{"id":245519,"date":"2026-07-17T04:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/245519\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T04:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:07:11","slug":"who-says-concrete-cant-float","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/245519\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Says Concrete Can\u2019t Float"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"Andy <\/p>\n


\n Andy Warhull 2 \n <\/p>\n


\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best one I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Charles \u201cScooter” Hager<\/a>, CEE Structures \/ Materials Technician at Pitt. He works in the Benedum Hall sub-basement and, as Cook said, \u201chelps with literally everything we need, even teaching us how to row.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Andy War-Hull<\/p>\n

Beyond questions of design and mix are the canoe\u2019s name and its theme. At meetings, students share ideas, most with a nod to Pittsburgh, until one or two take hold. Last year, the team settled on the alliterative Monongahela Megalodon. Before that it was the Three Rivers Safari.<\/p>\n

This year, they turned to one of Pittsburgh\u2019s favorite sons: pop artist Andy Warhol. Punny names ensued, and the Andy War-Hull stuck. For artistic inspiration, team members took a guided tour of the Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh\u2019s North Shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the canoe cured and we sanded it, the aesthetics team set to work, drawing designs in pencil before staining them into the concrete,\u201d said Kayley Dorfman, an aesthetics co-lead and next year\u2019s project management captain. \u201cThe team did everything by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boat is adorned with pickles, Heinz condiments, a banana, Marilyn Monroe lips, Dippy the Dinosaur, a panther paw, and the Cathedral of Learning.<\/p>\n

Rowing a concrete canoe<\/p>\n

Constructing the canoe is a remarkable feat. Rowing in it isn\u2019t particularly easy either. At 215 pounds and 17.5 feet long, the Andy War-Hull requires stamina and skill to weave through buoys in the slalom or to sprint 200 meters.<\/p>\n

In previous years, the teams did little in the way of actual rowing practice. Experience was spotty, and the results weren\u2019t always great.<\/p>\n

Hager has set out to change that. He has a canoe and lives near the Ohio River. For the past 17 years, he has encouraged students to come and practice, and two years ago, they took him up on the offer. \u201cThat first practice, we just sent them out,\u201d Hager said. \u201cThey got a lot of time on the water, just figuring out how to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andy Warhull 2 \u201cThis is the best one I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Charles \u201cScooter”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3892,12911,3893,3895,73,75,74,13148],"class_list":["post-245519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-banner","tag-civil-environmental","tag-dept-banner","tag-pitt-swanson-school-of-engineering","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-student-profiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}