Architecture

The neo-Gothic chapel was designed by Charles Klauder who also designed the Cathedral of Learning and the Stephen Foster Memorial, both located right next to the chapel on Pitt's campus. He was assisted by University architect A. A. Klimcheck. Dr. John G. Bowman, Chancellor of the University, and Mr. John Weber, Secretary of the University, whom Dr. Bowman sent to Europe to study church architecture for background on the chapel, worked closely with Mr. Klauder in the attempt to achieve on this campus a physical representation of the meaning of a University Chapel.

The chapel's form is that of a modified cruciform plan, stone vaults, high ceilings, repeated arches, and extensive use of glass that were typical of American academic and religious architecture of this period. It is 146 feet (45 m) long, 55 feet (17 m) wide at the transept, and 100 feet (30 m) high at the nave with its fleche (not called a steeple) reaching 256 feet (78 m) above the ground.^[9] The chapel's walls, inside and out, are of Indiana Limestone.

Sadly, Klauder died only a few weeks before the chapel's dedication.

In 1996, a $1.3 million elevator housing was added to north side of Heinz Chapel in order to bring in into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The small addition was designed to architecturally mesh with the remainder of the chapel.

Stonework

The narthex entrance

Both inside and out, the walls of the chapel are of grey Indiana limestone. The interior ceiling is lined with a structural acoustical tile which, although it is a ceramic product, approximates stone. The floor of the chapel is crab orchard stone with Vermont green slate in the side aisles. The floor of the chancel is marble while the altar itself is of Numidian marble, imported from Egypt.

The chapel's wall carvings, by master stoneworker Joseph Gattoni of New York, follow the Gothic tradition of pictorial instruction and express the chapel's theme of spiritual values in education. Charles Connick's studio, who is best known for designing the stained glass windows, also designed a large portion of the chapel's stonework, including the Gothic-style shields adorning the stone walls and the tympanum above the main door that portrays the figure of Jesus with symbols of the Alpha and the Omega.^[10]

Seals and shields

Entrance portal

Interior of Heinz Chapel as viewed from the balcony

The seal of the University of Pittsburgh, the 1930s candle version, is just above the main entrance and is flanked by the seal of the City of Pittsburgh and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Inside, the stone carvings include the Torah and the Bible, the New Testament beatitudes, and shields of the twelve Apostles. The carvings often take up and extend the theme of the window nearest them.

Parapets

In the gables and balustrade circling the transept at its highest point and signifying the chapel's dedication to education, are shields bearing the insignia of the twelve oldest European universities in order of their founding.

Along the lower balustrade parapet are carved the seals of American colleges and universities founded before 1820, in order of their founding. The seals of those founded after 1820 are on the spandrels beneath the parapet, and the seals of women's colleges are carved on the buttresses.

Narthex

To the right and left of the entrance, in the Narthex, two shields represent the Old and New Testaments with the Pentateuch and the Bible.

Chancel

At the base of the Faith, Hope and Charity windows are the shields of the twelve apostles, each represented by his symbol.

Under the Justice and Wisdom windows are fourteen shields representing the fourteen beatitudes, or gifts of the soul, as they appear in the carving of the Cathedral of Chartres.

North door

The clerestory of Heinz Chapel

Over the small door to the left of the chancel as one faces it, is carved the Sacred Monogram above a Tree of Life. Flanking the door are the unicorn, symbol of goodness, and the phoenix, symbol of immortality.

Ambulatory doors

On either side of the doors leading into the ambulatory are shields representing the four Major Prophets: Isaiah (tongs and burning altar coal), Jeremiah (star-tipped wand), Ezekiel (tetramorph), and Daniel (ram with horns).

Memorial window shields

Echoing the theme of the window are symbols of music, the harp and the lyre, early instruments used in songs of praise.

Transept

Heinz Chapel reredos

In the spandrels of the great arches of the transept crossing, eight large shields represent the eight beatitudes given in the Sermon on the Mount.

Aisle window shields

North aisle shields – symbols of the Doctors of the Western, or Latin Church.

South aisle shields – symbols of the Doctors of the Eastern, or Greek Church.

Clerestory shields

At the base of the clerestory windows, between the small arches of the triforium gallery are fourteen shields which represent the seven liberal arts and the seven medieval crafts and trades.

Narthex shields

At the base of the Narthex windows are twelve shields which echo the theme of each window.

