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Friday, December 01, 2023
History of Pittsburgh’s Mellon Institute & its extra column mystery
90.5 WESA: In Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, there’s a massive temple to science. For nearly a century, the Mellon Institute has been a top research facility, helping to study air quality, create skinless hotdogs and even frozen orange juice.
6 comments:
Karter LaBarre
said...
Hey! That is our school! Now I personally have never been to the Mellon Institute, because I just don’t have the need to go over there, seeing as I am a drama major. Although it was really cool, looking at the building and hearing about the architecture in this article. Our school is incredible and has amazing programs for engineering, science, and many other things, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re locked up in Purnell. I think it’s really important that we recognize everything all schools have to offer. This not only applies to drama majors, but those, who are participating with school in any way, shape or form and help them recognize that everyone at the school contributes and it wouldn’t be the same without them. I am not typically one for school spirit, however, my experience at CMU has been fairly positive and I think it’s cool.
I clicked on this article because I lived in Webster Hall during my Sophomore year, which was right in front of this building. I used to see it every morning and every night, and I remember that it looked really beautiful at night because of the way the columns cast shadows from the interior lights. I have never considered that the building looked that way for a particular reason, and enjoyed learning about the history of the building I lived across. I found the article amusing because the idea of building a Parthenon-style building to commemorate the epic research that the founders envisioned for the building is so on brand with the CMU culture. I found it both geeky and enduring. I know that other universities have a consolidated campus architecture that is not found in CMU, and I have always wondered why CMU buildings look so different from one another. This made me wonder if other buildings in the school were built with this much intention.
The Mellon Institute is such an interesting part of our campus, as it is very satellited away from what we consider central campus. You have to walk through craig street to get there, and it is a good 10 minute walk from the closest point on our main campus. It really doesn't feel like it is part of our school sometimes, and I am so fortunate to not have had a class there because I would not appreciate the trek. This article highlighted some really cool things about the building that I had never given much attention to before. I thought that its pillars and Greek Parthenon model is so beautiful. I never knew that the architect gave the thought into how it symbolizes advanced scientific capabilities and tribute to science, which makes the building so much more meaningful and special. I also didn't know that it was part of projects for the military during World War I which is crazy to think about.
This building has always been a mystery to me. I mean for starters it is huge, it is so far away from the rest of campus, and on top of all of that, there are endless rumors about what goes on in the basement of the Mellon Institute (currently I think it is that they are experimenting on monkeys but who knows). It is a fascinating building and an enigma to the students of Carnegie Mellon that apparently has a deep history unbeknownst to them. It is pretty cool that the thought put behind it began with wanting a “Temple of Science” I think they definitely achieved that, it is a temple alright. It was cool to learn that the building was built with the intent to evolve with the science that it was supporting the growth of. And above all else, this article included the most important fun fact about this building, “it's also a favorite spot for prom and graduation photos.” Even if they don’t attend Carnegie Mellon University, I find that silly. But hey, it is a beautiful building.
This is really interesting. I’ve never been inside the Mellon Institute, but I do walk past it a lot, and it is a gorgeous building. I’m a big fan of the columns myself. I had no idea about the history of the Mellon Institute building, so it was really cool to read about it. I had no idea it was basically a massive eight-story building, and honestly, it’s kind of difficult to picture that it’s filled with crazy fancy futuristic science and technology at all. It just looks so much like a massive library. It’s a super cool-looking building, so I definitely understand why it’s a popular photo spot and has been used in movies before. As much as I would like to believe that there is an extra column buried nearby the Cathedral of Learning, unfortunately, I kind of have to agree with the point made in the article, that it wouldn’t make sense to waste all those materials.
This is an interesting history of the Mellon Institute which began with the work of chemist Robert Kennedy Duncan. Traveling in Europe he was impressed by the spirit of cooperation between industrialists and scientists. He returned to the US with a mission: he believed that research at universities could be directed toward the solution of industrial problems. In 1909 The Mellon brothers invited him to develop a department of industrial research at the Univ of Pittsburgh. In this case power, privilege and money appears to have been used for good, surprising to me given Andrew Mellon’s conniving reputation. An early research focus of the department was smoke abatement - an enormous problem in the city of steel mills. In 1927, the department separated from the university to become the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
With this, a new building was needed which was to be “of simplicity and beauty and grave majesty”. I do not believe that was achieved. Unlike other columned buildings of the period, this one is not inviting and not beautiful. It appears to me very heavy, with columns that are too closely spaced evoking the feeling of jail bars. It is like a bunker. We are kept out. From the outside we have no sense of the building inside and certainly the goings on therein.
