Welcome to Hogwarts

As you walk up the Cathedral in the center of the University of Pittsburgh’s campus, you look up to see just how tall this grand build stands in front of you. The strain in your neck tells you just how many stories are foisted upon one another, too many to even fathom. You have not even stepped inside the building yet and can already feel the history between the walls. With its academic feel and pretentious architecture, you would assume you just arrived for your first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The University of Pittsburgh’s in-person tour guide and website explain it all. This “Gothic Revival skyscraper” was commissioned by Pitt Chancellor John G. Bowman in 1921. To make this campus stand out and be seen from miles away, Bowman recruited many local industries to help build this cathedral. These included steel, cement, elevators, glass, plumbing, and heating element. Having the whole community pitch in, he inspired children to pitch in by purchasing a brick for ten cents that would be used in the cathedral. These same children grew up still having their certificate of purchase. This cathedral has been a community effort from the beginning. In 2007, which was also the 70^th anniversary of the cathedral dedication, the Pitt trustees gave the go-ahead clean and restore the building, scrubbing off the grime on the limestone and upgrading the interior.

Pitt tour guide Alex, a junior at the university majoring in chemical engineering, informed the group that the cathedral of learning is “actually listed in the National Register of Historic Places”. “The 535-foot-tall building is the second tallest education building in the world after the University of Moscow’s main building,” (Campus Tour – Cathedral of Learning). Inside the 42 story building houses classrooms academic and administrative offices, libraries, computer labs, a theater, a print shop, and a food court. This also includes the 31 well-known Nationality Classrooms, 29 of which are working classrooms students learn in. “There is even a room full of gold furniture,” mentioned the tour guide.

As you enter the main common area of the cathedral, there is a four-story common area where students often come to study or work on projects in collaboration with others. “A lot of people seem to think it looks like Hogwarts in here,” said Alex. “I’ll let you be the judge of that.” Well, the jury has come to a verdict that the wooden chairs and tables, along with the hanging lights that provide ethereal warm lighting, anyone would think just stepped into the world of Harry Potter.