The Cathedral

in full The Cathedral of Learning

meaning landmark classroom and office skyscraper of the University of Pittsburgh; intended by Chancellor John Bowman as a symbol of aspiration and possibility to the workingclass neighborhoods from which it is visible; symbol of the University's dominance in the Oakland community; less flattering nicknames have also been suggested

as in

authority "Cathedral Work Advances; Steel to Rise Early in April; Aims of Building Outlined by Chancellor." The Pittsburgh Press, 26 January 1928.

and built between 1926 and 1937, in part from the dimes of Pittsburgh schoolchildren, 535 feet high, 42 stories, the Cathedral has always possessed an academic idealism. "Speaking of the aims of the university in the cathedral," The Pittsburgh Press, in 1928, quoted Chancellor Bowman: "Pittsburgh has had a great deal of publicity. But it never has had a publicity comparable to this on the kind of life its citizens really believe in. Here is an effort which, in its last analysis, aims to put common sense into the young men and women of Pittsburgh. In other words, the whole purpose of the university is to train boys and girls to see the elements of a problem, to unify those elements, to come to a decision, and to have the courage to stick to it. It goes without saying that honor and integrity are inseparable for such an aim."

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Sources:

The Cathedral Living. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh, 1934.

Doyle, Brian. "The Legacy of a Dime: The Cathedral of Learning Was Built in No Small Part with the Hard-earned Dimes of the School Children of a Hard-working City." Pitt Magazine (June 1997): 24-26.

Kidney, Walter. Landmark Architecture: Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, 1985.

Kidney, Walter. Pittsburgh's Landmark Architecture: The Historic Buildings of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, 1997.

Smith, Helene and George Swetnam. A Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. 16.

Van Trump, James D. and Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, 1967. 101-102.