OAKLAND, Calif. — A maze of wooden planks and glass panes is gradually taking shape among the austere office buildings of downtown Oakland, a structure alternately described as a bee hive, an inverted basket or a nuclear reactor.
Only an inconspicuous sign on a fence offers a clue that it will soon be one of the nation’s most ambitious and expensive religious sites.
When it’s completed in fall of 2008, the $190 million Cathedral of Christ the Light will be the centerpiece of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, which lost its old cathedral to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
More than 1,000 sheets of glass will cloak the Douglas fir skeleton, forming a luminous 12-story dome inspired by the fish shape known as the Vesica Piscis, an ancient symbol of Christianity.
In addition to the 1,300-seat cathedral, the 2-acre site will house offices, bishop’s residence, a conference center and a garden plaza.
The project originated during a nationwide building boom among Catholic dioceses around 2000, said Duncan Stroik, an architecture professor at Notre Dame University who specializes in cathedral design.
However, that trend slowed as dioceses became mired in priest sex abuse settlements that have forced some into bankruptcy.
The Oakland diocese took out a loan to cover half its $56.4 million settlement with 56 sex abuse victims in 2005, but the cathedral is being financed by donations just over $100 million pledged as of June specifically for the project, separate from the money used to settle those cases, officials said.
Bishop Allen Vigneron envisions Christ the Light generating “new energy for us as a church community.”
The cost may seem high until it’s compared with other projects, such as museums or sports stadiums, said Richard Kieckhefer, a Northwestern University religion professor who authored “Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantine to Berkeley.” The De Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park carried the same price tag when it opened in 2005, and a new ballpark for the Athletics in Fremont is projected to cost $500 million.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
