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Ridgerunner
Guest
Too bad they didn’t get a photograph of the Royal Ontario Museum before it collapsed.
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Ridgerunner
Guest
There is no way this is not a set from an Indiana Jones movie.
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trdchubi
Guest
Maybe… its the color, the details that is relative on the setting of the movie’s time line.
Most of the churches we come to know are inspired by the Medieval (Gothic) Architecture and Renaisance Architecture, in the case of my country, Spanish colonial. Its important to note that somehow the Church Character must adopt to the changes of people’s taste and time.
IMHO the church authorities are trying to welcome the next generation to the church. By utilizing architecture, they are catering to the people of the next generations who maybe exposed to such type of architecture in their time.
Ever heard of the “Church teachings are all but a bunch of old stuff” phrase. The Church is trying to bridge that gap,and architecture plays a major role in introducing such cultural changes.
Most of the churches we come to know are inspired by the Medieval (Gothic) Architecture and Renaisance Architecture, in the case of my country, Spanish colonial. Its important to note that somehow the Church Character must adopt to the changes of people’s taste and time.
IMHO the church authorities are trying to welcome the next generation to the church. By utilizing architecture, they are catering to the people of the next generations who maybe exposed to such type of architecture in their time.
Ever heard of the “Church teachings are all but a bunch of old stuff” phrase. The Church is trying to bridge that gap,and architecture plays a major role in introducing such cultural changes.
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benedictgal
Guest
But, the kind of architecture that is most typical of a church has been around for hundreds of years. Even the “basilica” type structure had its basis in the pagan temples of Zeus (Jupiter). Just look at the Pantheon and how the exteriors of Sts. Mary Major and John Lateran resemble it.
That is why St. Peter’s Basilica has lasted 500 years. Haggia Sophia, though no longer used as a church, still inspires awe. In fact, it was the inspiration for the new cathedral-basilica of St. Louis, MO. And both structures are 10 centuries apart.
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trdchubi
Guest
Yes agreed, its really hard to defy the typical character of what we come to know and subconsciously realize as a ‘Normal’ church building.
I would point out that, I appreciate some Modernist Architects’ creativity and their work. It really takes a lot of dedication in the profession in going against the norms of Church designs.
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Cavaille-Coll
Guest
Are you an expert on the subject? Is this thread for licensed architects only? You criticized me earlier for referring to your ugly new cathedral as the Taj Mahoney. It was a “slur,” you said, and have in following posts slurred as uneducated and unenlightened those of us who disagree with your personal conviction that this Kaiser Permanente with a cross on its window is “beautiful.” I’m sure you have seen at least some of the proposed plans for LA’s new cathedral before the present one was decided upon and built. You could have had a masterpiece, as could the people of Tokyo or San Francisco, but instead your diocese went with something that is now already dated before it’s even a decade old. You found fourteen people who like the place, and even though I have not been there, I have many more friends who have attended Masses there, all of whom find it, well, ugly. It is true that the people make the Church, but the saying “lex orandi, lex credendi” is also true. In 1970’s computer terms (in no reference to yourself or anyone in particular), garbage in, garbage out.
And the statue outside? I still say that it looks like a fighter from the Mortal Kombat series. It certainly isn’t very flattering to the Mother of God.
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Lepanto
Guest
To be perfectly honest, the thought of walking into this thing frightens me. It looks like the gaping maw of a whale, and it also brings to mind fears of being buried alive.
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JPUSC
Guest
I think it sort of looks nice, but it looks frightening…like a set on a horror movie or a dark cave.
About the outside, it looks like they were trying to copy St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, but it collapsed during construction, LOL.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/St_Mary’s_Cathedral_-San_Francisco.jpg/300px-St_Mary’s_Cathedral-_San_Francisco.jpg
Nevermind, it looks like the San Francisco Cathedral was constructed a couple of years after the Tokyo one. In either case, I think one was trying to copy the other. The interior and exterior of both look so alike.
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mattkubes
Guest
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks a church should be able to be described with words other than “cold” and “industrial.”
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trdchubi
Guest
This design simply falls in a Deconstruction Style
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1314/804798811_aa1c4a3f85.jpg
same with the style of the Dancing Building in Prague http://z.about.com/d/goeasteurope/1/0/m/1/-/-/DancingBuilding.jpg
However, OLAC exterior stayed away from the steep and outrageous angles that is prime with this architectural style.
