Pittsburgh native Bonnie Baxter left Pittsburgh for a short time and lived in Chicago.  During that time, she and her husband had the chance to participate in the event Open House Chicago, which allowed visitors to get a behind the scenes view of some of the city’s historic buildings.

“We moved to Chicago in 2011 and in 2014 we stumbled upon this event,” Baxter said. “They call their version Open House Chicago.”

While making the move from Chicago back to the Pittsburgh area, it occurred to Baxter that there were quite a few buildings downtown that she would love to get a closer look at and maybe others in the area would too.

“I enjoyed it so much, we both did,” she said. “So I really made a decision then and there, that was in October of 2014, to do this in Pittsburgh.”

On Oct. 1-2, Doors Open Pittsburgh gave some rare access to many buildings that Pittsburghers see from the outside every day, but really don’t get a chance to explore. Over 35 different sites were open to the public, including the Mayor’s Office, Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts and the Omni William Penn Hotel.

Baxter was surprised and pleased with the cooperation she and her partners, the Pittsburgh Landmarks Foundation, AIA Pittsburgh, a chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Design Center, and Green Building Alliance; in cooperation with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and Pittsburgh Downtown Community Development Corporation, received from the different buildings downtown.

“The Museum Conservation at the Heinz History Center, they are actually bringing in a digital expert and a textile conservator,” Baxter said. “The Fairmont Hotel is actually creating a self-guided map so when visitors come in, people can guide themselves through the hotel. “

Baxter also was appreciative of the cooperation of Mayor Peduto’s office.

“The Mayor’s office is opening its doors, not only to the Mayor’s office, but also the Council Chambers,” Baxter said. “The Mayor’s assistant James Hill has been a tremendous resource.  They’re very excited about this.”

Touring the city during the event, you could feel the curiosity and enjoyment of the others attending and could tell there was quite a bit of planning involved with this event.

“We trained about 200 volunteers over the past 14 days and the premise of the training was ‘I hope you are all prepared for some surprises,” Baxter said.

Jan and Gary Wine were two of those 200 volunteers, greeting visitors who came to take a look at The Benedum Center on Sunday.

“We love volunteering for one day events,” Jan Wire said. “And this one is great because when we are done here, we can take a walk around and enjoy the event ourselves.”

Jonathan Dutton was an participant of Doors Open Pittsburgh  and visited the Alcoa building, the Oliver Building and his favorite, the Omni William Penn Hotel.

“The most interesting part was definitely the speakeasy,” Dutton said. “In the basement [the Omni William Penn Hotel] had an original speakeasy from the 1920’s that they renovated and turned into a night bar. They had antique whiskey bottles down there and a bunch of prohibition memorabilia that they were kind of showcasing.”

While touring the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, visitors got the chance to walk around the seating areas, both on the main floor and the balcony, enjoying the spectacular centerpiece, the chandelier which has been in place since 1928.

Baxter and her partners are hoping that Doors Open Pittsburgh will become an annual event, and have hopes of expanding to some of the suburban areas around the city.

“That’s sort of the model that the other cities hold to and I understand why,” she said. “It’s a lot of planning, there are several moving parts to this, so I think once a year, which seems to work elsewhere and holding the branch out to other neighborhoods next year.”