Schenley Drive before the Schenley Bridge may also be a good place to Park if you don't mind walking a little bit, but it depends. But say you park on Schenley Dr and walk over the bridge onto Pitt's campus, point out the two libraries she'll have access to if she wants (Hillman on one side of Schenley Plaza, Carnegie Public library (and museums that are free with a Pitt ID) on the other), point out the food kiosk on the plaza and the merry-go-round...Posvar Hall where she'll likely have some classes (if someone cares about baseball, this is were I do a quick detour to point out some highlights of Forbes Field remnants/wall), but I'd run into Frick Fine Arts building and quickly see the Lochoff Cloister and art library and then hit Posvar Hall and duck in to see the Pitt Global Studies, Forbes Field home plate, and point out the
Langley Aerodrome (one of the most impressive artifacts Pitt has that is completely ignored).
Then, because Hillman is likely a mess with all the construction, you can go up the escalator in Posvar to the bridge over Forbes to the towers, pointing out the law school along the way, and go through Schenley Quad with a stop in the Book Store and then into the William Pitt Union, where must sees are the Tanksy Family Lounge and the Ballroom with lots of historic points to be noted along the way. You can exit the WPU on the 5th Ave side stop by the Panther and then cross Bigelow over to the Cathedral...go up the front steps and enter directly into the Commons Room for the most explosive first impression. You can see which 1st floor nationality rooms are open and pop your head into them (Germany is my favorite, and England is a must see because of all the historic artifacts from the actual House of Commons), but all of the ones on the 3rd floor should be open during the day. Ukraine is in room 341, a must stop if she is into her heritage (and you can point out how much nicer it is than the Russian room ;-) ). The Frick audiotorium in 324 is also usually open. Then go up the elevator to the Honors College on floors 35-36 for a mandatory vista look and orient to downtown and even Acrisure Stadium. Back down to floor one and out the side by Stephen Foster (which is nice to stop in if open), or if short on time, out the back for a walk around the Cathedral Lawn and, if no wedding, a must stop in Heinz Chapel to see the stained glass.
From Heinz Chapel, with her going into the biosciences, cross 5th Ave over to poke into Clapp Hall, the main home of the biology department. (Note Bellefield Hall also has a really cool auditorium to show if there is extra time for a detour out the back of Heinz Chapel.) Clapp-Langley-Crawford complex is likely where she'll have a bunch of labs or classes, as both the Dept of Biology and the Dept of Neuroscience are in those buidings. Be sure to point over to the Music Buildling as the place where Mr. Rodgers originally filmed.
Cross out of Clapp and up 5th to Alumni Hall and duck in there. Conley Ballroom is look at, and I believe still has all the portraits of former chancellors around the top balcony. Alumni Hall also has the main offices of admissions, and might be a good place to ask questions if it is staffed. But Alumni Hall is also a good place to point out for studying at the desks in the upper floors.
Then you can walk up 5th to University Place and up to O'Hara St and point out a whole bunch of stuff...Nordenburg Hall, Chevron, physics, engineering...also the O'Hara Street student center which acts like a annex to the Union (and also has some cool woodwork and ballrooms). Note as you go up University Place, the
University Club rooftop terrace (and college room) is now open to the public/alumni. You could go up there and grab a snack/drink on the terrace; the view from the rooftop terrace is absolutely Pittacular.
Anyway, up O'Hara, you can also point out the new Student Rec center that will be finished this year, UPMC and note all the bioscience labs and lab buildings which she can find experiences and lab work opportunities in, the Pete and its student accessible food court (can take the escalator up the hill if desired to show anything up there like those residence halls).
That is sort of the whirlwind. If she is planning in the biosciences, emphasize all the opportunities and buildings devoted to it; she absolutely picked one of the best places in the country to do anything in the biosciences.
At that point, it may be time to eat...I usual take Pittsburgh newbies to Primati's because that is just what every visitor needs to try at least once. Sadly, Dave & Andy's was a typical stop. Usually I sometimes finish off my day of tours with an hour of highlights in the Carnegie Museums...because those are impressive in that they are free to Pitt students. But I try to get a sense of what visitors may be interested in an tailor any tour I'm leading accordingly on the fly.
If you want any details about any of the buildings to pop off interesting (or perhaps not so interesting) historical factoids, I've placed a lot of information on them in their respective Wikipedia articles.
