Monday, November 21, 2005
SACRAMENTO'S RESTORED CATHEDRAL
will still look Catholic if this report is correct:
"It is one of the most significant historic structures in Sacramento," said Jim Shepherd, the architectural firm's project manager. "It really serves as a spiritual center for downtown Sacramento, so I think it's wonderful that it will be sort of `reinvented' for another generation."
The restoration of the cathedral's classic European architecture bucks the trend for California cathedrals in recent years. The $189 million Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles, completed in 2002,
and a new cathedral under construction in Oakland, were designed using modern architectural styles.
Such an approach was never considered for the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Murphy said. The New York firm was selected in part because of its experience restoring cathedrals, as well as renovations of Grand Central Station and Ellis Island in New York.
"The word `modernization' is anathema to them," Murphy said. "They want to preserve the original intent of the building."
Blogger credit to New Oxford Review.
