Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption, Cathedral Hill, San Francisco, Ca. USA
This striking building is San Francisco's third church dedicated to St Mary; the first, dating from 1854 remains as 'Old St Mary's Church' on the edge of Chinatown, but this is a direct replacement of the second, built 1891 and destroyed by arson in 1962. That was a time of considerable modernisation in catholicism, which encouraged the commissioning of a bold new design dominated (overwhelmed?) by a concrete saddle roof smoothly curving via hyperbolic paraboloids from a 75 m square cross-section at its base to a Greek cross cross-section at its 58m-high apex (75 m including the rooftop spire's cross, barely visible from this angle – which probably isn't the best from which to appreciate the intersecting curves either, but others have taken those photos; I wanted to highlight the often-overlooked angularity).
I'm not sure precisely who designed the cathedral. It's clear that three local architects (John Michael Lee, Paul A. Ryan and Angus McSweeney) worked with the internationally-renowned Pier Luigi Nervi and Pietro Belluschi – did the latter two, acting as consultants, devise a concept executed by the former three? Nervi and Belluschi were certainly known for monumental concrete structures.
Development of the site began in 1965; the cornerstone was laid in 1967, construction ended in 1970 and the new cathedral was consecrated in May 1971, though formal dedication to Saint Mary of the Assumption didn't take place until 1996, somewhat later than its first papal mass: John Paul II visited in 1987.
Irrespective of its 'official' name, St Mary's Cathedral is also known locally as 'Our Lady of Maytag', for its supposed external resemblance to a top-loading washing machine's agitator. [Maytag is apparently a US brand of washing machines, which hadn't previously entered my European awareness!]
I'm afraid I also haven't been able to identify the artist of the frieze over the entrance, which depicts the Rapture. Any ideas?
That's the Civic Center complex on the left of the background, with the cupola of the City Hall dome visible ~800 m away.
Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption, Cathedral Hill, San Francisco, Ca. USA
This striking building is San Francisco's third church dedicated to St Mary; the first, dating from 1854 remains as 'Old St Mary's Church' on the edge of Chinatown, but this is a direct replacement of the second, built 1891 and destroyed by arson in 1962. That was a time of considerable modernisation in catholicism, which encouraged the commissioning of a bold new design dominated (overwhelmed?) by a concrete saddle roof smoothly curving via hyperbolic paraboloids from a 75 m square cross-section at its base to a Greek cross cross-section at its 58m-high apex (75 m including the rooftop spire's cross, barely visible from this angle – which probably isn't the best from which to appreciate the intersecting curves either, but others have taken those photos; I wanted to highlight the often-overlooked angularity).
I'm not sure precisely who designed the cathedral. It's clear that three local architects (John Michael Lee, Paul A. Ryan and Angus McSweeney) worked with the internationally-renowned Pier Luigi Nervi and Pietro Belluschi – did the latter two, acting as consultants, devise a concept executed by the former three? Nervi and Belluschi were certainly known for monumental concrete structures.
Development of the site began in 1965; the cornerstone was laid in 1967, construction ended in 1970 and the new cathedral was consecrated in May 1971, though formal dedication to Saint Mary of the Assumption didn't take place until 1996, somewhat later than its first papal mass: John Paul II visited in 1987.
Irrespective of its 'official' name, St Mary's Cathedral is also known locally as 'Our Lady of Maytag', for its supposed external resemblance to a top-loading washing machine's agitator. [Maytag is apparently a US brand of washing machines, which hadn't previously entered my European awareness!]
I'm afraid I also haven't been able to identify the artist of the frieze over the entrance, which depicts the Rapture. Any ideas?
That's the Civic Center complex on the left of the background, with the cupola of the City Hall dome visible ~800 m away.