6 comments:
Hey! That is our school! Now I personally have never been to the Mellon Institute, because I just don’t have the need to go over there, seeing as I am a drama major. Although it was really cool, looking at the building and hearing about the architecture in this article. Our school is incredible and has amazing programs for engineering, science, and many other things, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re locked up in Purnell. I think it’s really important that we recognize everything all schools have to offer. This not only applies to drama majors, but those, who are participating with school in any way, shape or form and help them recognize that everyone at the school contributes and it wouldn’t be the same without them. I am not typically one for school spirit, however, my experience at CMU has been fairly positive and I think it’s cool.
I clicked on this article because I lived in Webster Hall during my Sophomore year, which was right in front of this building. I used to see it every morning and every night, and I remember that it looked really beautiful at night because of the way the columns cast shadows from the interior lights. I have never considered that the building looked that way for a particular reason, and enjoyed learning about the history of the building I lived across. I found the article amusing because the idea of building a Parthenon-style building to commemorate the epic research that the founders envisioned for the building is so on brand with the CMU culture. I found it both geeky and enduring. I know that other universities have a consolidated campus architecture that is not found in CMU, and I have always wondered why CMU buildings look so different from one another. This made me wonder if other buildings in the school were built with this much intention.
The Mellon Institute is such an interesting part of our campus, as it is very satellited away from what we consider central campus. You have to walk through craig street to get there, and it is a good 10 minute walk from the closest point on our main campus. It really doesn't feel like it is part of our school sometimes, and I am so fortunate to not have had a class there because I would not appreciate the trek. This article highlighted some really cool things about the building that I had never given much attention to before. I thought that its pillars and Greek Parthenon model is so beautiful. I never knew that the architect gave the thought into how it symbolizes advanced scientific capabilities and tribute to science, which makes the building so much more meaningful and special. I also didn't know that it was part of projects for the military during World War I which is crazy to think about.
This building has always been a mystery to me. I mean for starters it is huge, it is so far away from the rest of campus, and on top of all of that, there are endless rumors about what goes on in the basement of the Mellon Institute (currently I think it is that they are experimenting on monkeys but who knows). It is a fascinating building and an enigma to the students of Carnegie Mellon that apparently has a deep history unbeknownst to them. It is pretty cool that the thought put behind it began with wanting a “Temple of Science” I think they definitely achieved that, it is a temple alright. It was cool to learn that the building was built with the intent to evolve with the science that it was supporting the growth of. And above all else, this article included the most important fun fact about this building, “it's also a favorite spot for prom and graduation photos.” Even if they don’t attend Carnegie Mellon University, I find that silly. But hey, it is a beautiful building.
This is really interesting. I’ve never been inside the Mellon Institute, but I do walk past it a lot, and it is a gorgeous building. I’m a big fan of the columns myself. I had no idea about the history of the Mellon Institute building, so it was really cool to read about it. I had no idea it was basically a massive eight-story building, and honestly, it’s kind of difficult to picture that it’s filled with crazy fancy futuristic science and technology at all. It just looks so much like a massive library. It’s a super cool-looking building, so I definitely understand why it’s a popular photo spot and has been used in movies before. As much as I would like to believe that there is an extra column buried nearby the Cathedral of Learning, unfortunately, I kind of have to agree with the point made in the article, that it wouldn’t make sense to waste all those materials.
This is an interesting history of the Mellon Institute which began with the work of chemist Robert Kennedy Duncan. Traveling in Europe he was impressed by the spirit of cooperation between industrialists and scientists. He returned to the US with a mission: he believed that research at universities could be directed toward the solution of industrial problems. In 1909 The Mellon brothers invited him to develop a department of industrial research at the Univ of Pittsburgh. In this case power, privilege and money appears to have been used for good, surprising to me given Andrew Mellon’s conniving reputation. An early research focus of the department was smoke abatement - an enormous problem in the city of steel mills. In 1927, the department separated from the university to become the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
With this, a new building was needed which was to be “of simplicity and beauty and grave majesty”. I do not believe that was achieved. Unlike other columned buildings of the period, this one is not inviting and not beautiful. It appears to me very heavy, with columns that are too closely spaced evoking the feeling of jail bars. It is like a bunker. We are kept out. From the outside we have no sense of the building inside and certainly the goings on therein.
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