrotters were not unhappy in Binghamton, where Mr. Cohen was teaching art history at Ithaca College and his wife had her degree in anthropology. "We were very happy there and had wonderful friends, but for a variety of reasons it was difficult for us both to find satisfactory professional outlets," he noted. "We were looking for a place where we could be reasonably well-rounded, satisfied adults and therefore be happy spouses and parents. A place where we would be fulfilled and our kids would have opportunities.

"When we would visit friends in another city, we would cast an eye," explained Mr. Cohen. "We had traveled enough to know that every place has its own character and there are lots of great places to live." It was a matter of knowing it when they saw it.

A sojourn to visit family in Ohio included a visit to friends in Pittsburgh. As they got closer to Pittsburgh, the topography changed and so did Mr. Cohen's expression. His wife recalled the moment. "We came in on Interstate 79 and got that beautiful view of the city. He was so captivated."

That weekend with their friends just added to her husband's interest in the city. So when he said to her, "I think we can make a go of it in Pittsburgh," she was more surprised than anything. "I grew up in New Jersey and had a typical view of Pittsburgh: industrial, steel mills, polluted, damaged," she admitted.

So it took her a little longer to digest the reality of the Pittsburgh she was experiencing. "I had to revisit my own assumptions," said the anthropologist. "I was surprised how green it was, and working in the environmental field, that is important to both of us." She also found a fertile professional life. She manages the Grandview Park in Mount Washington and also works with the Mount Washington Community Development Corporation.

Mr. Cohen now splits his time as an part- time academic and photographer, working for the online publication Pop City (popcitymedia.com) and working on a project that contrasts the city today with the record of the great photographer W. Eugene Smith from the 1950s.

Pittsburgh's growing green identity has impressed them both. But it was the children who put down roots right away. "They are happy here, the schools are serving them well and they have great opportunities." It has been three years since they packed and moved here to plow new creative fields; they are settled into a Beechwood Boulevard home at the Squirrel Hill/Greenfield border and Mr. Cohen's photographic project is beginning to take shape (see www.briancohenphotography.com).

"There are so many really cool people here. They sit and talk and show you around and are generally, really interested in you," said Mr. Cohen. "I find that really interesting."