Nationality Rooms

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 40.444426° N 79.953423° W

The Nationality Rooms are a collection of 27 classrooms that are designated as a Pittsburgh historical landmark and are located on the 1st and 3rd floors of the Cathedral of Learning, itself a national historic landmark ^[1][2], on the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Twenty-five of the 27 rooms are functional classrooms utilized daily by University of Pittsburgh faculty and students, while the other two are display rooms which can be explored only via guided tour. Virtual Tours of the existing rooms are available on the Nationality Rooms official web site.

Contents 1 History 2 Classrooms 2.1 African Heritage 2.2 Armenian 2.3 Austrian 2.4 Chinese 2.5 Czechoslovak 2.6 Early American 2.7 English 2.8 French 2.9 German 2.10 Greek 2.11 Hungarian 2.12 Indian 2.13 Irish 2.14 Israel Heritage 2.15 Italian 2.16 Japanese 2.17 Lithuanian 2.18 Norwegian 2.19 Polish 2.20 Romanian 2.21 Russian 2.22 Scottish 2.23 Swedish 2.24 Syrian-Lebanon Room 2.25 Ukrainian 2.26 Welsh 2.27 Yugoslav 2.28 Proposed rooms 3 References 4 Notes 5 External links 6 Gallery

[edit] History

The Cathedral is home to 27 Nationality Rooms (twenty-four working classrooms and two display rooms), on the first and third floors. Each nationality room is designed to celebrate a different culture that had an influence on Pittsburgh's growth, depicting an era prior to 1787, the University's founding and the signing of the US Constitution. Only one room does not follow this convention, with the French Classroom depicting the French Empire period of the early 1800s. There are currently eight additional rooms in the process of being approved and funded.

Bowman decided that he wanted to involve the community as much as he could in constructing the Cathedral, so he proposed that each nationality that had a significant number of people in Pittsburgh would be allowed to design their nationality's room for the Cathedral. Each group had to form a Room Committee, which would be responsible for all fundraising, designing, and acquisition. The University provided only the room, while all other materials, labor, and design were provided by the individual committees. These were sometimes provided 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." [1]

A typical room on the 1st floor (those built between 1938 and the 1957) took between three and ten years to complete, and cost the equivalent of $300,000 USD in 2006 dollars. More recent rooms have cost in the range of $500,000 USD.

A second plan was proposed to create rooms modeled after each era of American history. These would primarily be on the third floor. Although the plans for the series of rooms were drawn up, only one room in the group was made; it is now known as the Early American room.

Set in the Cathedral of Learning's cornerstone in 1937 is a gift from the Nationality Room Committee chairpersons to the University: a copper plate engraved with these thoughts:

Faith and peace are in their hearts. Good will has brought them together. Like the Magi of ancestral traditions and the shepherds of candid simplicity, they offer their gifts of what is precious, genuine and their own, to truth that shines forever and enlightens all people. [2]

Since 1944, tours of the nationality rooms have been given to visitors by a Pitt student organization, Quo Vadis (meaning Where do you go?); they guide over 30,000 tourists a year.

The first four rooms to be dedicated were the Scottish, Russian, German, and Swedish Rooms in 1938.” ^[3] The newest rooms are the Indian Room^[4] dedicated in 2000^[5] and the Welsh Room dedicated in 2008.^[6]

[edit] Classrooms

[edit] African Heritage

African Heritage Classroom
Room	330
Dedicated	December 17, 1989
Concept	Dr. Laurence Glasco
Architect	William J. Bates, A.I.A.
Style	18th century Asante Temple

[edit] Armenian

Armenian Classroom
Room	319
Dedicated	August 28, 1988
Architect	Torkom Khrimian
Style	10th-12th century Monastic

The Armenian Room^[7] was inspired by the 10th- to 12th-century monastery of Sanahin. The design consists of intersecting arches and a domed ceiling built to lessen damage from frequent earthquakes in that country. The room's arches, built of Indiana limestone, make this the heaviest of the Nationality Rooms, weighing 22 tons, and required the second floor beneath the room to be reinforced in order to support its weight. The cornerstone is a basalt stone from the grounds of Sanahin. In the mortar behind it are the thumbprints of five of the oldest Armenian diaspora living in the Pittsburgh area, as well as the handprint of an infant of Armenian descent, symbolizing the continuity of the Armenian presence in western Pennsylvania.

