The Cathedral of Learning has been standing tall for 100 years, and the secret? The right set of bricks!
Homecoming weekend celebrations were in full swing for the Cathedral’s 100th birthday. A fan favorite was the build-your-own Cathedral station, where visitors received building block kits with instructions to make their own mini-Cathedral.
R.J. Thompson and the people over at Steel City Lug, including Krista Kay and Tim Freshly, made this brick dream possible. Kay, a LEGO Masters Alum; Freshly, who helped design the build; and Thompson, a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of English, initially set out on this brick endeavor right before the pandemic struck. Thompson wrote a grant for the “Year of Creativity” while working at the School of Business to bring the president of LEGO North America, Skip Kodak, to Pitt’s Campus. Unfortunately, Kodak’s trip was scheduled for March of 2020 and was subsequently canceled due to COVID lockdowns.
Thompson began selling the kits to UPMC doctors and executives while trying to find them a more permanent home. Eventually, with the Cathedral of Learning's 100th anniversary approaching, Thompson realized it was the perfect place. With Kay's help, they assembled the kits and worked with visitors to help them build.
Over 800 people visited the booth that weekend; only 145 of the 1,000 kits remained at the end of the day. Thompson said he was happy to see how popular the bricks were.
“Everyone seemed to just have a really great time. They loved the novelty. Towards the end, like the last 10 minutes, we had this influx of like 50 people come, and we waited it out and, you know, made sure everyone got parts and got a model […] So it was extremely popular.”
They even ran a little survey to see which model color was most popular. Originally the model only came in blue, but for the event they opted to add yellow kits. At first, yellow seemed most popular, but in the end, visitors liked seeing the Cathedral in her royal blues most. So what says you, does the Cathedral shine more in yellow or blue?