How come the LA Cathedral costs so much?

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PazzoGrande

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I was reading about the LA Cathedral and I was surprised by how high the cost was. I looked at photos of the things inside and I don’t understand how they cost as much as they did.

For example, the altar cost $5 million, but it doesn’t look very ornate. The Cathedra supposedly cost $1 million to build. Yet just by the looks of it, it doesn’t look as if it should cost anywhere near that. It looks like it would be a surprise if it even cost $15,000. The cantor’s stand was $100,000, but I’ve seen podiums in my university that look far nicer than that, and they don’t even cost 1% of that. I really don’t get it.

It looks as if they were aiming for a sort of simplicity in the design, but aren’t simple designs usually cheaper? I can understand the building needing to cost much because it would need to last for a really long time and they’d want it to withstand earthquakes, but I don’t understand why the furnishings were this costly,

I know that church furnishings tend to cost more, but that’s when the furnishings end up being very ornate and richly designed.

I don’t mean for this to be a critique of the building or the rationale for the expenditure. I’m just curious about what exactly made these things so costly. Even if they had expert craftsmen build it with very special materials, I don’t comprehend why it would cost this much for furnishings that look that simple.
 
PazzoGrande said:
I was reading about the LA Cathedral and I was surprised by how high the cost was. I looked at photos of the things inside and I don’t understand how they cost as much as they did.
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My guess is that they cost as much as they did because they were individually commissioned.

Regardless of what you think of the artistic worth of the finished products, the money went to the materials, labor, tools, and living expenses of the artists who made those items.
 
While I am not a fan of the style of that cathedral, I know that one of the main concerns was making the building resistant to many of the effects of earthquakes. I would imagine that concern would be a significant reason why the cost was so high.
 
Is it the Crystal Cathedral that used to be the Protestant church?
 
KP3243 said:
Is it the Crystal Cathedral that used to be the Protestant church?
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The LA Cathedral, and the Crystal Cathedral are two different structures.

The Crystal Cathedral was recently purchased by the Diocese of Orange, from Shuler ministries. It requires alot of work to be done before it can be used as a Catholic Cathedral.
 
My guess is a lot of it comes down to the fact its in LA and what the local market conditions are. I would assume that if the same altar were commissioned in a rural Oklahoma parish that it would not be nearly as expensive. The local economic conditions just wouldn’t bear those high costs. I know our Crucifix was quoted at 50 or 60k, but a local parishioner who is an artist basically created it and then donated it as an offering to the parish. The same piece in LA might have been 100k+.
 
Well they can’t exactly import a sweatshop cathedral from China.
 
KP3243 said:
They probably have to hire union workers in LA
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For the building, yes, but I think when it comes down to the furnishings, I’m guessing they use individual artisans, who I don’t think are union workers. (Not like I really know, that’s just a guess)
 
For example, the altar cost $5 million, but it doesn’t look very ornate. The Cathedra supposedly cost $1 million to build. Yet just by the looks of it, it doesn’t look as if it should cost anywhere near that. It looks like it would be a surprise if it even cost $15,000.
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Ornate or not, its a solid bloc of marble…probably hewn and shipped from over the ocean.
 
Are you talking about the actual cost of the items, or what people donated for them?

Sometimes they figure out the total cost and then you contribute to that by “donating” an item. It might be $500 to donate a chair or $5,000 to donate a prie dieu. The chair didn’t actually cost $500, but you get the credit for donating it and contribute to the total cost of the building.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Are you talking about the actual cost of the items, or what people donated for them?
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No those amounts I put were how much they budgeted to have them constructed.

Taken from here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Angels

The prices for some cathedral furnishings have also caused consternation. $5 million was budgeted for the altar, the main bronze doors cost $3 million, $2 million was budgeted for the wooden ambo (lectern) and $1 million for the tabernacle. $1 million was budgeted for the cathedra (bishop’s chair), $250,000 for the presider’s chair, $250,000 for each deacon’s chair, and $150,000 for each visiting bishops’ chair, while pews cost an average of $50,000 each. The cantor’s stand cost $100,000 while each bronze chandelier/speaker cost $150,000.
 
PazzoGrande said:
No those amounts I put were how much they budgeted to have them constructed.

