University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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lp 2!.... 95 From the outset the idea of the Cathedral of Learning caught and held the imagination of the 5 world. The magic words, a fifty-two story ' - PM f M 7 Cathedral of Learning , opened the pocketbooks of Western Pennsylvania during the financial drive in 1924, and even today, with the height of the building 9 slightly diminished, its grandeur has not gone. Charles Z. Klauder, of Philadelphia, architect of the building, was made a member of the Central Associa- tion of Austrian Architects for his designs in 1926, and last year received the grand prize for the United T States at the Pan-American Congress of Architects, for the same designs. The new volume of the Encyclo- paedia Britannica illustrates and comments on the building. Charles and Mary Beard's new two volume Hiftory of American Civilization characterizes the build- ing as the climactic expression of American architectural awakening. By June 23, 1927, the majority of the 66 caissons had been sunk to bed rock, sixty feet below the foundation level. From a physical standpoint, the building will not only be the most symbollical and beautiful, but yet the most practical school building in the world-a true monument to Pittsburgh. Con- taining the same floor space as several separate buildings, it will fulfill their individual purposes under one roof, with a resultant saving in both original expense and upkeep. The completed Cathedral of Learning will house all the undergraduate schools of the University, and all the graduate ones, except the Medical and Dental Schools, which are to be developed on the present hillside campus. lt is expected that classes will be held in it within two years. The progress of work on the Cathedral of Learning has been slow, but needfully, even fortunately, so. The structure, being built for hundreds of years to come, was not hurried, and a careful perfection of plans has been the result. Especial attention has been given the Commons Room, and to the supple- mentary buildings that are to be constructed on the remainder of the fourteen-acre Frick plot. The Commons Room has been architecturally planned as the most beautiful room in America. Its Gothic arches will be in proportion to those of the Notre Dame, at Chartreuse The Darlington Memorial l 1 Library will dominate the low, Gothic structures, planned for the remainder of the lot. 2..- ..., Concrete had been poured for a considerable part of the foundation walls by November 29, and the wooden forms were nearly ready for the pouring of the rest of it. ff 2 a ls, During the later part of April, 1928, four gigantic derricks were erected, harbingers of the start of steel work and the early completion of the building. Page 21

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I I s a.-. - iw.- ,.,. I . - -- .- -z . 1-' f v'v - ., -5 4:2 ' 1, r. - ':,f ,f'K-nz., 1: 'vu ' H ' 2 f .. ' ? 'li'E't 1- .T ir- 1- ' 2 -t.5Qili1,f -' ' iz: Y Q L? F h'i3if'i 'nN5 I T Vt? V I, ' 1 -fill 'A-1-sifff 4 , 4 1 gf. ' :fn 5-2 -fag! , -I f 'NL' fy. bf?-Qwf zh. I-3. ll 'I . :gy Lrg. 1226 ae- ' L . f A , faw,m i fe' X V: ., ' I4 it A e if 0,72 i '-'X- A2111-ma, 'it 7' ' ' F r 'f'f-f'- ','f'. .f fi l THE CATHEDRAL or LEARNING On September 25, 1926, the fourteen-acre quadrangle bounded by Fifth Avenue, Bigelow Boulevard, Forbes Street, and Bellefield Avenue was mostly a vacant lot, with a cluster of buildings in one corner and the Athletic Club tennis courts in another. HE Cathedral of Learning is not a revolution but a conclusion. Its cornerstone was laid one hundred forty-one years ago when the hardy settlers of the town called Pittsburgh decided it proper to raise a log cabin to house the first institution of higher education west of the Alle- ghenies. The Pittsburgh Academy was apioneer in its day. The University of Pittsburgh is pioneering today with its Cathedral of Learning. The log cabin, the limestone skyscraper, are both products of the same genius, the same imagination, the same response to the needs of a thriving community of people. The symbollism of the Cathedral of Learning lies in its suggestiveness. It means not height, but rather suggested heights. It is a sermon in stone, suggesting by the magic of its upward pushing buttresses, vision, a cultural height always a little beyond reach, an attitude for research, and a stimulus for creative thinking. Two days later, September 27, 1926, excavation was started for the Cathedral of Learning by the R. M. Netherland Company. Page 20 A month later, October 25, the excavation was well under way, and the first steel pilings had been placed on the Fifth Avenue side. 61

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