Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?


Clapp Hall, University of Pittsburgh

Clapp Hall entrance

In 1956, twenty years after Charles Z. Klauder’s Cathedral of Learning opened, Clapp Hall opened its doors. It was designed by Trautwein & Howard, the successors to Mr. Klauder, but it was no longer possible to make an academic building in the ornate Gothic style that had been Klauder’s specialty. Instead, the architects gave us a restrained late-Art-Deco modernist Gothic that fits well with Klauder’s buildings but doesn’t embarrass postwar sensibilities too badly. The entrance is at an angle to the rest of the building so that the Cathedral of Learning is perfectly framed in the doorway as you walk out.

Below, three views of the Fifth Avenue side:

Fifth Avenue side of Clapp Hall
Fifth Avenue entrance
Fifth Avenue side

The Tennyson Avenue side has a similar face:

Tennyson Avenue side of Clapp Hall
Tennyson Avenue side

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