University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

Page 12 text:

8 Progress cannot be denoted by physical things alone. The Cathedral represents a great part of what might be called unseen progress. With the use of only their training and minds the men of this university have built greater things. Meaning, the minds of the students at Pitt. For what greater edifice has ever been constructed for the good of mankind? No building, however large or impressive, can equal the human mind. And the training of these minds is the most important job that has ever existed. It is the most vital part of the progress at Pitt. This movement is always advancing and has done so ever since the inauguration of the university. Though in this book we cannot take pictures of this development, we can only tell you that it is going on. And now the OWL staff presents to you the 1954 OWL, this record of your year.

Page 11 text:

Pitt has long been lacking adequate facilities along athletic lines. The remedy to this situation has been the field house. Containing a gymnastics room, a wrestling room, spacious locker rooms and locker room facilities, and one of the most beautiful floors in college basketball, the Pitt Memorial field house fast became the center of student athletic activities at Pitt. Now nearing completion, the Gateway Center is approaching the goal that Pittsburgh has set for herself. That goal being the advance of the city to the pinnacle of industrial transactions and beauty. The Buildings supply a tremendous amount of office space, while the gateway as a whole beautifies the Point area with their silvery cleanness of line.

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An unobtrusive, but nonetheless important part of the University’s expansion plan is the Cyclotron Laboratory on Thackery near O'Hara Street. Housing equipment and instruments for advanced research in nuclear physics, the lab works closely with the physics department in the never-ending search for knowledge in the atomic field. The lab was one of the first buildings erected under Pitt’s plan to increase its capabilities for scientific research. High atop the hill, near Pitt Stadium, one of the country’s newest and most modem hospitals is being erected to house the thousands of war veterans still undergoing treatment for battle injuries. With present VA hospitals filled to overflowing, the University tore down the Old Trees Gym in order to make space available for the government hospital which will increase the services presently rendered by Aspinwall and Deshon VA medical facilities. Newly completed and costing $4,750,000, one of the latest additions to the University’s rapidly growing Medical Center is this home for resident nurses. The formal dedication of the structure took place in April of 1953 but due to pressing needs, nurses were moved into the building as fast as facilities were available, and before the finishing touches had been made to equip it for full-scale operations.