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Photo: Crazypaco at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Serves as a memorial, museum, and archive of the works of American folk songwriter Stephen C. Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "My Old Kentucky Home"). The Gothic Revival building also houses the two primary theaters for the university's Department of Theatre Arts. A schedule of shows is available on their website.
The Stephen Collins Foster Memorial is a performing arts center and museum which houses the Stephen Foster Archives at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is dedicated to the life and works of American songwriter Stephen Foster.
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The 42-story Charles Klauder designed Gothic Revival skyscraper, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, serves as the symbolic and physical heart of the University of Pittsburgh. Construction began in 1926 and took a decade to complete. Visible from almost anywhere in Pittsburgh, it is the tallest school building in the Western hemisphere, and has been described as the "culmination" of Late Gothic Revival architecture. While impressive on the outside, it can be even more spectacular on the inside. On the first and third floors, surrounding its immense Gothic-style Commons Room, are the 31 Nationality Rooms. These working classrooms are each designed, constructed, and decorated in the characteristic style of 29 different cultures which represent the diverse population of Pittsburgh. A self-guided tour of the Nationality Rooms is available for a small fee ($4 for adults, $2 for youth; +1 412 624-6000, M-Sa 9 AM-4 PM (last tour 2:30 PM), Su 11 AM-4 PM (last tour 2:30 PM), audiotape tours only on weekends), while guided tours can be reserved in advance that give in-depth explanations of each room and can allow access to areas normally inaccessible to the public, like the historic Croghan-Schenley Ballroom and Early American Room. The Nationality Rooms on the 3rd floor are sometimes freely open to explore, depending on time and class schedule. Much of the upper floors of the Cathedral are composed of offices and other university facilities, however a trip to the Honors College on the 35th and 36th floors, accessible by most of the elevators, provides marvelous views of the city.
A five acre plaza features features a restaurant, food kiosks, a tent, regular events, free wi-fi internet access, and the PNC Carousel.
Built as the Schenley Hotel in 1898, this historic beaux-arts building that was Pittsburgh's premier luxury hotel in its day. As a hotel, it hosted many dignitaries including four Presidents of the United States, a slew of Hollywood celebrities such as Lillian Russell and Katharine Hepburn, along with many of the visiting baseball teams that played across the street at Forbes Field. The turn-of-the-century grandeur of the main floor lobbies and ballrooms have been restored by the university and can be freely accessed by the public. The Millennium Panther statue outside the building serves as a popular photo spot.
Located on the grounds of the Cathedral of Learning, this chapel was built with funds left to the school by H.J. Heinz (of ketchup fame). The French Gothic Revival nondenominational chapel features 23 amazing stained-glass windows by Charles J. Connick, the largest single collection of his work. The windows total approximately 4,000 square feet (370 m2) and contain nearly 250,000 pieces of glass with 391 identifiable people from religion, history, science and the humanities, and the transept windows are reputedly the world's tallest such windows. Free tours may allow one sample the acoustics of the 3,770 pipe organ, and concerts and recitals are typically held on Sundays. See the website for calendar.
Andrew Carnegie funded 2,507 libraries all over the world. Today, his libraries here in Pittsburgh comprise the city's public library system. The welcoming Oakland branch is Pittsburgh's central library, with vast collections of not only printed matter, but also music, film, photographs, and more.