Cathedral of Learning (Continuing Work) – Pittsburgh PA

Description

In 1933-4 federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) “workers in Pittsburgh had helped move the forty-two-story Cathedral of Learning at the heart of the University of Pittsburgh closer to completion.”

Excerpt from Alberts, Robert C. Pitt, (1986): “December 23, 1933. The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) announced it was giving a $300,000 labor grant for work on the Cathedral. Pitt contributed $520,000 in materials. Until the program ended on April 30,1934 a force of 1,259 previously unemployed stonemasons, iron workers, plumbers, engineers, and carpenters worked at the site twenty-four hours a week. There were unforeseen complications when it was discovered that the code numbers chalked on some of the shaped limestone blocks had been weathered away.

During this time, Bowman remade the top of the tall building. He had ordered a blunt, flat top on the tower, thinking that it would convey the idea that the building’s upward thrust of straight Gothic lines might have continued on to heaven. He changed his mind when he saw it. He told Albert Klimcheck who had become the University architect to add a forty-foot Gothic turret to each of the four corners.”