Cathedral joins in city’s annual Festival of Lights

The Cathedral of Learning will bounce back into history tonight. Organizers of the Pittsburgh… The Cathedral of Learning will bounce back into history tonight. Organizers of the Pittsburgh 250 Festival of Lights arranged to have the 42-story building bathed in lights to resemble the Gutenberg printing press, and approximately two weeks from now it will be decorated to fit a mathematics theme. ‘The Cathedral is going to have a whole new appearance,’ said Lucette de Rugy, the executive director of Artlumiere, the company that designed the display for the Cathedral. This is the first time Pitt will participate in the city’s Festival of Lights, which started last year when organizers projected light displays onto six Downtown structures. This year, 20 buildings throughout Pittsburgh will feature light displays, making the festival the largest light event in the United States, according to its Web site. De Rugy, who has designed displays for New York’s Grand Central Station, the Civic Center in Beverly Hills and the Church de St. Etienne in Paris, worked with German designers Friedrich Foerster and Sabine Weissinger to create the two designs for the Cathedral. ‘The first series of projections are inspired by Gutenberg’s printing press,’ said de Rugy. ‘Gutenberg lived during the Gothic era, and the press is a symbol of learning.’ Lissa Rosenthal, the marketing director for the Festival of Lights, said the Gutenberg design will project letters on the Cathedral in a contemporary font using vivid colors projected using stained glass. ‘It’s going to promote the concept of the building being wrapped like an actual printing press,’ said Rosenthal. She said she didn’t want to give away too many details on the mathematics projection, which will replace the Gutenberg-inspired design in a few weeks, but she did say that it will incorporate vibrant colors. ‘It’s going to have an Eastern or Turkish feel to it, with the use of lots of fuchsias, turquoises and golds,’ said Rosenthal. De Rugy said the mathematics-themed display will be more abstract than the Gutenberg design. ‘ ‘People have to come and watch it for the full effect. The impressions and inspirations will be unique to the individual,’ she added. Light designs will also appear on the nearby Stephen Foster Memorial and Heinz Chapel. The best time to view all three designs, organizers said, is around 7:30 p.m. Live shows will run simultaneously with the light displays in Schenley Plaza. Tonight at 8, Squonk Opera will kick off the Music Under the Lights series in Schenley Plaza with its Astro-Rama Show, which tells the story of a fictional UFO crash in Allegheny County. The group will perform for free at 8 p.m. every night through Oct. 18. Jim Donovan, from the Pittsburgh-based, drum-heavy band Rusted Root, will perform in Schenley Plaza at 7 p.m. on Oct. 23, and Pittsburgh Latin dance band Azucar will perform there Oct. 30. All shows will be free and open to the public. ‘ The 250 Festival of Lights began on Oct. 10 at Katz Plaza Downtown. The light projections can be seen at various locations throughout the city, including several churches in the Oakland area, through Nov. 20.