Charles Klauder

Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh

Charles Zeller Klauder (1872–1938) was an American architect best known for his work on university buildings and campus designs, especially his Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, the first educational skyscraper.

Biography

Heinz Memorial Chapel, University of Pittsburgh

Holder Hall, Princeton University (1909), Day & Brother, architects.

Luther Tower, Concordia Seminary

Marks Scout Resource Center, Philadelphia

The Palestra, University of Pennsylvania

Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University

Stephen Foster Memorial, University of Pittsburgh

War Memorial, Cornell University

Born on February 9, 1872, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Klauder was the son of Louis and Anna Koehler Klauder, who had immigrated to Philadelphia from Germany.

Klauder studied architecture at the School of Industrial Art at the Pennsylvania Museum. At age 15, he entered the office of Theophilus Parsons Chandler, Jr. Beginning in 1893 he worked for prominent Philadelphia architectural firms, including Wilson Brothers & Company, Cope & Stewardson, and Horace Trumbauer. In 1900, Klauder became chief draughtsman at Day & Brother, which led to the 1911 partnership with Frank Miles Day, and the firm's renaming as Day & Klauder. Klauder continued the firm after Day's 1918 death, but did not rename it until 1927.

Klauder's commissions include extensive work on the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University, Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Cornell University. At Penn he designed the third Franklin Field, Hutchinson Gymnasium, the Coxe and Sharpe Wings of the University Museum, alterations to Weightman Hall and the Palestra. Several of his landmark Neo-Gothic buildings at Pitt are the Cathedral of Learning, Heinz Memorial Chapel and the Stephen Foster Memorial. The Cathedral of Learning, upon its completion, was the tallest educational building in the world, and today it ranks behind only a tower at Moscow University. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Marks Scout Resource Center at 22nd and Winter Streets in Philadelphia was built in 1929. Klauder designed the building in the Beaux Arts style.

For his lifelong architectural work, Klauder has received the Gold Medal, Architectural League, N.Y. 1921; Grand Prix Pan American Congress of Architects, 1927; Architectural Medal, Olympic Games, 1928. Klauder was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Klauder, with Herbert C. Wise, was the author of College Architecture in America.

Klauder died aged 66 on October 30, 1938.

Architectural Work (Partial listing)

Concordia Seminary, Clayton, Missouri

14 buildings including:

• Martin Luther Tower

Cornell University

• Founders Hall
• Lyon hall, 1928
• McFadden Hall, 1928
• War Memorial, 1928
• Mennen Hall, 1931

Franklin and Marshall College

• Dietz-Santee Dormitory
• Franklin-Meyran Dormitory
• Biesecker Gymnasium
• Hensel Auditorium
• Fackenthal Laboratories, now the Harris Center for Business, Government, and Public Policy
• Central Heating Plant
• Fackenthal Pool
• Franklin and Marshall College Master Plan

University of Pennsylvania

• Franklin Field 1922, 1925
• Palestra
• Hutchinson Gymnasium, 1926–1928
• Coxe 1926 and Sharpe 1929 Wings of the University Museum
• Alterations to Weightman Hall

University of Pittsburgh

• Cathedral of Learning 1926-1937
• Heinz Memorial Chapel 1933-1938
• Stephen Foster Memorial 1937

Princeton University

15 buildings including:

• Walker Hall, 1930
• Holder Hall, 1909, Day & Brother.
• University Dining Halls, 1916, Day & Klauber.
• Joline Hall, 1939

St. Paul's School

• Central Heating Plant
• Quadrangle Dorms

Pennsylvania State University

• College Master Plan
• Sackett Building
• Buckhout and Borland Labs
• Steidle Building
• The Nittany Lion Inn
• Additions to Pond Lab and Sparks Building
• The Power Plant
• Henderson Building
• (New) Old Main
• Rec Hall
• Pattee Library
• Burrowes Building
• Electrical Engineering West
• Osmond and Frear Labs
• Ag Engineering
• Ferguson Building
• The Poultry Plant
• Additions to Steidle and Sparks

Other academic buildings

• Peabody Museum, Yale University, 1916-24.
• Campus master plan, University of Colorado, 1918.
• Main Hall and Dormitory, Mercersburg Academy, 1927.
• Pendleton Hall, Wellesley College, 1934.
• Library, Albion College, 1937.

Non-academic buildings

• First Presbyterian Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1926-30.
• Marks Boy Scout Resource Center, Philadelphia, 1929-30.
• Railroad Retirement Board Building, Washington, D.C., with Louis A. Simon, 1939.

References

• Alberts, Robert C. (1987). Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh 1787-1987. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-1150-7. 
• Klauder, Charles Zeller and Herbert C. Wise (1929). College Architecture in America and Its Part in the Development of the Campus. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 

External links

• Charles Z. Klauder Collection, Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Archives