Living large in the Cathedral suites

The current residents of the Cathedral Suites had no idea what was in store for them as they walked into their new home. With a staircase extending to a second floor loft, a huge living room with ceiling to floor windows and a kitchen area, the six students were beyond pleased with the living space.

“It was a surprise when we walked in,” Kevin Boylan, a sophomore media relations major, said. “I was expecting three people in two rooms, and I thought about how crowded it was going to be. I was not expecting to have a living room and a kitchen.”

As a transfer student, Boylan had never heard of the Cathedral Suites and didn’t have a lottery number. 

“I just called, and they gave me a room and told me that I would have five roommates,” Boylan said. “That was fine with me, because then I would get to meet some new people.”

From the outside, the Cathedral Suites look like any other room in McCormick Hall, which is probably why many people don’t know they exist. 

“I know they are very coveted and infamous,” Maura Kay, a freshman political science major, said. “They are a bit of an urban legend, but I know they are real.” 

According to the Housing Services website, most Pitt students are guaranteed on-campus housing in a residence hall, apartment-style or fraternity living space for their first three years as long as they meet housing application and deposit deadlines. 

The room selection process begins in the spring semester as students select their preferred accommodation through an online lottery, a point system based on academic class, years of residency and a randomly assigned housing selection index number.

The Cathedral Suites do not refer to the Cathedral of Learning. Rather, the term is used to describe the four suites in McCormick Hall that have a high cathedral ceiling and a spiral staircase to a loft, according to Pitt spokesman John Fedele.

The Cathedral Suites are the only two-story units at Pitt. They have a large common room on the lower level, along with a double room, a single room and a bathroom. The upper level of each suite also has a double room, a single room and a bathroom that opens up to the hall.

Boylan was initially set on living in Lothrop because one of his friends lives there, but he is very happy about where he is living now. 

“Just having our own living room is nice, along with a TV, refrigerator and microwave,” Boylan said. “Its basically like living in an apartment.”

Kay and Christian Ranallo said they were under the impression that lottery numbers play an important factor in who has access to the suites. 

“The Cathedral Suites are a favorite spot if you get a good lottery pick as a sophomore,” Ranallo, a senior bioengineering major, said.

Kay said she heard about how the residents that lived there one year projected a movie on the wall in their suite for everyone living in McCormick Hall to watch.

Boylan and his suitemates sometimes play basketball on the mini hoop in the living room, but he said that they mostly use the space to hang out and do homework. “We tried to have a floor meeting and a game night here one day, but no one really came because we didn’t advertise very well,” Boylan said.

“If I could get a whole group of people together, that would be a great place to live,” Kay said

The only complaints Boylan had about the Cathedral Suites was that there is no air conditioning, the only fan in the living room is missing one propellor and there initially wasn’t cable for the TV. 

“The room echo is also really bad,” Boylan said. “It’s hard to hear people from across the room because its so big.”

Students who pulled low lottery numbers typically chose the Cathedral Suites before Pitt built Bouquet Gardens on campus apartments from 1999 to 2000. The newest building, Bouquet J, built in 2009, is the largest of all of Bouquet Gardens. 

The lowest lottery number Kay said she had heard of a someone pulling was 12, but that person chose to live in Bouquet Gardens. 

Ranallo said he knew a sophomore who got number six, but chose to live in Bouquet because of its apartment style. 

The downside of the Cathedral Suites, Ranallo said, is that students who live in McCormick must swipe into the buildings as with the other dorm buildings. Many students want more freedom, he said. 

Bouquet Gardens, Fedele said, as well as renovations and improvements to other dorms on campus, have driven some students away from the Cathedral Suites in recent years.

As a Pathfinder, Kay said she mentions a little tidbit about each building in the Schenley Quadrangle to give it some personality. 

“All of the other buildings in the quad have something special to say about them,” Kay said. 

On tours, Kay describes Holland Hall as the all-women freshman residence hall, Brackenridge Hall as the residence hall with lots of LLCs, including the Honors LLC, and Amos Hall as the sorority residence hall. 

“McCormick doesn’t have a claim to fame besides the Cathedral Suites,” Kay said.