Comments on: Extra-Extraordinary

By: Bill Daugherty

Bill Daugherty — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:46:46 +0000

The congregation of 50 wants to tear it down and replace it but is prevented by its status as a historic landmark. They could just walk away and start anew in a storefront. Let the landmark people pick up the maintenance tab.

By: pentamom

pentamom — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:02:54 +0000

Still, Ian, I think there’s a difference between a church that is difficult and expensive to maintain because when it was built, that was the only way to make a church both large and beautiful, and having a building that is a resource-sink when as much beauty could be achieved in other ways with modern methods — and especially when the thing isn’t even beautiful in the first place.

By: Potkas7

Potkas7 — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 11:16:15 +0000

As soon as I saw the picture I thought, ‘I.M. Pei.’ The Washington building is very much in the style of the Christian Science H.Q. building he designed in Boston next to the Prudential Center. Pei’s work can be very good – like the glass pyramid at the Louvre – or abysmal – like the annex building at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Personally, I like the work he’s done for the Christian Scientists. Poured concrete usually makes for brutal-looking buildings reminiscent of the Soviet Union, but Pei adds some artistry to an otherwise austere building material thus taking away the gulag feeling of cold functionality and adding a touch of humanity.

By: M. Landers

M. Landers — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:33:28 +0000

Good heavens. Just the ambiance of the room in which “God is Love” is inscribed makes it appear as though one might as well go ahead and add on “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery,” etc.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:25:13 +0000

We in Britain are used to churches that are “extremely difficult and expensive to maintain”. Some congregations become little more than historical building preservation societies trying to maintain ancient buildings and to modernise them (toilets anyone?). Some years ago I served on the parish council of a church. The required annual maintenance cost of our lovely but ancient building was one hundred times the amount the church gave for missionary work. Clearly priorities had gotten out of kilter and yet a lot of well-meaning Christian folk couldn’t see that they had other more important work to do.