‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill

‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by cesar rubio)

a few weeks a go we assembled a list of the best buildings of 2008 as selected by architecture critic
paul goldberger. while designboom had featured almost all the buildings on his list, ‘the cathedral of
christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill was one of the ones we didn’t. however, SOM was
kind enough to send us some images of the building that is located in oakland, california. the project
was designed by craig w. hartman as a replacemnt for the cathedral of saint francis de sales,
which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1989. the cathedral overlooks lake merritt and has
1,350 seats. inside there is also a mausoleum, conference centre, offices, residences, a book store
and a cafe. outside, a landscaped plaza links the building with downtown oakland. rather than
traditional iconography, the cathedral’s design focuses on the experience of light and space. the base
of the building is concrete while wood ribs rise above featuring a glass enclosure and wooden louvers.
the cathedral is also designed to withstand a 1,00 year earthquake, making sure it will stand the test
of time.

http://www.som.com/content.cfm/cathedral_of_christ_the_light

related

the year in architecture


‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by timothy hursley)


‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by cesar rubio)


‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by timothy hursley)


‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by cesar rubio)


‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by cesar rubio)


‘the cathedral of christ the light’ by skidmore, owings and merrill
(photo by timothy hursley)