University Times

Approval was granted this week for the construction of a Finnish Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning, currently home to 26 completed Nationality Classrooms.

The Finnish Nationality Room committee will raise funds for the project, estimated to cost $250,000.

The original Nationality Rooms are located on the Cathedral’s first floor, and the more recently constructed rooms circle the third floor corridors overlooking the Commons Room.

All the rooms are functioning classrooms and are gifts to the University from ethnic groups in Pittsburgh. Architects from abroad designed many of the rooms for authenticity, with styles including Classical, Byzantine, Romanesque, Baroque Renaissance, Tudor, Empire and Folk. The rooms recreate cultural periods in the home country prior to 1787, Pitt’s founding year.

In addition to the Finnish room, six other rooms are in various stages of planning and fund-raising: the Danish, Latin American, Swiss, Turkish, Welsh and Philippine rooms.

An on-line tour of the Nationality Rooms, as well as information on walking tours, can be accessed at: www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/