Modern Architecture & Sacred Space

[Gauracandra]

Here is the official website of the Cathedral of Light (the first church I posted starting this thread):

http://www.oakdiocese.org/cathedral/cathedral.htm

Its a very interesting design. I have also heard of a major cathedral the Catholic Church is also building in Los Angeles. I looked up some pictures of it, and must say I was totally underwhelmed. It is supposed to cost like $150-200 million (as I recall) and many people were wondering if this money was really worth it. The pictures I saw were totally uninspiring, just giant square blocks. I must say I much prefer this Cathedral of Light.

Gauracandra

[Gauracandra]

Here are two articles I found on this Cathedral of Christ the Light:

Architect Calatrava awarded second major U.S. project Designer of Art Museum addition lands Oakland cathedral commission By KAREN HERZOG of the Journal Sentinel staff Last Updated: Nov. 19, 2000 Architect Santiago Calatrava has won his second major American commission - a modernistic glass and steel cathedral in Oakland, Calif., to replace a cathedral lost in the 1989 earthquake. In a touch similar to the architect's design for the $75 million Milwaukee Art Museum addition - Calatrava's first American building project - the cathedral's design resembles a pair of hands. "The hands can be brought together in prayer or they can be opened to the sky," explained Calatrava, who designed bird-like wings similarly intended to open and close over the art museum addition. The project on Milwaukee's lakefront is expected to be finished next summer. A cathedral, like a museum, is among the most prestigious of architectural commissions. While Calatrava is well known in Europe for his bridges, train stations and airports, the architect, who was born in Spain and lives in Switzerland, is just getting a foothold in the United States. "I know of architects who have come to the United States for first commissions and not gotten second commissions," said New Yorker architectural critic Paul Goldberger. It speaks well of Calatrava that "people are lining up" to give him other American commissions before the Milwaukee project is even completed, Goldberger said, noting the most important commission for any architect is the first commission. Calatrava was hired by the Milwaukee Art Museum six years ago. "If people didn't feel Milwaukee was looking good, they wouldn't want to take a chance on something like this," Goldberger said of the cathedral. Whether the cathedral's "hands" actually open to the sky or remain permanently folded in prayer over Christ the Light Cathedral will hinge on the cost of such an engineering feat, said Brother Mel Anderson, director of special projects for the 600,000-member Oakland Diocese that hired Calatrava. "He'd like to do the hands opening, but I'm not sure that will happen," Anderson said, noting the project will be privately funded, without any diocesan funds. A financial consulting firm hired to determine the feasibility of fund raising in the community did come back with an optimistic report, Anderson added. "It's a matter of corralling him in," he said of Calatrava. "You always have to do that with an architect's vision." Members of the committee that hired Calatrava visited the Milwaukee Art Museum in February and are well aware of that project's delays and spiraling cost as its design and scope have evolved well into construction, Anderson said. Calatrava's design style tends to be fluid. There is no budget estimate or final site for the cathedral yet, but Anderson said he hoped it would be completed in two to three years. Earthquake challenge Among Calatrava's greatest challenges may be designing a delicate cathedral strong enough to withstand an earthquake. The St. Francis de Sales cathedral that the new structure is to replace was an unreinforced red brick building, built in the 1890s and demolished after it was heavily damaged in the 1989 quake. "Santiago Calatrava, being an engineer as well as an architect, is well aware this is seismic country," Anderson said. Christ the Light Cathedral is Calatrava's first cathedral commission. His design for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City was put on hold because some critics considered it too daring. Calatrava's model for the Oakland cathedral was enthusiastically received by the committee that hired him. The architect describes the cathedral design as "a vertical link between earth and sky, to go with the horizontal movement of people coming in and out." "He has a vision - a spectacular sense of space," Anderson said. "And what he proposes looks like modern Gothic." Calatrava has projects in various stages of design and construction around the world. He has been courted for several additional projects in Milwaukee, including a footbridge over the Milwaukee River, a building on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering and a high-rise condominium proposed by an art museum benefactor. Last week, two of his highest-profile European projects opened to the public: the Science Museum and sculpture park at the City of Arts and Sciences complex in Valencia, and the Sondica Airport in Bilbao, both in Spain. A third Calatrava-designed structure is to be dedicated today - a bridge spanning the Loire River in Orleans, France. Calatrava also is designing five bridges to span the Trinity River in Dallas, which are to be privately funded. And he is a candidate for projects in Atlanta and South Carolina.

