**COMMENTARY ****Future cathedral ‘symbol of unity’ **DESIGN: A new, more subtle vision by S.F. architect
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Imagine a woven wooden basket that’s 120 feet high, broad at the base and curving gently inward as it rises.
Now imagine that basket wrapped in opaque glass. In daylight the glass is a veil, shrouding what’s within; but at night, light seeps out through the basket and the veil, glowing for all to see.
That’s the ethereal promise of the design for Oakland’s Christ the Light Cathedral, which marked its ceremonial groundbreaking Saturday. For today’s Bay Area, it’s a uniquely adventurous work of architecture – and the only high-profile one that isn’t by a globe-trotting celebrity architect.
The design for the cathedral and its 2 1/2-acre complex alongside Lake Merritt is by Craig Hartman of the San Francisco office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Instead of traditional cathedral architecture, majestic and strong –
evoked so well in the recent Los Angeles cathedral designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo – Hartman offers a vision of warm, delicate layers that hint at the mysteries of things unseen.
For starters, the house of worship that will be the centerpiece of the diocese’s new home is really two structures in one: the wood of the inner cathedral, and the glass wall that surrounds it.
Each of these walls will be rooted in a concrete base that will be 15 feet high and 12 feet wide. The inner walls of wood, formed by horizontal planks of Douglas fir, will soar above the central altar and pews that will seat up to 1,500 worshipers.
The sensation will be one of being surrounded by blinds, not a solid wall – each plank set at an angle, with open space between each one. And the planks will serve the same purpose as blinds, letting in sunlight without the glint of direct rays.
The outer wall of glass will form a shroud to protect the inner cathedral from sun and rain. It also will have a conventional cone-like shape that will be open at the top, with the cavity between glass and wood then sealed by clear glass.
The notion of a glass facade calls to mind such glittery houses of God as the Philip Johnson-designed Crystal Cathedral in Orange County. But Hartman is aiming for something considerably more subtle. The outer wall is imagined as a soft tapestry spun from varying shades of translucent glass.
The inner and outer shapes won’t mimic each other; indeed, the cavity between them will range from 3 to 12 feet. As a result, the relationship of the forms will shift depending on your perspective at any given angle – and on the hour of the day.
At certain moments, the inner cathedral will be a shadowy form. At others, the glass exterior will come alive with the flash of captured sunlight. And when lights gleam inside at night, it’s the veil that will disappear, while the wooden inner walls will shine like an etched lantern.
