Monday, September 28, 2026
By SHANNON O. WELLS
For an early fall centennial birthday celebration and tribute to Pitt’s flagship building and campus centerpiece, the evening of Friday, Sept. 25, was made to order.
A Harvest Moon glowing overhead, still air and temperatures in the mid-60s attracted an impressive, but not overwhelming crowd gathered to the lawn between the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel. Folks of all ages stood in clusters talking and laughing while others relaxed on blankets, blowing bubbles or partaking of light snacks and beverages.
The cinematic light show that brought everyone out on the first night of Homecoming weekend began shortly after 9 p.m., as a laser-created hourglass projected about three-fourths of the way up the Cathedral’s east side counted down the minutes and seconds until the spectacle began.
What followed was a concise yet historically comprehensive, technically awe-inspiring montage that compressed 100 years of learning and achievement at Pitt — embodied by the 42-story Cathedral of Learning — into a dynamic, power-packed audio-visual odyssey.
Multi-paneled footage and voices highlighted an array of Pitt founders and luminaries, including Cathedral architects and visionaries, along with chancellors past and present, scholars, researchers, athletes, performing artists and even beloved Pittsburgh children’s education icon, the late Fred Rogers.
“What is essential is invisible to the eye. The closer we get to know the truth of that sentence, the closer I feel we get to wisdom,” Rogers said in archival footage from a campus speaking engagement.
Among the inspirational quotes and phrases projected in huge block letters on the 535-foot Cathedral’s windows-and-limestone-motif walls or included:
- "When you believe in learning this much, you build a cathedral in its name.”
-
“Forty-two stories and 100 years come with a lot of history. And these walls talk.”
-
“Within each and every one of us is an undeniable power.”
-
"What you bring here is felt everywhere.”
“A from-the-ground-up visual sequence depicting the tower’s stages of construction — from crane-assisted steel framing in 1926 to scaffolding that accommodated its ornate Indiana limestone finishing in 1934 — drew cheers and applause from the rapt crowd.
The cathedral light show, the first of three held at 9 p.m. between Friday and Sunday night, was but one of dozens of activities, displays, mini-festivals, receptions and gatherings held across campus during Homecoming weekend. The celebration was likely enhanced by a 59-0 Pitt Panthers football victory over the Bucknell University Bison on Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium.
The culmination of the Cathedral’s birthday bash took place on an increasingly overcast but pleasant Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27.
“Cathy-Palooza: A Cathedral Centennial Celebration” provided a family-friendly carnival on the Cathedral Lawn featuring games and activities. Participants were encouraged to take in a display of material on the Cathedral from the University Archives, build their own Cathedral from plastic bricks while learning about the building's iconic craftmanship, tour its acclaimed Nationality Rooms at their own pace, and watch for the building’s resident peregrine falcons with representatives from the National Aviary.
The event also included a birthday cake and singing of “Happy Birthday.”
Fusing past and future
Zachary Brodt, University archivist and records manager in the Pitt Library System since 2015, had a vested interest in checking out the Friday light show. Selecting and providing some of the historic images projected onto the Cathedral’s east side, he acknowledged that this is likely the first time Pitt archives were utilized in such a high-technology display.
“I think something of this magnitude, absolutely,” he said, noting that he doesn’t typically take part in the nighttime festivities on Homecoming weekend. “It’s usually fireworks or laser shows, those kinds of things, nothing quite like this kind of projection onto the building.”
Brodt said his department’s contribution to Homecoming included archival displays in the Hillman Library on Friday and the Cathedral’s Polish Nationality Room during the “Welcome Back” reception.
“I probably selected the items that I was going to use in my displays maybe a month ago … but I've been working with various University departments pretty much all summer to prepare for the (“Cathy-Palooza”) celebration, providing digitized images and things like that.”
Although the cinematic light show planners showed Brodt something similar they did for another university, he admitted he still didn’t quite know what to expect.