[edit] Austrian

Austrian Classroom
Room	314
Dedicated	June 9, 1996
Architect	Franz Gerhardt Schnögass, Vienna
	Gunther J. Kaier, A.I.A. Pittsburgh
Style	17th-18th century Baroque

[edit] Chinese

Chinese Classroom
Room	136
Dedicated	October 6, 1939
Design	Teng Kwei, Beijing
Architect	Henry Killiam Murphy
Style	18th century Chinese Empire

[edit] Czechoslovak

Czechoslovak Classroom
Room	113
Dedicated	March 7, 1939
Architect	Dr. Bohumil Sláma, Prague
Style	Folk Motif

[edit] Early American

Early American Room
Room	328
Presented	1938
Architect	Theodore H. Bowman, A.I.A. Pittsburgh
Style	17th century New England Colonial

One of two displays rooms not used as a functional classroom, it is opened for guided tours. The room contains a hidden upper floor, accessed via a staircase behind the fire place. This room is often said to be haunted.^[8]

[edit] English

English Classroom
Room	144
Dedicated	November 21, 1952
Architect	Albert A. Kimcheck
Style	16th century Tudor-Gothic

The English Room^[9], designed after the House of Commons that was destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing in 1941, is the largest of the Nationality Rooms. The fireplace from its Aye Lobby with the initials V.R. for Victoria Regina, the linenfold paneling, four stone corbels with the Tudor rose, and other accoutrements were gifts from the British government salvaged from the World War II ruins. The paneling itself arrived at the University still having a blackened coat from the bombing.^[10] Portraits of University of Pittsburgh alumnus and former Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Andrew Mellon, and the former Earl of Chatham, William Pitt, after whom the City was named, flank the stained glass windows in the rear bay. A brick from 10 Downing Street serves as the room's cornerstone.

[edit] French

French Classroom
Room	149
Dedicated	January 23, 1943
Architect	Jacques Carlu, Paris
Style	Late 18th century French Empire

[edit] German

German Classroom
Room	119
Dedicated	July 8, 1938
Architect	Frank A. Linder, Germany/U.S.
Style	16th century German Renaissance

[edit] Greek

Greek Classroom
Room	137
Dedicated	November 7, 1941
Architect	John Travlos, Athens
Style	5th Century B.C. Classical

The classical architecture of the Greek Room ^[11] represents 5th-century B.C.E. Athens, the Golden Age of Pericles. In 1940, one of two marble pilasters, being constructed in Greece from the Mt Pentele stone quarry used to build the Parthenon, cracked shortly before shipping to the United States. With an invading World War II army massing on its borders, the column could not be replaced. Greek architect John Travlos ordered a matching crack etched into the undamaged column in order to preserve the symmetry. The marble was transported on the last ship to sail to America prior to the invasion and occupation of Greece. In November 1941, Travlos crouched under a blanket in his apartment closet listening to banned BBC radio broadcasts. Suddenly, Greek ecclesiastical music spouted from the radio, and Travlos heard the people of Pittsburgh dedicate his memorial to Greece^[12].

[edit] Hungarian

Hungarian Classroom
Room	330
Dedicated	September 29, 1939
Architect	Dénes Györgyi, Budapest
Style	Folk Motif

[edit] Indian

Indian Classroom
Room	327
Dedicated	January 9, 2000
Architect	Deepak Wadhwani, A.I.A.
Style	4th-9th century Indian Renaissance

The Indian Classroom is modeled on a typical 3rd-7th century A.D. courtyard from Nalanda University in central India. Renaissance 3 Architects received the Master Builders Association Craftsmanship Award for its construction.[3]

[edit] Irish

Irish Classroom
Room	127
Dedicated	May 18, 1957
Architect	Harold G. Leask, Dublin
Style	500-1200 A.D. Irish Romanesque

