Banners, billboards to tell the story of Pittsburgh's change during G-20 summit
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Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato unveils signs yesterday that will be posted around the region during next month's G-20 summit. n For a video report, go to post-gazette.com
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By now, many of the world's leaders attending next month's G-20 summit should be familiar with the story of Pittsburgh's economic turnaround.
In case they're not, a series of welcome billboards, utility pole signs and banners will drape empty Downtown storefronts, buildings on Mount Washington and businesses in the Strip District to tell the story, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato said yesterday.
The G-20 will be "an opportunity for us to make a stunning first and lasting impression on visitors from around the world," Mr. Onorato said during a tour of places the county plans to beautify along the Parkway West corridor in preparation for the summit.
He unveiled three of the seven kinds of signs and banners that will color the Greater Pittsburgh area in the weeks leading up to and after the summit on Sept. 24 and 25.
The signs, which are in shades of green, blue, white and orange, feature images representing the region's growth in medicine, technology and education.
The main welcome sign will be a 20-foot-by-4-foot billboard, "Pittsburgh Welcomes the World!" The billboard will be placed in five locations on the Parkway West from Pittsburgh International Airport into Downtown.
Five such billboards, featuring a green globe melding into a green Pittsburgh skyline, will be placed at the headquarters of the Bayer Corp.; on a bluff at the Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters building in Collier; and on a three-acre opening on Green Tree hill. Two such billboards will also be placed at the airport's entrance and exit.
A "welcome" banner featuring the 15 languages spoken among the countries attending the summit will be hoisted on poles.
Some of the signs and banners, which were designed by a collaboration of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, the county's graphics department and city officials, will start going up as early as this afternoon.
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership plans to cover the windows of 33 empty Downtown storefronts with deep blue and orange posters.
Two of the banners include messages like "Pittsburgh Industry: From steel to science, we're leading the way," and "Pittsburgh Innovates: Imagine what we're thinking of next."
County officials said the county sign shop is in the process of making 200 signs -- 4 by 6 feet and 3 by 5 feet -- with similar motifs. And apprentices at the Regional Council of Carpenters are currently building the structures for the billboards to be placed along the Parkway West.
Bryan Iams, a Bayer spokesman, said the company plans to install its banner by Sept. 1.
Businesses that want to display signs during the G-20 summit are welcome to make their own signs, Mr. Onorato said, but the theme has to match the approved design patterns which will be posted on the Pittsburgh G-20 Web site -- www.pittsburghg20.org.
Meanwhile, county officials said they have so far registered about 500 volunteers -- of the estimated 1,600 they need -- for the massive litter pickup and beautification campaign planned for Sept. 12.
First Published August 13, 2009 12:00 am
