Saturday, December 17, 2011

Robot Repair Shop In Downtown Pittsburgh???

"Fraley's Robot Repair Shop" at 210 6th Ave

If you do a double-take (or triple-, quadruple-take) while passing by 210 6th Ave in Downtown's Cultural District ..... You're not alone.  Right there in the window of Fraley's Robot Repair Shop is an anxious-looking robot apparently looking for a way out.  But who in the world is repairing robots?  Who even has any robots to repair?

The truth is that robots are not actually being meticulously restored to mint condition in our tech-savy city.   And Fraley's is not a repair shop of any kind, either.  Rather, it is part of "Project Pop-Up: Downtown", a public art installation created by Toby Atticus Fraley, artist from Washington, Pa.  The installation, which was launched publicly during November’s 51st Annual Light Up Night, gives downtown passers-by a chance to glimpse into a future wherein robot ownership – and  the bothersome repairs that accompany it – may be quite commonplace.

"Project Pop-Up: Downtown" is a partnership between the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Department of City Planning and Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) which aims to inject new life into abandoned downtown Pittsburgh storefronts, playing off of the many other positive downtown developments already underway. More than 90 entrepreneurs from throughout the nation submitted grant proposals in hopes of making their “pop-up” dreams a reality in Pittsburgh. These applicants were whittled down to 12 recipients – seven of which launched their projects in November.

Learn more about "Project Pop-Up: Downtown" and the other six “pop-ups” by clicking on the link below.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Project Pop-up: Downtown

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