AURORA : Update: The Cathedral of Light, Oakland, CA

Stained Glass in Saint Luke's, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

The glass in this lovely white church on Van Ness deserved its own photoAlbum. The majority of windows are the reknown English firm of Heaton, Butler & Bayne, London, UK. They boast beautiful clerestory windows of angels with outstretched wings and exquisitely detailed painting. The aisle windows boast enamelwork, silverstain, acid etching, and delicate painting sometimes on both sides of the glass, adding a real depth to the glass when viewed up close. There are also some adequate windows by the firm of Wipple Co. of london, but they are not nearly as excellent. Much of the aisle windows are located at eye-level, and are real treats to be studied. The painterly compositions are quite complex with real sensitivity to balance and color range. website: http://www.stlukessf.org/main.htm

The Swedenborgian Church, San Francisco, CA

The Church opened its doors for worship March 17, 1895, and was designed by a distinguished group of architects including the celebrated Bernard Maybeck. Its founding pastor, Rev. Joseph Worcester, was longtime friend of John Muir. Rev. Worcester purchased the land on which the Church and its grounds are located. A Statement of Significance reads: "The Swedenborgian Church ecclesiastical complex is an ensemble of buildings that is exceptionally valuable to our understanding of the development of a style of architecture we now call the First Bay Tradition, the harbinger of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the western United States. Natural materials, domestic scale and appearance, traditional and earthy structural forms, and site-specific designs define the First Bay Tradition. The visionary Swedenborgian minister Joseph Worcester brought together leading architects of the First Bay Tradition, A. Page Brown, A.C. Schweinfurth, and Bernard Maybeck, as well as the contemporary painter William Keith, stained-glass artist Bruce Porter, artist Mary Curtis Richardson and other designers and craftsmen to create an integrated complex of buildings. ... Like the closely-allied Arts and Crafts Movement, the First Bay Tradition developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and stressed a comprehensive design approach: from architecture to interior furnishings, from fixtures to artwork. The church is one of the earliest, most influential and best surviving examples of this important national and regional building tradition." The following is an excerpt of the National Landmarking Committee's commentary supporting its decision to grant Landmark status: The Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco is "…a critically important example of the American contribution to the Arts and Crafts Movement as exemplified in new architectural imagery, integration with the site, garden design, and use of natural materials. The interior shows the employment of the decorative arts to create a special atmosphere, and also the first examples of the 'mission chairs.' ... The Church is important as an example of the Swedenborgian contribution to American religious, social theory and intellectual life."

Update: The Cathedral of Light, Oakland, CA

Well, work is progressing on the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oakland's new Cathedral of Light. I recently visited it to see for myself. The glass shell appears finished, and the interior is being worked on now. There is a wooden interior structure that appears to have venting to allow tghe flow of air and light. this appears to be in progress, as there is a large scaffold in place throughout much of its soaring interior.

The glass exterior fabric, a sort of curved curtain wall is made of very large sheets, held in place by a metal support structure. The glass also appears to be etched or sandblasted to a an even degree with some sort of hard edged linear abstract design, reminiscent of old computer punchcards with some sort of elongated modernist geometric design. I had to use a zoom to take the pics below, as access is restricted by security fencing for non-workers.

It is shaping up to be a beautiful abstract building... The fact that the floorplan is based on the Vesica Pisces, the fish design made by the meeting of two circles and frequently used as a symbol of Christ, "the fisher of men' makes the building liturgically relevent. This seems to be a quantum leap from architects of the last generation who designed large sacred space more in the line of modernist sculpture than something connected to the actual ritual of the spiritual group using the space. Just witness the imposing, dystopic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, in Los Angeles for example. Although this building is quite sculptural, I do have the feeling that if it were not for its elegant curving shape, it would be mistaken for a corporate style office, at least from the outside.

I dont predict any real historic type of artglass being installed here, as it might detract from the architects vision and its heavy use of frosted plate glass, but anything's posssible. I shall report back on this building as it nears completion sometime in 2008.