Cathedral of Learning is the tallest building on the campus of University of Pittsburgh, it is also the 2nd tallest educational building in the world. It is 535 feet tall with 42 stories. There are classrooms in the building. It was built from 1926 to 1934. The university on the other hand was created in 1787.
When we visited Pittsburgh during August 20 -24, 2020, we could almost always see the building anywhere in east end of Pittsburgh, the university district, in the streets on Forbes avenue, 5th avenue, or Blvd of the Allies, on CMU campus. During that time we went to Schenley Park, the large city park next to CMU and Pitt, for picnic a few times, and it felt that the cathedral was right next door to the park. The last day at Pittsburgh during this trip, it was a beautiful sunny day, we walked over to the Cathedral to take a closer look of the grand building and went inside.
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View of the Cathedral from Schenley Park
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| View of the Cathedral from the mall of Engineering on CMU campus |
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| View of the Cathedral from street - Ode to Space |
Monday, August 24th, was a beautiful day at Pittsburgh. We got up early, took the grab-and-go breakfast from the hotel lounge and went on walking to the building from the hotel, a mile distance along Forbes Avenue. The Cathedral has a elegant court yard around it. There is a log cabin in the coutyard, southeast to the Cathedral, which symbolizes the origin of the university of Pittsburgh on the 18th century frontier of early United States. The Heinz memorial chapel is at northeast end of this court yard.
Despite the covid-19, the building was still open to public. All we need to do was to have our temperature measured by an infrared machine.
The consequence of the pandemic was obvious, there was no guided tour, the tables and chairs in the open area were wrapped in plastics.We walked around the commons room, and then went the highest floor accessible by elevator, 36th floor, to have a bird eye view of Schenley Park, Pitt and CMU campus on southeast, Point State Park, downtown high rises and the three rivers on the west. We then went to 3rd floor where most nationality rooms are, the famed nationality rooms were all locked. But we did have a view of the commons room from the 3rd floor balcony.
We did not linger too long there because of the noon time flight home. We will have to wait for next time to see the Cathedral in normal condition, and the famed elegant nationality rooms in person.
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The Cathedral of Learning
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The Log cabin next to the cathedral
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| The commons room |
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| Entrance to the commons room |
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| Sign to the nationality rooms on the 3rd floor |
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| View of commons room from 3rd floor balcony |
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| Heinz Memorial Chapel northeast to the Cathedral |
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