On Tuesday morning I took the train to Geneva well before the sun was up.
I flew from Geneva to Washington Dulles, on my way to Pittsburgh.
Interestingly I didn't need to get on the fun bus system in Dulles airport, but I did get a nice view of one.
Our group was all staying in the Courtyard by Marriott at the University Center in Pittsburgh.
Dagmara and I had arrived a day early in case our help was needed with the Encoding Experience Summit we were in town for. This actually meant we had time to tour the Carnegie Mellow University campus with our host, Katherine Flanigan.
Katherine is a professor at the school of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Here's a photo of the three of us together.
One of the interesting historical features was at the top of this lovely staircase.
The weather in Pittsburgh has apparently been fantastic for the last few weeks. It was really lovely.
And the colours!
Walking around campus was a genuine pleasure.
Autumn is my favourite season, so I was in my element.
This photo has the least appealing student accommodation on the CMU campus, but it seems that it's the hall of residence with the best sense of community. An interesting example of poor architecture driving social cohesion!
From the campus Dagmara and I headed back towards the hotel, stopping off at the Cathedral of Learning.
I love this building down to its revolving doors.
It's part of Pitt - the common name for the University of Pittsburgh, it seems.
This atrium look like an incredible place to study.
The building is open for all to visit during the day.
On some of the upper floors there are classrooms themed by various nationalities. We wandered around the 3rd floor, checking the ones there.
The Austrian room was wild!
We weren't able to enter the Swiss room, as it was in use for a class.
They all have quite different layouts. The Indian room was really interesting.
We then took the lift up to the 36th floor.
The view across to CMU was great. If you look closely you can see the marching band practice ground from the earlier photo.
This lady kindly let me take her photo. I'm such a tourist.
We were mainly in town for the Encoding Experience Summit being run by Katherine and supported by us.
The first evening's dinner was an optional event for folks getting in early. It was an informal opportunity to connect ahead of the summit proper.
I really enjoyed catching up with people, some of whom I should see more regularly in Switzerland, admittedly.
One of the activities for this first evening involved capturing diverse perspectives about the human experience of designed spaces.
The summit was off to a great start! In the next post I'll talk about the event itself, which was a unique and very special experience.
Leave a Reply