let them eat cake.

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Party-goers viewing "People+Places" 

 Note: This entry is a bit late as I got caught up in life this past week and was unable to post.  

Precisely a week ago the Carnegie Museum of Natural History held CAKEitecture in honor of the opening of their exhibit, 20/20: Celebrating Two Decades of the Heinz Architectural Center.

Obviously the "itecture" comes from the "architectural" bit, but the "CAKE", well that part was rather ingenious.  Architects and designers were paired with local bakeries to create amazing works of edible architecture.  These confectionary marvels were then put on display for party-goers to vote on.  There were five cakes in all from the following teams:











The cakes were absolutely gorgeous, though they were difficult to see through the crowds.  I don't think the museum expected such a large turn-out.

Visitors marveling at the Mr. Roger's inspired cake by Dozen Bake Shop



There were people everywhere, from the second-level overlook one got the impression of ants crawling over sugary-sweet confections.

Cake cake, everywhere, but not a bite to eat.  Everywhere you looked there was cake (and people), but I found it impossible to get any (cake, not people).  It seemed as though each cake-team had a different idea of when, if at all, their cake should be consumed.  Some of the bakeries brought sheet-cakes to tide the crowds over, others cut into their competition cakes, and Dozen brought along cupcakes that were devoured as soon as the event began.  I saw quite a few people with plates of cake, but by the time I found where they were coming from, the cake was already gone.

To deal with the extreme disappointment of not having cake in my belly, I took to the exhibit itself.







I'm not really one for architecture, but I found quite a few of the pieces fascinating.   Of course in an architectural exhibit I would find an old dusty book to be the most interesting.  The book pictured here is L'Architecture du Ve au XVIIe Siecle…  by Jules Gailhabaud.  Gailhabaud wanted to share the architecture of the world with those without the means to travel.   His book contains over a hundred hand-drawn images of international architecture along with descriptions of each of the buildings.

Also of note, this drawing of a building that might look vaguely
familiar to any bibliophile.  It is the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh circa 1895.  This is what you would have seen from the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel back before the library under went an expansion in 1907.





Though I love cake an awful lot, I probably would have never even known about CAKEitecture had it not been for Pittsburgh Filmmakers Production Services. Production Services was tasked with creating five videos for the Heinz Architectural Center that focus on people and places.  This part of the exhibit is aptly named "People+Places".   I filtered in and out of the screening space a few times, but the story that caught my attention the most was of an elderly woman and her childhood home in the Hill District. She spoke of how her mum would always feed the homeless and downtrodden in the neighborhood and of how, as a child, she would bring other neighborhood children home.  Another mouth to feed.  Her mum never chided her for it though, she would just set another place at the table.  The Hill District community in general has gone through many hard-times, but the woman is confident that the community of people is strong no matter what they have to endure.






When I returned to the party room had opened up around the cakes so I was able to get in a few shots, I never was able to see the fifth cake before it was devoured though.




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