Father Pitt

Tag: Gothic Architecture

  • Keystone Athletic Club

    Keystone Athletic Club, now Lawrence Hall

    Two universities in Pittsburgh have signature Gothic skyscrapers. Everybody knows the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt, but Lawrence Hall at Point Park University is also Gothic and also a skyscraper. By a strange coincidence that probably no one else in history has noticed (this is how dedicated old Pa Pitt is to you, his readers), it is within a foot or two of being precisely half the height of the Cathedral of Learning. (Cathedral of Learning: 535.01 feet; Lawrence Hall: 265.72 feet. Source: Emporis.com.)

    It was not always Lawrence Hall, of course. It was built as the Keystone Athletic Club in 1927; the architect was Benno Janssen, who also designed the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, the Twentieth Century Club, and the Masonic Temple, all in Oakland, and a remarkable number of other prominent buildings in the city. The Depression was hard on clubs; the Keystone Athletic Club (doubtless saddled with debt from building a skyscraper clubhouse) collapsed in 1934, and after that the building was a hotel until Point Park College picked it up in the 1960s. It was renamed for the Renaissance mayor David Lawrence, and now it anchors the ever-spreading downtown campus of the university.

  • Emmanuel’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Castle Shannon

    Emmanuel’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

    This is the old church, which apparently now hosts a congregation called Providence Church. Next door the Lutherans have a newer building, now called Emmanuel Lutheran, since the possessive was banned from church names in the late twentieth century. This building is not a work of high architecture, but it is a pleasant village church in the Gothic style, and the substantial square corner tower makes it look like an anchor of the neighborhood.

    Inscription

  • Stephen Foster Memorial

    Stephen Foster Memorial

    One of the cluster of Gothic buildings by Charles Z. Klauder at the heart of the University of Pittsburgh, this looks like the baptistery for the Cathedral of Learning. It houses a museum of Stephen Foster, two theaters, and the Ethelbert Nevin Collection. There was a time when Ethelbert Nevin might have got a museum of his own, but he missed his chance, and now he is an appendix to Stephen Foster.

  • Cathedral of Learning from Across Schenley Plaza

    Cathedral of Learning

    One of the most remarkable things about the Cathedral of Learning is that it is an isolated skyscraper. There are very few places in the world where a skyscraper can be examined by itself, and few skyscrapers so much worth examining as this, which Father Pitt has often declared the only convincing application of Gothic style to the skyscraper form.

  • Heinz Chapel

    Heinz Chapel framed by trees

    A neatly framed view from Forbes Avenue.

  • Looking Up at the Cathedral of Learning

    Cathedral of Learning

    With part of the Stephen Foster Memorial in front.

  • Cathedral of Learning Through the Trees

    Cathedral of Learning through the trees

    The Cathedral of Learning seen through the trees in front of the Schenley Plaza side of the Carnegie Institute building.

  • Gargoyles of St. Paul’s

    Look for them on the Fifth Avenue front of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland.

  • Reflections of St. Paul’s

    St. Paul’s Cathedral reflected in the Software Engineering Institute across the street.

  • Cathedral of Learning