“They're incorporating historic imagery and kind of telling the history of the University while also kind of looking forward to the future … thinking about the next 100 years of the Cathedral of Learning and the University,” he said, noting the appropriateness with Pitt’s $3 billion “Proving Possible” capital campaign also kicking off. “I'm sure that has to do with this.”
Joel Ambrose, a Johnstown resident who graduated from Pitt’s Department of Theatre Arts in 2008 and is a longtime Panthers Forward mentor, was enjoying the cinematic display with his wife, Karen.
“It’s nice to see this building have so much recognition,” Joel said, while sporting a Cathedral of Learning birthday shirt. “It’s great for people to get a sense of its significance.”
The couple also visited the Polish Nationality Room archives. “I’m really excited to see what they’re busting out,” he said.
A model project
This year, the annual Homecoming event tied in with the 100th anniversary of the Cathedral’s groundbreaking, which took place on Sept. 27, 1926, based on the vision of 10th Pitt chancellor John Gabbert Bowman. At a University Club dinner on Nov. 6, 1924, Bowman announced a new skyscraper classroom building.
Predicting that the structure would be, metaphorically speaking, “a reach for the unattainable,” Bowman explained that “such expression requires height — perpendicular lines that run up and up unbroken, ending at an elevation which, as you behold it, sends blood to your fingertips; and at the top there should be no spire, but rather a horizontal skyline, as if to say, ‘We could go still higher, but the supreme wonder and value of life is not in attainment it is in the attaining, in the growth, in the striving to reach the unattainable.’ That is the spirit of achievement.’”
The cinematic light show was created and produced in conjunction with Pitt’s Office of University Communications and Marketing (UCM), brand agency partner 160over90, and Mediaquest, a Pittsburgh-based audio, video and lighting production company to celebrate the Cathedral’s 100th groundbreaking anniversary, Pitt Homecoming and the launch of the University’s Proving Possible comprehensive fundraising campaign.
Creative development for the show took place during the past four months, including conceptualization; refining the visual storytelling of Pitt’s past, present and future; adding striking, state-of-the-art animation; and ultimately producing the film projected onto the Cathedral’s east side facing Heinz Chapel, a University spokesperson shared.
To plan and test the projections, Mediaquest produced a 6-foot scaled Cathedral model to visualize how the light show would appear on the actual building.
The content displayed on the Cathedral marked a collaboration between UCM and the University’s archives and special collections team, including Brodt and Kornelia Tancheva, Hillman University librarian and director of the University library system.
UCM also worked in partnership with the Cathedral of Learning Centennial Celebration committee chaired by Nancy Merritt, vice chancellor of alumni relations.
The successful execution of the immersive experience involved many contributing campus units, including the Office of the Chancellor, Finance and Operations; Office of the Provost, and External Relations (Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement and Government Relations, in addition to UCM), which coordinated closely with the City of Pittsburgh and local partners to ensure a smooth and safe experience.
“We thank all of our campus and external partners who came together and worked hard to turn a concept and vision into reality,” the Pitt spokesperson noted.
Heather McNaught, a senior instructor in the Department of Linguistics for 16 years, said each Homecoming she tells her husband, Jason Lai, that they should go watch the campus display. “And this is the first year the weather's been nice enough. Every year I tell my students to come, and then I don't come.”
Of the cinematic light show on the Cathedral, McNaught said she “didn't really know what to expect. I've heard it's impressive, and it really was. I think, especially with the 100-year anniversary of the Cathedral, it really paid homage to that and the music and the lights and everything. It was really impressive.”
She called the vivid overlay depiction of the Cathedral’s construction process, along with footage of industrious Pitt students “inspirational.”
“Seeing all the amazing things that they're doing in sports, in medicine, in science, the arts, in engineering — just the average students doing these amazing things — because they really are,” she noted. “I see them doing these amazing things every day in my classes.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.
Follow the University Times on Facebook.