[Gauracandra]

Oakland Cathedral Needs Site to Behold Design bold, but Catholics still seeking location Soaring arches of light will inspire worshipers entering Oakland's Roman Catholic cathedral of the future, but church leaders remain in the dark about where they will build the East Bay's new signature sanctuary. The Diocese of Oakland has chosen renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to design the new Cathedral of Christ the Light. Calatrava's initial model for the project reveals a bold, curvaceous creation. It will look absolutely nothing like the old no-nonsense church it is to replace. St. Francis de Sales Cathedral was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and torn down four years later, leaving the Diocese of Oakland with no regional house of worship. Early this year, the diocese was outbid on a choice parcel of land it hoped to buy for the cathedral at the northern tip of Lake Merritt. Church leaders now say the most likely site for Calatrava's cathedral is on 21st Street and San Pablo Avenue, where the old St. Francis de Sales stood. But planners have not given up on a waterfront setting and are looking at another piece of land at the other end of the lake, near the Kaiser Convention Center. "We're still open to any suitable site," said Brother Mel Anderson, who is overseeing the cathedral project for Bishop John Cummins. "It's hard to get land. Oakland is booming." Calatrava, who now lives in Zurich, is known for his soaring, skeletal structures built of glass and steel and filled with light. His first project in the United States, an expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum, is scheduled to open next summer. The model of his Oakland design, on display at Our Lady of Lourdes parish on Lake Merritt, bears a resemblance in some minds to the open-mouthed shark attack from the "Jaws" movie poster. Calatrava says the cathedral is meant to suggest a less terrifying image -- a pair of hands. "The hands can be brought together in prayer, or they can be opened to the sky," he said. "The building is not a closed thing. It's a vertical link between heaven and earth." Rising more than 100 feet at its peak, the elliptical building would be constructed of steel beams interspersed with panes of opaque or stained glass. It would seat 1,800 worshipers and cover 34,000 square feet. Anderson said the design and the name "Christ the Light Cathedral" are inspired by the sweeping liberal church reforms of the Second Vatican Council, specifically the Vatican II document, Lumen Gentium, or "Light of Nations." Vatican II redefined the Roman Catholic Church as "the people of God" and increased the role of the laity. "There's a fan shape around the altar so the congregation can see each other and actively participate in the liturgy," Anderson said. Allan Temko, the author of "Notre Dame of Paris," a book recounting the construction history of that French Gothic masterpiece, said the bold modern arches of Calatrava's design evoke distant memories of interior Gothic space. "His architecture is poetry," said Temko, the retired, Pulitzer Prize- winning architecture critic for The Chronicle. "It's complex and powerful, but not forced." Temko, who serves as a consultant for the Oakland project, hopes the diocese can still secure a lakeside location. But he notes that the seedy neighborhood around the old cathedral is rapidly changing as new residential housing is built in downtown Oakland. There are plans to relocate the old Greyhound bus station, and the site's proximity to Interstate 980 in downtown Oakland could make the cathedral an instant East Bay landmark. "You'd see this astounding thing as you drive by on the freeway," Temko said. Calatrava's most celebrated architectural and engineering works are in Europe -- Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Spain; the City of Arts of Sciences museum in Valencia, Spain; the Sondica Airport in Bilbao, Spain; and a new bridge over the Loire River in Orleans, France. Anderson said the diocese, which includes nearly 500,000 Catholics across Alameda and Contra Costa counties, does not have a firm cost estimate for the project, which includes a rectory, conference center and diocesan offices. In February, church officials said the entire project might cost $75 million. Cummins says the money can be raised to build the cathedral without taking money away from existing church programs. Planners estimate that construction could begin in about 18 months and take 12 to 18 months to complete.

[Gauracandra]

I got those articles from this website:

http://pub20.ezboard.com/fglobalarchitectureforumsmodernbuildings.showMessa ge?topicID=101.topic

Check it out if you want to see some really beautiful pictures of a model of this cathedral. The more I look at it the more I like it. But the cost of $75 million is extraordinary. But since there are 1 Billion catholics in the world, I guess it really only comes to like 7.5 cents per Catholic, and over a period of several hundred years the structure will be around, it might just be darn cheap.

Gauracandra

[Gauracandra]

His design for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City was put on hold because some critics considered it too daring.

This is an understatement ("too daring"). I'll see if I can post a picture of his design for this other cathedral. It scared the hell out of me - but maybe thats what churches are for. It was way weird. The building looked very sinewey, like it was alive with muscles. It was just strange beyond words.

Gauracandra

[atma]

I like the concept of the hands in prayer. Why the church is not giving the money for the Cathedral? If they don't have a place of worship why can't they help with the building?
I looked at some of the brigdes that Calatrava built and some of them are interestings.
Which one was the New York project? The one the looks like a pigeon flying?

[Gauracandra]

Here is a pictures of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine that was under consideration.




Are ya scared yet?

Gauracandra

[stonehearted]

Originally posted by Gauracandra: Here is a pictures of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine that was under consideration.Are ya scared yet?

