No one could have blamed Swissvale native David Conrad if, once he started making a name for himself as an actor, he slammed the door on his Steel City past and never looked back. Truth be told, the co-star of the CBS series "Ghost Whisperer" is a pretty regular guy, if not exactly a yinzer. When a photographer arrives to take pictures of his funky, 3,300-square-foot loft on Smallman Street in the Strip District, the house keys fall from the sky, wrapped in an old Ricola bag.

"You gotta use the key with the sharper teeth," the actor hollers from his fourth-floor balcony.

He never figured out how to program the entry door's buzzer, he admits later with a sheepish grin.

Conrad has a place in L.A., of course. His Venice Beach bungalow is so tiny it could fit into his loft's bathroom, he jokes.Yet when it comes to the space he considers home, his heart is still firmly planted in Pittsburgh.

His home in the Strip Lofts, now on the market for $835,000, was created over the course of several years by combining two adjoining units and then filling it, chockfull, with the work of local artists and craftspeople.

In 2003, Conrad was renting a house with a writer friend in Friendship when his Realtor happened to show him this property, which -- go figure -- just happened to belong to an old classmate from Kiski Prep, the all-boys boarding school in Saltsburg from which he graduated in 1985.

Conrad said he had always admired the six-story brick building, originally used to manufacture water heaters in the early 1900s. But what closed the deal in five minutes was the 180-degree view through 13 huge windows of Lawrenceville, the steep streets of Polish Hill and the city skyline in the distance.

"It's freakin' gorgeous, especially at night," says Conrad, 40, who's in town at least twice a month, most recently to promote his documentary, "Tamas," which opened last night at the Three Rivers Film Festival.

"The light is ridiculous. You can stand on the porch and just watch the city."

The first thing a visitor notices is a rusted steel gate separating the kitchen area from a deep-red sitting area. Designed by Red Star Ironworks in Millvale, its details were inspired by a Celtic circle Conrad sketched on a piece of paper. It's so massive, it took 12 men to carry it up the stairs.

Even more striking is a glass mosaic of Pittsburgh's three rivers by Edgewood artist Daviea Davis, whose work also graces Pittsburgh International Airport's train terminal. The glass tile stretches from the floor of the sitting area, beneath a glass-paneled garage door to the floor of a covered outdoor balcony, then climbs up its brick columns.

More of Davis' work is found on the door to a cobalt-blue bath, one of two full baths and the only one completely enclosed in the huge open space. Chris Rhodes of Outlaw Studios took glass mold "plugs" the mosaic artist found on a beach in front of an old glass factory on the Youghiogheny River and encased them in Lucite.

"The light goes in and out of it," marvels Conrad.

To organize foot traffic across the loft's vast polished concrete floor, Conrad and contractor Larry Limpert (a childhood friend) came up with the idea of a "boardwalk" made from Mon Valley barn wood. At the far end of the walk is the other bath, a concrete soaking tub with teak seats set into a giant platform. Fed by a waterfall faucet, it's accessed by a set of spalted walnut stairs crafted by Craig Marcus of Marcus Studio in the East End. A rain showerhead suspended 6 feet above the bath converts it into an open shower.

A space so vast could easily feel spare or industrial. But Conrad has managed to break it up with an open display of ... stuff. Closets? Who needs 'em when you can store clothes on rolling coat racks or in an antique armoir the actor found in his Friendship house? Hundreds of books are stacked on wire shelving.

Art covers much of the wall space, a combination of plaster and exposed brick. A series of black-and-white photos taken in Homestead in the 1980s by CMU documentary photographer Charlee Brodsky's dresses up the sitting area. The ceiling features beams painted with a Russian motif by photographer Duane Reider. Nearby, a vibrant painting by McKeesport artist Robert Qualters captures steel-making in Clairton. By the front door, up-and-coming painter Colin Noonan's shocks with an "insane" painting of a car jack. Conrad also has several pieces by Florentine artist Fabrizio Gerbino, who lives in Stowe.

"This space for me is like a microcosm of the city," Conrad says. "You can see a lot of Pittsburgh, and it's also filled with Pittsburgh."

Conrad says he's selling the loft because it's "obscene for one person to have this much space." He's hoping to sell it to a family who'd like to be within walking distance of the Strip and PNC Park or maybe a young hockey player and his girlfriend. It would be perfect for someone who loves to entertain.

A sale would not mean the end of Conrad's love affair with Pittsburgh. The actor, who sits on the board at Kiski Prep and is active in local charities, plans on downsizing into something smaller, perhaps in Braddock, where he's in the process of renovating a building into artists' space. He feels the need to do something "good" with his money.

"Let's not forget the 100,000 people who lost their jobs in the '80s," he says. "I want to keep that in my head all the time."