About Oakland
Pittsburgh’s OAKLAND is the heart of the City’s academic and medical prestige. It’s home to several universities and colleges as well as a vast medical research center and hospital complex. The area is more than hospitals and universities, however, it’s home to a diverse mix of people including students from all over the United States and the world, and families that have called Oakland home for generations, perhaps since first coming to America.
Oakland’s business districts reflect its diverse nature. Forbes Avenue provides for the needs of the university and medical center staff and students. Atwood Street and Semple Street in residential South Oakland offer an array of tempting ethnic restaurants and small businesses mixed in among Victorian houses suited for historic restoration. South Craig Street in eastern Oakland is home to three blocks of pleasant restaurants as well as many interesting shops.
Oakland features Pittsburgh’s acclaimed Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art, the Nationality Rooms of the Cathedral of Learning and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. After enjoying the monumental architecture of Oakland’s Civic Center, a short stroll across the Junction Hollow Bridge near the Carnegie Library will bring you to the gateway to Schenley Park, one of Pittsburgh’s fine urban parks. A feature of the park just across the bridge is the Phipps Conservatory which displays flora from around the world.
Oakland is only fifteen minutes by Port Authority bus from Downtown Pittsburgh. Very frequent service operates throughout the day seven days a week from Fifth Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. Buses returning to Downtown travel down Fifth Avenue in Oakland.