In the comments to the previous post, Richard A linked to this, this, thing, playfully nicknamed Our Lady of Minas Morgul, and I had to share:
I’m somehow not surprised that this is a real Catholic church building, St. Francis de Sales (who is doing 1,000 RPMs in his grave at the moment) in
Muskegon, Michigan. I was surprised, although I should not have been, that googling this structure yielded many articles *praising* this building. A fine example of Bauhaus, Modernism, Brutalism – you know, just what the typical Catholic in the pews wants in his church building.
While a comment at the above link mentions the obvious goal is evangelization of the orcs, I had to surf around a little to find some pithy, real world reactions, such as these from reddit:
- “It looks like the Borg assimilated a group of Lutherans.” (I laughed)
- “This looks like where you fight a final boss”
- “This could literally be a building in 1984”
- “Looks like exactly the type of place you would serve the flesh and blood of someone to others.” (ouch!)
Going back a few posts to those discussing the heresy of Americanism. In 1899, Archbishop Gibbons answered the Pope Leo XIII’s concerns about Americanism with firm assurances that nothing of the sort was going on; by 1964, a parish in Michigan is hiring a famous Modernist architect to design its church. (Aside: where does a parish get the money to hire a famous German Bauhaus architect? And the money to build the monstrosity?)
I’m sure there’s no connection.
Here’s a slightly more flattering picture of the interior:
And a quotation from William Torrey Harris: “The great purpose of school can be realized better in dark, airless, ugly places…. It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world. ” The purpose of school is, according to Harris, making obedient automata out of the students. So, what is the purpose here, in an environment so suited to Harris’s ideal?
As for praise, no less an oracle than Concrete Construction Magazine assures us that this building “fully demonstrates the architectural potential of cast-in-place concrete construction.” Who could doubt it?
So, any of youse guys got anything ‘better’ than this?
Yard Sale of the Mind 
Something to cheer you up – Our Lady of Guadalupe in Doylestown, PA. A more modern design but beautoful. I loved how it looked so much I stopped for a photo with it.
https://bit.ly/2MCNN2j
Here is the interior: https://bit.ly/2G9a8TM
Glorious. IMO, at least.
Very nice!
There’s a resemblance to a competitive diving facility too with the big platform over the altar and the prominent stairs (stairs to what?)
Looks like there’s a red candle up there– tabernacle?
Home Handyman magazine several years ago devoted an issue to concrete, and the editor’s introduction to it mentioned how the dome of the Pantheon in Rome was made of poured-in-place concrete, which was even gradually less dense toward the top center. Of course, we now know that ancient Roman concrete was harder and more durable than our modern standard, Portland cement. Maybe Concrete Construction Magazine should abandon modernist Germans and look to ancient Romans for architectural ideas.