This is the LA Cathedral. I’m off to attend my cousin’s wedding. From the I-20 & surrounding streets, this structure doesn’t look impressive at all, but once inside, you get to see & feel the vastness of the complex. Here are some facts & numbers:
- Designed by Spanish Pritzker Prize architect Rafael Moneo.
- Features a series of acute and obtuse angles. There is an absence of right angles.
- Designed with protections from future earthquake structural damage. Every detail of construction was specified to last approximately five hundred years.
- The site of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is 5.6 acres (23,000 m²) bound by Temple Street, Grand Avenue, Hill Street and the Hollywood Freeway.
- The 12-story high building can accommodate 3,000+ worshippers.
- The site includes the cathedral proper, a 2.5 acre (10,000 m²) plaza, several gardens and waterfalls, the Cathedral Center (with the gift shop, the Galero Grill, conference center, and cathedral parish offices), and the cathedral rectory, the residence of Roger Mahony. The entire complex is 58,000 square feet (5,000 m²).
- The main sanctuary is 333 feet (100 m) long (purposely one foot longer than St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York).
- This is where Lea Salonga got married. 😉