OLAC simply falls on Ultra Modern Style that everyone is doing in California.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
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benedictgal
Guest
However, just because “everyone is doing that” it shouldn’t mean that the Church should follow along. These buildings just do not convey any of the glory and majesty of God. And, it’s not like the architects came up with this design themselves. They had help along the way from the one in charge of the project.
My pastor is very taken with OLAC. In fact he had our new church committee look at the video of the making of OLAC. I lent him Spirit of the Liturgy written by Pope Benedict XVI. I am hoping that he reads it and realizes that the Holy Father’s approach is a lot better.
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MrDickerson
Guest
Oh dear! If I were you, I would RUN to the nearest SSPX chapel!!
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trdchubi
Guest
Well I guess the Church committee in charge of the design has the last say on this. Let’s pray for the best, Ad majorem de gloriam.
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Ghoti
Guest
I can’t read the inscription…
It looks like it says “Alexander Can Dine, Is Famished…” or some such…
BTW, they are nice.
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Ghoti
Guest
Not to slur the church, but it looks like it’s made from IKEA file storage boxes…
Actually, I kind of like this one. I like that colour brick/stone, it’s not uber-modern, and has kind of a “foreign” feel, but still traditional. Especially if the conical roof was verdigris instead. I’d enclose the bells with some kind of belfry, and get rid of the 1970’s public-school doors (replace them with something more “churchy”). Just some small detail changes: overall, it appeals to me. But that’s just me.
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Ghoti
Guest
Personally, I think it simply “falls”…EPIC FALL!
There is no organic development from the old ROM to the new…it looks to me like a giant quartz tumour bursting out of the old building. I think the building might very well look nice in a different context, but not there.
"trdchubi:
Does the building actually “dance” (i.e. move/rotate)? It looks to me like it is collapsing like a coke can.
Take away the single cross window, I doubt you’d know it was a church – let alone a Catholic one – from the outside. It looks like a large house or condo, and badly built, not dynamic or anything. It may have looked nice in a picture, in the “artist’s conception”, but in the execution, it looks like the guy with the protractor was crosseyed. The interior pics are visually nice, but it looks more like a modern art gallery than a church or cathedral. And I simply do not “get” the tabernacle.
Side note: I can agree with getting a validated parking ticket, especially if your church lot is being (ab)used by people who are not going to Mass, but working in nearby office buildings or using it as a park-‘n’-ride for local transit. My father has had to park long distances away from the church at one parish he frequents, because the lot is often full of cars of people that live in the area (especially in winter); this is problematic, again especially in winter, due to my father’s poor health.
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Ghoti
Guest
Yes, this is gorgeous.
It doesn’t. But I don’t think it’s all bad, or an eyesore. On its own, it has some things to recommend it – but the grey concrete (or whatever they are) walls are too negative – they look depressing/ominous/cold. I can sort of see what they were aiming for, but I think they kind of missed. I think it could survive a good reno, not necessarily a slash-and-burn razing and replacement with a St Peter’s clone. This design could be made workable.
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Ghoti
Guest
Actually, the first one looks like it should be a footbal hall of fame. The second looks like a Museum of Orange Juicers.
I was going to ask which was which…you can’t really tell from the outside. I only discovered their identities when I looked at the URL of the link. That’s kind of sad.
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mattkubes
Guest
That’s probably true - I can actually see it being covered with some frescos or something along that line and looking nice. But the fact that they went for this cold, hard look really baffles me. Like others have said countless times, church architecture and design should give glory to God, not serve as an experimental playground for infamous architects and “progressive” building committees.
By the way, couldn’t agree more with the comments about the ROM - walking down Bloor will never be the same
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Ridgerunner
Guest
But there is really no reason to expect that future generations will appreciate or identify with what we think is “modern” now.
Fashions change, and what is “avant garde” now, is “old hat” later.
Doubtless that is why builders of churches have tended to stay with time-tested themes until fairly recently.
As I mentioned before, if you look at the houses people build for themselves, they very rarely opt for the idiosyncratic expressions of some contemporary “artist” or other. They stay with traditional themes that resonate with them and have some reasonable prospect of resonating with others, now and in the future.
If all this stuff didn’t cost so much; draining parish or diocesan treasuries and/or indebting them far into the future, it would simply be humorous. But these churchmen are asking people to sacrifice now and in the future for the sake of their own sense of being “progressive”. In my opinion, it is vanity at its worst.
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