Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption

I firmly believe that one should visit the cathedral whenever one is in a city that has one, since it likely represents the locals' historical ideas of what is beautiful. San Francisco, being the diverse city that it is, has three cathedrals and a large number of important non-Christian temples. There's the Episcopal Grace cathedral, the Russian Orthodox Holy Virgin Joy of All Who Sorrow cathedral, and the Catholic St. Mary's of the Assumption cathedral. Each is beautiful and all three are completely unlike each other. St. Mary of the Assumption was built in 1971 to replace the cathedral of St. Mary of Immaculate Conception in Chinatown. Its most noticeable feature is the saddle roof composed of hyperbolic paraboloids. The project was first undertaken by local architects John Michael Lee, Paul A. Ryan, and Angus McSweeney, but the Archbishop, Joseph T. McGucken, considered their original design insufficiently daring and engaged internationally known architect Pietro Belluschi as a consultant. Belluschi, in turn, being nervous of building a great cathedral in an earthquake-prone city, turned for help to Pier Luigi Nervi, a master of reinforced concrete design. Architectural Digest magazine namedSt. Mary of the Assumption one of the 10 most beautiful churches in America in 2017. It is magnificent, but to truly appreciate it you must see it from the inside, where, as Herb Caen wrote, "there is breathtaking space, soaring to the heavens." As appropriate for a Christian church you will find the cross everywhere - the soaring ceiling forms a cross over your head, and is held up by four massive pylons. Four stained-glass windows representing Earth, Fire, Water, and Air reach up to form a cross. The unobstructed view of the altar and the clear ground-level windows represent the idea of modern Catholicism as a living faith in the world, while the tent-like form of the ceiling harkens back to the God of Israelites pitching his tent with his people. The startling shape expresses the spirit of the Second Vatican Council that aimed to modernize the Catholic church and make it more accessible to common people. The church is full of beautiful artwork - note especially the bronze doors and the two-ton bronze sculptures of scenes from Mary's life. Those are suspended by rods, giving them a light and floating effect. As you exit, look for light streaming through the overpanel of the doors to display an illusory chalice. It is strange to remember now, but during the construction St. Mary's was the subject of much controversy. Objections and protests came from people who thought it was not traditional and "cathedral-y" enough, people who thought it was too "cathedral-y" and grandiose and wanted the money spent on the poor, people who disliked modernist architecture, people who liked modernist architecture and noted similarities to Kenzo Tange's St. Mary's in Tokyo, and people who just disliked the Catholic church in general. Passing decades have smoothed down the controversy, and you can now enjoy this cathedral as a thing of pure beauty.