Taken from here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Angels

The prices for some cathedral furnishings have also caused consternation. $5 million was budgeted for the altar, the main bronze doors cost $3 million, $2 million was budgeted for the wooden ambo (lectern) and $1 million for the tabernacle. $1 million was budgeted for the cathedra (bishop’s chair), $250,000 for the presider’s chair, $250,000 for each deacon’s chair, and $150,000 for each visiting bishops’ chair, while pews cost an average of $50,000 each. The cantor’s stand cost $100,000 while each bronze chandelier/speaker cost $150,000.
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That’s ridiculous; and to think that so much money was put into such an architectural monstrosity as that cathedral.
 
PazzoGrande said:
I was reading about the LA Cathedral and I was surprised by how high the cost was. I looked at photos of the things inside and I don’t understand how they cost as much as they did.

For example, the altar cost $5 million, but it doesn’t look very ornate. The Cathedra supposedly cost $1 million to build. Yet just by the looks of it, it doesn’t look as if it should cost anywhere near that. It looks like it would be a surprise if it even cost $15,000. The cantor’s stand was $100,000, but I’ve seen podiums in my university that look far nicer than that, and they don’t even cost 1% of that. I really don’t get it.

It looks as if they were aiming for a sort of simplicity in the design, but aren’t simple designs usually cheaper? I can understand the building needing to cost much because it would need to last for a really long time and they’d want it to withstand earthquakes, but I don’t understand why the furnishings were this costly,

I know that church furnishings tend to cost more, but that’s when the furnishings end up being very ornate and richly designed.

I don’t mean for this to be a critique of the building or the rationale for the expenditure. I’m just curious about what exactly made these things so costly. Even if they had expert craftsmen build it with very special materials, I don’t comprehend why it would cost this much for furnishings that look that simple.
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The individual furnishings did not cost that much. That was how much each donor gave in recognition for each piece. The balance of the money donated for each item went to building the structure and paying for the property.

If you wanted to be known as the person who “paid” for the altar (and it’s well documented on engraved glass between the cathedral and Highway 101), you had to pony-up. The names of the people and institutions that paid for Our Lady of the Angels is truly remarkable.

That altar may not be very “ornate” but it is monumental. It’s a giant slab of laguna rossa marble. It’s something like 10’x15’x2’ thick. It was quarried in Turkey and machined in Carrera, Italy. It’s so big and heavy that it had to be in place before the roof of the cathedral was built. While it lacks the bric-a-brac of other altars, I’m sure it cost even more. It’s quite nice up close.

FWIW, a huge amount of money went into that structure to make it earthquake resistant.
 
PazzoGrande said:
No those amounts I put were how much they budgeted to have them constructed.

Taken from here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Angels

The prices for some cathedral furnishings have also caused consternation. $5 million was budgeted for the altar, the main bronze doors cost $3 million, $2 million was budgeted for the wooden ambo (lectern) and $1 million for the tabernacle. $1 million was budgeted for the cathedra (bishop’s chair), $250,000 for the presider’s chair, $250,000 for each deacon’s chair, and $150,000 for each visiting bishops’ chair, while pews cost an average of $50,000 each. The cantor’s stand cost $100,000 while each bronze chandelier/speaker cost $150,000.
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That’s not what the furnishings cost. I wrote that wiki. That’s out of Msgr. Francis Weber’s book The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. It’s what people paid.
 
NickD said:
That’s ridiculous; and to think that so much money was put into such an architectural monstrosity as that cathedral.
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This.

That cathedral is hideous. It looks like a museum of modern art, not a sacred place to worship God.
 
zz912 said:
This.

That cathedral is hideous. It looks like a museum of modern art, not a sacred place to worship God.
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Care to share your thoughts on the Crystal Cathedral that is going to be taken up by the Diocese of Orange? 😛
 
zz912 said:
This.

That cathedral is hideous. It looks like a museum of modern art, not a sacred place to worship God.
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I suspect you have never attended a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

While I lament what it might have been, while I am bothered by what it cost and while I truly dislike its strong association with Roger Mahony, it’s hardly a “hideous” structure. Far from it.

I don’t believe that anyone who has actually attended Mass there – especially a special Mass like the Easter Vigil Mass would make such a comment.

It’s sad to see people judging a cathedral based on photos and possibly a bit of video.
 
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