The Irish Classroom is the smallest of the Nationality Rooms^[13]. An original cornerstone from the Monastery of Clonmacnoise reads in Gaelic, "For the glory of God and the honor of Ireland." The cornerstone conceals a container of earth from North and South Ireland.
Gov. David L. Lawrence, Art Rooney Sr., founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and James W. Knox, a member of the Pittsburgh Irish community, were on the room's organizing committee. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy ordered a Marine guard to deliver the Oval Office Presidential and American flags to Evelyn Lincoln, private secretary to the president. In her will, Lincoln bequeathed the flags to the University of Pittsburgh for the Irish Room in honor of Knox. The John F. Kennedy scholarship for study in Ireland and a James W. Knox endowment for graduate study abroad were created from the proceeds generated from their auction.^[14]

[edit] Israel Heritage

Israel Heritage Classroom
Room	337
Dedicated	November 1, 1987
Concept	Alexander Kaufman
Architect	Martin Chetlin, A.I.A.
Style	1st century Israel Stone Structure

[edit] Italian

Italian Classroom
Room	116
Dedicated	May 14, 1949
Architect	Ezio Cerpi, Florence
Style	15th century Italian Renaissance

[edit] Japanese

Japanese Classroom
Room	317
Dedicated	July 25, 1999
Design	Hirokazu Nagase, Kyoto
Architect	Norman Harai, A.I.A.
Style	Minka

[edit] Lithuanian

Lithuanian Classroom
Room	129
Dedicated	October 4, 1940
Architect	Antanas Gudaitis, Kaunas
Style	Folk Motif

[edit] Norwegian

Norwegian Classroom
Room	151
Dedicated	May 15, 1948
Architect	Georg Eliassen, Oslo
Style	Folk Motif

[edit] Polish

Polish Classroom
Room	126
Dedicated	February 16, 1940
Architect	A. Szyszko-Bohusz, Cracow
Style	16th century Polish Renaissance

[edit] Romanian

Romanian Classroom
Room	130
Dedicated	May 16, 1943
Architect	N. Ghica-Budeşti, Bucharest Style=17th century Byzantine

The massive entrance door is ornately carved oak. The words of Vasile Alecsandri, one of the greatest Romanian poets of the nineteenth century are carved overhead in the stone door frame. ( The Romanian is like the mighty rock which amidst the waves of the stormy ad mahestic seam forever remains unmoved. ) Ample black boards are set in arched oak panels. These are separated by carved-twisted rope which suggests the Roman origin of may of Romania's artistic traditions. Ancient original icons from Romania are embedded in the upper section of each panel. White arca paint mixed with color gives the smooth pastered walls a bluish pink tint. A Byzantine-style mosaic, executed in Bucuresti in gold, turquoise, bronze, ruby red, and black pieces of glass, is embedded in the rear wall.

Four Romanesque windows form an alcove shut off from the main part of the room by an archway with iron grilled gates wrought in Romania. These swing back in folded sections afainst the plastered wall. Yellow silk draperies frame the window and ancient icons befitting the season and holidays are exhibited in the alcove.

For further information see "The Romanians in America 1748-1974" by Vladimir Wertsman.

[edit] Russian

Russian Classroom
Room	153
Dedicated	July 8, 1938
Design	Andrey Avinoff, Tultchin
Style	Byzantine and Folk Motifs

[edit] Scottish

Scottish Classroom
Room	139
Dedicated	July 8, 1938
Architect	Reginald Fairlie, Edinburgh
Style	17th century

[edit] Swedish

Swedish Classroom
Room	135
Dedicated	July 8, 1938
Architect	Linton R. Wilson
Adviser	Carl Milles, Stockholm
Style	Folk Motif

[edit] Syrian-Lebanon Room

Syrian-Lebanon Room
Room	160
Dedicated	June 28, 1941
Architect	unrecorded
Style	18th century Damascus

Originally a library in a wealthy Damascan home, the room was intact to its location in the Cathedral of Learning. Because of the fragility and pricelessness of the furnishing, it has been closed for class use and is one of two display rooms. The walls and ceilings are decorated with “gesso painting,” a mixture of chalk and glue applied by brush in intricate relief, then painted and overlaid with silver and gold leaf. The room features a mihrab and book cabinets and display shelves.[4]

[edit] Ukrainian

Ukrainian Classroom
Room	341
Dedicated	June 17, 1990
Design	Lubomyr E. Kalynych
Architect	Walter R. Boykowycz, A.I.A.
Style	17th-18th century Ukrainian Baroque

[edit] Welsh

Welsh Classroom
Room	342
Dedicated	June 1, 2008
Architect	Marty Powell and Kathy Horstman
Style	18th century capel

