*** Welcome to piglix ***

Nationality Rooms

Nationality Rooms
Cathedral of Learning inside left.jpg
Rooms ring the three-story Gothic hall, named the Commons Room, in the Cathedral of Learning
Nationality Rooms is located in Pennsylvania
Nationality Rooms
Location Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Coordinates 40°26′39″N 79°57′11″W / 40.44417°N 79.95306°W / 40.44417; -79.95306Coordinates: 40°26′39″N 79°57′11″W / 40.44417°N 79.95306°W / 40.44417; -79.95306
Built Cathedral of Learning 1926
Nationality Rooms 1938-present
Architect various
Architectural style various, 18th century or earlier
Part of Cathedral of Learning as part of the Schenley Farms Historic District (#83002213)
NRHP Reference # 75001608
Significant dates
Added to NRHP November 3, 1975
Designated CP Cathedral of Learning: July 22, 1983
Designated CPHS Cathedral of Learning: February 22, 1977
Designated PHLF 1972: Cathedral of Learning interiors
African Heritage Classroom
African Heritage- Door Craving (14052069943).jpg
Room 330
Dedicated December 17, 1989
Concept Dr. Laurence Glasco
Architect William J. Bates, A.I.A.
Style 18th century Asante Temple
Armenian Classroom
Cathedral of Learning Armenian Classroom (16207069844).jpg
Room 319
Dedicated August 28, 1988
Architect Torkom Khrimian
Style 10th-12th century Monastic
Austrian Classroom
AustrianNationalityRoomChandelier.jpg
Room 314
Dedicated June 9, 1996
Architects
  • Franz Gerhardt Schnögass, Vienna
  • Gunther J. Kaier, A.I.A. Pittsburgh
Style 17th-18th century Baroque
Chinese Classroom
Cathedral of Learning Chinese Classroom (16621962787).jpg
Room 136
Dedicated October 6, 1939
Design Teng Kwei, Beijing
Architect Henry Killiam Murphy
Style 18th-century Chinese Empire
Czechoslovak Classroom
Czechoslovak Room - Pitt - IMG 0516.jpg
Room 113
Dedicated March 7, 1939
Architect Dr. Bohumil Sláma, Prague
Style Folk Motif
Early American Room
EarlyAmerNatRoomFireplacePitt2008.JPG
Room 328
Presented 1938
Architect Theodore H. Bowman, A.I.A. Pittsburgh
Style 17th century New England Colonial
English Classroom
EnglishRoomWindows.jpg
Room 144
Dedicated November 21, 1952
Architect Albert A. Klimcheck
Style 16th century Tudor-Gothic
French Classroom
French Room - Pitt - IMG 0506.jpg
Room 149
Dedicated January 23, 1943
Architect Jacques Carlu, Paris
Style Late 18th-century French Empire
German Classroom
Cathedral of Learning German Classroom (16828259231).jpg
Room 119
Dedicated July 8, 1938
Architect Frank A. Linder, Germany/U.S.
Style 16th-century German Renaissance

The Nationality Rooms are a collection of 30 classrooms in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning depicting and donated by the national and ethnic groups that helped build the city of Pittsburgh. The rooms are designated as a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation historical landmark and are located on the 1st and 3rd floors of the Cathedral of Learning, itself a national historic landmark, on the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Although of museum caliber, 28 of the 30 rooms are regularly used as functional classrooms that are utilized daily by University of Pittsburgh faculty and students, while the other two (the Early American and Syrian-Lebanon) are mostly used as display rooms viewed through glass doors and are otherwise utilized primarily for special events and can only be explored via special guided tour. The Nationality Rooms also serve in a vigorous program of intercultural involvement and exchange in which the original organizing committees for the individual rooms remain as participants and includes a program of annual student scholarship to facilitate study abroad. In addition, the Nationality Rooms inspire lectures, seminars, concerts exhibitions, and social events which focus on the various heritages and traditions of the nations represented. The various national, traditional, and religious holidays of the nations represented are celebrated on campus and the rooms are appropriately decorated to reflect these occasions. The Nationality Rooms are available daily for public tours as long as the particular room is not being used for a class or other university function.

The Nationality Room Program was founded by Ruth Crawford Mitchell at the request of Pitt Chancellor John Bowman in 1926 in order to involve the community as much as he could in constructing the Cathedral of Learning and to provide the spiritual and symbolic foundation of the Cathedral that what would make the inside of the building as inspiring and impressive as the outside. Under Mitchell's direction, invitations were extended to the nationality communities that made up the Pittsburgh area to provide a room that was representative of their heritage. Each group had to form a Room Committee, which would be responsible for all fundraising, designing, and acquisition. The University provided the room and upkeep in perpetuity once completed, while all other materials, labor, and design were provided by the individual committees. These were sometimes partly provided for by foreign governments which, "...responded with generous support, often providing architects, artists, materials, and monetary gifts to assure authenticity and superb quality in their classrooms." Each room's detail is carefully designed and executed down to the switch plates, door handles, hinges, and wastebaskets. The work is often performed and designed by native artists and craftsmen and involves imported artifacts and materials. Mitchell remained Director of the Nationality Rooms program until 1956, having overseen the creation of the first 19 rooms on the first floor of the Cathedral. A successor to Mitchell wasn't named until 1965, when current Director E. Maxine Bruhns took over the program, overseeing the completion (so far) of eight additional rooms on the third floor.


...
Wikipedia

...