Wood and iron work

All the visible wood in the chapel is oak, including its entrance doors, each of which weighs 800 pounds. The reredos, choir stalls, chancel rails, pulpit, lectern, and narthex screen are of English pollard oak. The pews and narthex ceiling are of Appalachian Mountain oak. Wood carvings were done by Irving and Casson, A.H. Davenport Company of Boston. The four figures carved in the reredos represent the saints Peter, John, Paul the Apostle, and James the Major. All the wrought iron work, including the lanterns, door fittings, stair railings, altar cross, and candlesticks, were created by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. (Yellin was also responsible for major working in the adjacent Cathedral of Learning including the Commons Room Gates and most of the metal work in the Nationality Classrooms .)

Designer

The chapel's 23 windows were designed by Charles Connick and created at his Boston studio. The windows total approximately 4,000 square feet (370 m²) and contain nearly 250,000 pieces of glass. There are 391 identifiable people in the windows, a large supporting cast of anonymous individuals, and an extensive variety of flora and fauna.

Connick was an artist once on the staff of the Pittsburgh Press, and author of Adventures in Light and Color, a work which he has modestly subtitled An Introduction to the Stained Glass Craft. Mr. Connick also has windows in the Cathedrals of St. Patrick and St. John the Divine in New York City, the Princeton University Chapel, the American Church in Paris, and in the Calvary Episcopal and East Liberty Presbyterian churches in Pittsburgh. Heinz Memorial Chapel has the distinction of having all its windows by Mr. Connick, a practice unusual in most churches which prefer to represent in their sanctuaries as many kinds of stained glass artistry as possible. However, because in Heinz Chapel all the windows can be seen at once, and because Mr. Connick began to work so closely with those planning the chapel, and was so widely respected as a worker in stained glass, he was soon commissioned to design and make all of the windows in Heinz Chapel.

Design elements

Just as in the language of stone carvings, symbols were used in place of words, there was established a language of color in which the colors themselves had meanings and values. In his Divine Comedy, Dante set forth the traditions of this symbolism, and Mr. Connick used this language in Heinz Chapel to express emotions beyond the reach of words.

• Red - the warm active color; suggesting passionate devotion, divine love, self-sacrifice, heroism and valor.
• Blue – the cool contemplative color echoing the light of heaven; symbolic of divine wisdom, profound meditation, enduring loyalty, eternity.
• White – spiritual achievement, treasure in heaven.

And in combination:

• Gold – yellow merging into brown, changing to gold, symbolic of the treasures of earth; bounty.
• Green – unites the wisdom of blue with the wealth of gold; hope and victory, happiness and gaiety; spring, youth.
• Violet – unites the wisdom of blue with the love of red; justice, humility, royalty.

While the dominant theme of the chapel is charity, as declared by the Charity window, centered high above the chancel, blue is the most prominent color used in the windows, due to the requirements of stained glass artistry. "Blue is light itself," Mr. Connick has said, and he regarded it as the most valuable and lovely color in stained glass.

Chancel windows

Nativity scene

The five chancel windows represent the virtues of justice, faith, charity, hope, and wisdom. These feature acts of Jesus and characters from the Old and New Testament. These windows are complemented on each side by smaller windows over the choir stalls that celebrate music and recognize its importance in worship.

The theme of each window is further developed through the use of symbols related to the Tree of Life. The symbol of love, the rose, appears in the Charity Window; the fig tree symbolizes Faith; the pomegranate, Hope; the grapevine, Justice; and the Twelve Golden Fruits of the Tree of Life, Wisdom.

Transept windows

The 73-foot (22 m) tall transept windows are among the tallest stained glass windows in the world and represent temperance, truth, tolerance, and courage. An equal number of men and women are depicted in these windows, unusual in that the equal emphasis on the contributions of both sexes was not typical of the period of their creation. There are a tremendous variety of individuals depicted in these windows drawn from religion and all aspects of secular history, music, science, philosophy, poetry and literature. Secular figures range from Beethoven and Bach to Clara Barton; from Da Vinci to Daniel Boone; from Charlemagne to Chaucer to Confucius; from Emily Dickinson to Keats to Sir Isaac Newton; form Napoleon to Ben Franklin and George Washington; from Rousseau to Shakespeare to Florence Nightingale; from Pocahontas to Pasteur and Edgar Allan Poe; from Tennyson to Thoreau, and a myriad in between including Johnny Appleseed.