[edit] Yugoslav

Yugoslav Classroom
Room	142
Dedicated	March 31, 1939
Architect	Vojta Braniš, Zagreb
Style	Folk Motif

[edit] Proposed rooms

The University is planning eight nationality rooms to add to the current 27.[5] The first will be the Turkish Room which is currently hiring craftsman to begin construction. Ömer Akin, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, will oversee the architectural plans for the Turkish room. The rooms are slated to cost more than $400,000. The Pitt News (the university's student newspaper) reported that the Swiss nationality room committee named Ben Roethlisberger, the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an honorary member of their committee. [6]

[edit] References

• Bruhns, Maxine E. (2000). The Nationality Rooms Fourth Edition. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-9634096-0-3. 
• Alberts, Robert C. (1987). Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh 1787-1987. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-1150-7. 
• Brown, Mark. The Cathedral of Learning: Concept, Design, Construction, University of Pittsburgh Nationality Rooms Program
• Bowman, John G. Unofficial Notes
• Nationality Rooms Guide Training Material
• University of Pittsburgh Website^[15]
• Starrett, Agnes Lynch (1938). The Darlington Memorial Library. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Nationality Rooms Virtual Tour
• Austrian American Cultural Society of Pittsburgh: Austrian Nationality Room
• University of Pittsburgh
• Pitt Cathedral of Learning

[edit] Gallery

Ukrainian Room

Chinese Room

v • d • e
• PITT • Academics	Schools: Arts and Sciences • Business • Dental Medicine • Education • Swanson School of Engineering • General Studies • Katz Graduate School of Business • Health and Rehabilitation Sciences • Honors College • Information Sciences • Law • Medicine • Nursing • Pharmacy • Public and International Affairs • Public Health • Social Work Centers and Programs: Center for International Studies • Center for Minority Health • Center for Public Health Practice • Center for Public Health Preparedness • Ford Institute for Human Security • Epidemiology Data Center • Learning Research and Development Center • Lupus Center of Excellence • Pennsylvania & Ohio Public Health Training Center • Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center • Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse
Athletics	Sports: Football • Men's Basketball • Women's Basketball • Wrestling • • Spirit: Pitt Band • Drumline • Hail to Pitt • Victory Song • Alma Mater Facilities: Heinz Field • Petersen Events Center • Fitzgerald Field House • • Rivalries: Backyard Brawl • Pennsylvania Classic • River City Rivalry
Life	The Pitt News • WPTS-FM • Friday Nite Improvs • Kuntu Repertory Theatre • Oakland Zoo • UPTV • William Pitt Debating Union
Pittsburgh Campus	Buildings: Allegheny Observatory • Allen Hall • Alumni Hall • Barco Law Building • Bellefield Hall • Benedum Hall • Bouquet Gardens • Cathedral of Learning • Chevron Science Center • Clapp Hall • David Lawrence Hall • Eberly Hall • Falk School • Fitzgerald Field House • Forbes Hall • Frick Fine Arts Building • Gardner Steel Conference Center • Heinz Memorial Chapel • Hillman Library • Information Sciences • LRDC • Litchfield Towers • Log Cabin • Lothrop Hall • Mervis Hall • Music Building • Old Engineering Hall • Parran Hall • Panther Hall • Pennsylvania Hall • Petersen Events Center • Posvar Hall • Ruskin Hall • Salk Hall • Scaife Hall • Schenley Quadrangle • Sennott Square • Stephen Foster Memorial • Sutherland Hall • Thackeray Hall • Thaw Hall • University Club • University Place Office Building • William Pitt Union Neighborhood: Oakland • Schenley Park • Schenley Plaza • Carnegie Museums • Carnegie Library • Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens • Soldiers & Sailors Memorial • Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain • Schenley Farms Historic District • Dippy • Stephen Foster sculpture • The "O"
Regional	Campuses: Pittsburgh • Bradford • Greensburg • Johnstown • Titusville Facilities: Cook Spring Creek Preserve • Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology
Miscellanea	University of Pittsburgh Medical Center • Pitt History • Pitt People • Nationality Rooms • Panther monuments • Pitt Rankings • Falk School • Pitt Poetry Series • University of Pittsburgh Press • Gene Kelly Awards • Pitt Stadium