May 23, 2005

  • Remember the LA cathedral?  How frightfully ugly it is?

    Well, by jingo, San Francisco says anything LA can do, SF can out-do!  And here's the proof . . . introducing the "winning" design for the new cathedral for that diocese:

    Get a load of the interior:

    Is this appalling or what?  What's truly astounding is that this design, submitted by someone at Notre Dame, was rejected in favor of the laundry basket:

    Now, why would anyone think that would be a suitable design for California?  Just because it's reminiscent of the Spanish missions which dot the state?

    California has lost its mind, or at a minimum, any sense of taste it ever possessed. 

Comments (14)

  • Oh goodness. That is a bit much !

  • "The laundry basket" -- LOL, Anne, you've nailed it again!

  • I would love to take credit, but alas, cannot...it was the description in a comment at the Curt Jester, which alerted me to its existance. I surfed to it from Greg's.

    And thus it spreads.

  • You're right...it DOES look like a laundry basket.  However, I confess that I think the inside isn't bad, if lacking in color. Wonder what the acoustics are like?

  • The inside reminds me of a giant hair clip, though most likely it's intended to represent the verticle "ribs" of the ark. Can't imagine what the acoustics will be like! Surely there will have to be speakers placed around, though how they'll be placed unobtrusively beats me.

  • I think they were nostalgic for the Coliseum, in which so many of the saints met their martyrdom.

    And then they applied a giant pliers to it, to make it fit in the allotted space. Nice touch, too, starting with the ruined version of the Coliseum rather than the original, intact one.

  • Oh, Jane!  ROFLOLWTRDMF!

  • You and Valerie, with your acronyms. I request an interpretation.

  • [proudly] Took me a bit but I deciphered it: Rolling On Floor Laughing Out Loud With Tears Rolling Down My Face!

  • On a more serious note, I'm not sure I could defend this, but there's something just "wrong" about the center of worship being, well, in the center, instead of "before" the people.

    I know the tabernacle was in the middle of the camp, but AFAI can tell, within the tabernacle or the temple, you *faced* the altar, not surrounded it. I guess maybe it has something to do with facing the center of worship, and seeing other worshippers in your line of sight. Something about that seems wrong.

  • From a different perspective, ei, one who works with architects in design of buildings, WOW!
    Acoustics won't be a problem, wall panels and other items will handle the sound quality, the cost could be an issue. Question is who is paying for it? It may be the winning design only til the budget comes in, then you could hear "what did the runnerup look like"!

    Javaman

  • Hey, Jake, how nice to "see" you here!

    The complex (there are offices, coffee shop, gift shop, etc. in addition to the actual cathedral) is anticipated to run about $131 million. Thatsa lotsa bucks.

  • Anne's right about the acronym. 

    The reasoning I've heard before for that round style of worship is so that the congregation is all looking at one another, like sitting around a round table together.  It's supposed to make it less audience-like and more family-like.  Personally, I think they should build a traditional cruciform building so it would be more church-like.

  • Yeah, but while corporate worship is a family activity, it is the church family gathered for *worship*, which is different from the family gathered for other things.

    It just "feels" more right to me that the family should be gathered together to face "forward," so that the focus is on coming "before" God, not getting together for a family event and having God show up.

    KWIM? (BTW, since you're advocating cruciform I know you're not advocating the family thing. I'm just thinking out loud about why I don't like the circular thing.)

    Jake -- I don't really think it's a bad looking building, either. It would make a great public arena, or something. I'm hardly a rock-ribbed traditionalist when it comes to architecture -- I think the Sydney Opera House is one of the most beautiful manmade things on earth. It's just not a good design for a church.

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment