| This project provides a sanctuary in the broadest sense of the word. Located in downtown Oakland on the edge of Lake Merritt, this house of worship offers a sense of solace, spiritual renewal, and respite from the secular world. The 1,350-seat sanctuary, with its side chapels, baptistery, health and legal clinics, and dependencies, honors its religious and civic obligations to the client and the city. The region’s 500,000 Catholics now have a central cathedral, something they have been without since the loss of the historic St. Francis de Sales Cathedral to the Loma Prieta earthquake.
The project employs innovative technologies to create lightness and space. A non-linear approach honors the Church’s 2,000-year history without forcing a specific point of view. By stripping away traditional iconography, the design positions symbolic meaning within contemporary culture. The approachable result remains open to the region’s ever-changing multi-cultural makeup and to the future. |