Yeah, just a little. It looks like something done by aliens who had conquered the planet might so to co-opt Earth's cultural institutions.

Jeez, Louise! There must be some way to incorporate 21st-century ideas that actually works with that old Gothic building.

Having grown up in the Washington, D.C. area, I always liked the National Cathedral. I actually sang there a few times when I was in high school. Amazing acoustics, as I remember.

[Gauracandra]

Your alien comment hits the mark on the head. It looks like some sort of bio-mech H.R. Giger design.

I know the story already. An intergalactic alien race is shooting eggs into outer space hoping to colonize the universe. One such egg comes soaring through the atmosphere above New York City. Then...

BWAMMMMM!!!!

It smacks right into a gothic cathedral. Within a hours the pod starts to grow and overtake the structure.

It really does look out of place. For the most part it looks pretty traditional. Then all of a sudden this growth is just covering it. Its not the best look for sure.

Gauracandra

[atma]

To me reminds me of a skeleton of a dinosaur with a cannon in the middle.

[Gauracandra]

In case anyone wants to see the Los Angeles cathedral the Catholic church is building, here is the website:

http://cathedral.la-archdiocese.org/

I don't think much of it. But figured some might like to check it out.

Gauracandra

[Gauracandra]

Here is another interesting Cathedral I came across:

Exterior


Interior


I don't care all that much for the exterior, but from what I see I like the inside look. Stained glass really has an interesting effect. Perhaps its purely psychological, in that I associate stained glass with religion, but I really like the feel of buildings with it. I mentioned in the travel section going to a Catholic church, and the whole stained glass setup was very nice.

[Gauracandra]

I saw a small segment on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) about the Catholic Cathedral that is being built in Los Angeles. You can see a link to the church site in a post above. Anyways, they showed some interior and exterior, and it really to me looks plain, big, and ugly. No offense to Catholics, it is simply lacking in aesthetic appeal.

There was an interview with some Catholic protesters who serve the homeless. They were against the building of the Cathedral (costing somewhere around a quarter of a billion dollars) because there are so many poor. They said the message of Christ was to clothe the naked, feed the poor. It was not to spend the money on the rich. Some of them were even calling this building the TajMahoney (after Cardinal Mahoney). But it was pointed out that Cardinal Mahoney has spent lots of money feeding the poor, and working through Catholic charities and that all of the money comes from private donations.

One thing that really surprised me was a mention of crypts that were being built into the cathedral. I must not have heard it correctly, but it sounded like these places were for sale. And so the protesters were complaining that the rich were trying to buy their way into heaven. I only caught this real quick, so I might be wrong. It just seemed real odd.

While there were some against, it was pointed out that many of the poor immigrant families were among the biggest supporters of this new Cathedral. Many come from strong Catholic countries with large Cathedrals, and so they find it a source of pride and inspiration. Personally, I like the Calatrava design that starts this post a whole lot more than this one.

[Gauracandra]

Yesterday’s Srila Siddhasvarupananda summary made mention of a preacher who built a glass cathedral on the San Andreas fault. I’m pretty sure he was referring to the Reverend Robert Schuller. He is a famous preacher in the U.S. who has a weekly Sunday television program. This reminded me of this modern architecture thread so I figured I’d put up some pictures of this cathedral.

For more info, you can go to www.crystalcathedral.com

[Gauracandra]

I've finally been able to locate some video of the interior of the Mormon Temple up above. I've seen the exterior (which I really like) and have seen a few stills of the interior. Here is the link for video:

http://www.lds.org/media/newsrelease...-416-6,00.html

Medium resolution comes through fairly well. Now having seen the interior I can better understand Stonehearted's comments about "hotel kitsch". Its kind of fascinating but a bit gaudy. But I still have an attraction to it. I like the patterned glass, which really comes through nicely if seen on the high resolution video, and the snowflake ceiling design (I had heard about this, but couldn't picture it in my mind how it would fit architecturally). But overall it is sterile and cold.

[atma]

I was downtown today and I stumbled across the Cathedral the Catholic church is building in Los Angeles. I was VERY disappointed. It officially opens up in about 3 weeks to the public so I only had a chance to view the exterior. I went down and walked around. Because you see the cross you realize it is a church, otherwise it just looks like a big warehouse building. It is blocky, square, brownish. The newspapers have been putting articles for the last few weeks and said they spent $165 million dollars and I'm wondering where all the money went because even though I didn't see the inside the exterior was very plain. I spoke with one of the security guards and in the beginning he said he likes it, but when I prompt him that I didn't like it he said he too likes it better in the old style. He did say that the inside is better. That I will have to see when they open to the public. For me its not that it is modern or anything, it is just plain ugly.