Extispicy: Saints Be Praised

November 01, 2004

Saints Be Praised

I found this link to a section on Lileks' site on Postwar Church Architecture via a link on Bifurcated Rivets

As there are only a couple examples in this section, I'm hoping it is one that he'll add to, as I enjoyed the ones he displayed with his wry commentary. From his intro page to this section: "Post-war churches faced a dilemma: how to look like a house of worship while looking modern? ....There was no good reason churches had to cast off a thousand years of tradition and start dressing up like bank branches, but that's exactly what they did."

If he expands this section, I hope he might consider including this pinnacle of bemusing modern church archicture: San Francisco's Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. Built in 1971, this cathedral was designed by the Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi.

This particular one does not resemble a bank, but you might notice the top of this ultra-modern cathedral rather resembles the agitator piece from the inside of a washing machine. Thus, why the cathedral quickly earned such nicknames as "The Washing Machine Church" and "Our Lady of Maytag."

_________

Incidentally, Fritz Maytag, great-grandson of the founder of Maytag Appliances, happens to be a San Francisco "saint" of sorts. A saint of beer, if you will. In the late 1960s, he bought the historic Anchor Steam Brewery and rescued this steam brewery from going out of business.

No real connection here between the two, except in my heathen mind where I apparently have some mismatched socks in my mental laundry just agitating and brewing here on this particular all saints' day.

Posted by m bat on November 1, 2004 01:23 AM | TrackBack
categories: san francisco

Comments

This is a good image of that church. When I first saw it, I wondered if Godzilla would stop in confusion and twist the roof to see what the dial did...

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