Intentionality

Last night, I travelled to Pittsburgh for an old friends wedding. It's where I went to college and was an extremely formative place for me.

If you've never been, it's an exceptional architecture city (Andrew Carnegie & Steel money) and the whole place is built into hills and across 3 rivers, so it actually has the most bridges of any city in the world.

The first thing I did was pop over to the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland, the heart of the University of Pittsburgh & right next to Carnegie Mellon. It's the crown jewel of the area, and I would say one of the best buildings in the US.

It's a 42 story Gothic Skyscraper.

You walk into a Cavernous Nave on the first floor.

Very Hogwarts.

They also have Nationality Rooms. The story goes, that when the Cathedral was under construction, they ran out of money, so they hit up every different ethnic group living in Pittsburgh at the time to design and decorate a room in exchange for help with fundraising.

This is the only one that was visible on my brief walk through, but you get the idea. So cool. Students have classes in these rooms.

A few hours later, at the wedding, three different members of the bridal party who gave toasts were talking about my friend, the groom, and how intentional he is with his life and his time.

I remember noticing him becoming this way when we lived together.

He really curated his life. He was relaxed, every conversation was thoughtful, purposeful, and savored. He immersed himself in reading, writing, music, silence. Caring and generous guy, and really tried to improve himself.

It was very unlike me, a fast paced scattered person who wanted to be all things to everyone and did not think too much about the future.

It's all different now. It's been a long time. But I kept thinking about this as I went for a long walk around South Oakland, where I lived for several years.

You notice here that where the students live is pretty run down (100 year old party houses) and the outskirts, where permanent residents live, are just prettier and more kempt.

You realize pretty quickly that the typical college student is maybe not the most intentional person. I certainly was not.

But you can also see layers of history and buildings around the Campus that might indicate declining intentionality & cultural values in general.

Oakland, when the Cathedral of Learning was built, seems to have been a park-like paradise. Gothic & Neo Classical buildings everywhere, the Carnegie Museums, the whole thing backing up to Schenley Park & Phipps Conservatory. Hyper aspirational.

Then a bunch of functional uninspiring architecture gets added into the mix starting in the 50s. Housing. Hospitals. Good things, but pure function, no aspiration.

Education gradually goes from a "sacred" pursuit of the arts to a functional means to get a job.

The dream is gone, or at least it changed. The values are different. The buildings still stand. But from a cultural standpoint, it wouldn't get built today.

You can't do a whole lot to change the world around you or change culture.

But you can change your life. You can build a little intentional oasis, and cultivate it like a garden.

The intentionality and values of my friend, and those folks who originally created such a spectacular campus environment, are a testament to living a different way.

Every moment, every conversation and every project is an incredible gift and we should remember that. Each is an opportunity for greatness.

They aren't just functional.

Let's make them as good as they possibly can be.