Comments on On An Overgrown Path: I would destroy all these high-tech buildings

PLIABLE mentions Liverpool and Guildford Anglican ...

2007-10-10T23:42:00.000+01:00

PLIABLE mentions Liverpool and Guildford Anglican cathedrals in England. Liverpool is in a Neo-Gothic design, Guildford a kind of modern/gothic (I call it cartoon gothic; the basic forms are there, with none of the detail).

Coventry Cathedral, consecrated in 1962 was the first in England (possibly Europe?) in a truly modern style. Basil (later Sir Basil) Spence, Architect, designed a 'plain casket in which jewels and treasures can be placed' (paraphrase). Boasting what I believe is still the largest tapestry in the world (designed by artist Graham Sutherland; some of his many cartoons are often exhibited), and glass work by John Hutton, John Piper and others.

Liverpool Catholic Cathedral, designed by Frederick Gibberd, consecrated 1967, is also modern, suffering now from false economies made in the concrete when it was built. It is also a dramatic modern circular design, facetiously nicknamed by locals 'Paddy's Wigwam'!

Guthry, well spotted - my error now corrected.You ...

2006-12-07T20:56:00.000Z

Guthry, well spotted - my error now corrected.

You are also right, the quote comes from a 1999 interview with Botta in WeltWoche, the German language Swiss weekly.

It was in response to the turn of the millennium question - what would he leave behind on the garbage dump of history?

A small point perhaps but I believe Botta is Swiss...

2006-12-07T17:04:00.000Z

A small point perhaps but I believe Botta is Swiss, not Italian.

I'm not sure where you came across this quotation but I don't think it’s new: I remember his remarks causing some uproar several years ago.

It's also interesting that the French - not known for shying away from the architectural avant-garde - have steadfastly refused to allow towering modernist commercial buildings to sully the purity of the Parisian skyline (with the rather obvious exception of the Tour Montparnasse). All other examples of wanton extravagance have been ostracised at La Défense, the business district situated, like a medieval cemetery, firmly outside city limits. And I can think of no better reflection of “what we have made out of our society” than Les Halles – the hideous 70s development on the site of the former fruit & veg market at the centre of the city, which happily, Paris is now planning to tear down and redevelop.

Briefly, pliable, Spanish architect José Rafael Mo...

2006-12-07T14:59:00.000Z

Briefly, pliable, Spanish architect José Rafael Moneo's Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which opened in 2002 in Los Angeles, is another fine example of a contemporary cathedral [click under architecture on home page]:

http://www.olacathedral.org/index.html

And Bernard Maybeck's smaller First Church of Christ Scientist, in Berkeley, is an excellent example of an early 20th c. visionary American church:

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/First_Church_of_Christ.html

Thank you for your extraordinary essay above.

The Wikipedia entry for Evry is wrong when it says...

2006-12-06T22:20:00.000Z

The Wikipedia entry for Evry is wrong when it says - Cathedral of the Resurrection (only cathedral to be built in Europe during the 20th century).

The new Anglian cathedrals at Liverpool (1924) and Guildford (1961) immediately spring to mind. Also the Catholic Cathedral at Westminster was consecrated in 1910, although building started in 1895 - and an interesting sidepath there; Westminster Cathedral actually opened in 1905, but a cathedral cannot be consecrated if it is in debt, and it took another five years to get the largest Roman Catholic church in England and Wales into the black.