Clerestory windows

The four clerestory windows, high above the aisles, present great teachers and interpreters of Christian thought. The three gallery windows at the west end of the chapel represent three great Christian literary works:

• St. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun Also called the Praise and Thanksgiving window, the left narthex window preserves in stained glass the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi. The canticle is pictured in the series of medallions and forms, articulated by stars, birds, fishes and hovering flames. The great surmounting figures are Brother Sun and Sister Moon, below which are personifications of the four elements – Air, Water, Fire, Earth. The small medallion designs are related to the life of St. Francis. The center tracery piece contains the figure of God as the Divine Creator.
• John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress The central Narthex window presents John Bunyan's allegoric Pilgrim's Progress, symbolically tracing the pilgrim's journey from angular shapes at the window's base to the bursting fruit of the Tree of Life at its top. The dominant figures of Christian and Hopeful surmount the lancets. The center tracery piece presents the New Jerusalem, with Enoch, Moses and Elijah welcoming the Pilgrim at journey's end.
• The Quest for the Holy Grail from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Also called the Holy Grail Window, the right narthex window traces the story of the search for the Holy Grail as told in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale's sister are the dominant figures surmounting the lancets. The growing forms most often take the shape of lilies, symbols of Purity. In the corners are designs of heraldic lions (symbols of Courage), Unicorns (symbols of Virginity), and Serpents and Dragons (sinfulness and the Power of Evil), suggesting the ideals of Chivalry and the temptations besetting the searchers. The center tracery piece presents the Vision of the Grail at the end of the search.

Original instrument

The chapel organ was originally a four manual Aeolian Skinner pipe organ with 3,770 pipes. Construction on the organ began in Boston in 1934 and took several years to complete.^[11]

The organ pipes range in size from the size of a pencil up to wooden boxes two feet square. The console itself was in a sunken recess at the right of the chancel and the pipes were concealed behind the chancel triforium gallery and the gold and blue ecclesiastical cloth above the gallery.

Updated instrument

In the 1960s, the cloth was gradually removed, it was deteriorating, had a detrimental effect on the organ sound and presented a fire hazard. By this time, the organ was in serious need of attention and in 1969 work was begun on the installation of a new instrument by the M. P. Möller Company. This included the addition of a small gallery console which could be used to play only those pipes in the rear gallery, useful for duets or if the main instrument required emergency service.

The new Moller instrument was dedicated on March 21, 1971, by University Organist, Dr. Robert S. Lord and Dr. Russell G. Wichmann, organist at Chatham College. This instrument had approximately 3,954 pipes and 82 stops and 70 ranks (unique sounds). The Heinz Endowments funded this purchase.

The organ was greatly enhanced by the addition of three electronic 32' ranks by the Allen Organ Company in January 1989 under the supervision of Dr. Lord made possible by a grant from the Heinz endowments. This permitted the organ to produce deep, resonant bass tones. It was one of the first uses of electronic sounds to enhance an existing pipe organ.

Current instrument

In the early 1990s, the Möller became increasingly unreliable and it was deemed necessary to perform major work on the instrument. This coincided with the work done in 1994 to make the chapel accessible for those with physical disabilities. The Reuter Organ Company was engaged to do this work.

The renovated Reuter instrument was dedicated in concert on September 24, 1995. Re-created in 1994–1995 by the Reuter Organ Company, it represents a trend in American organ building to reuse existing materials in an environmentally friendly and musically sound manner. The chancel console has three manuals (keyboards) and pedalboard that control all 4,272 pipes (73 ranks) and three electronic 32' pedal stops. For concerts, this console may be moved to the front of the chancel in full view of the audience. A second console (two manuals and pedal) located in the rear gallery controls pipes located in the alcoves adjacent to the gallery. The main console also has access to the rear gallery pipes. While most of the main organ pipes are located around the front chancel a commanding "tuba" (trumpet) stop is located 90 feet (27 m) above in a ceiling chamber.

A complete history of the organ is available in the Docent Guide for the Organ at Heinz Chapel the first edition of which was prepared in 2003 by Jon J. Danzak. A copy of the book as well as two CDs were placed on deposit at the Music Library of the University of Pittsburgh by Dr. Robert S. Lord (Professor Emeritus) who served as university organist for over 40 years.