Religious · Late modernism
Philip Johnson · Garden Grove, United States · 1980
Key featuresStar-shaped plan enclosed by a white steel space frame skinned in over 10,000 mirrored panes.
Christ Cathedral (Latin: Cathedralis Christi; Spanish: Catedral de Cristo; Vietnamese: Nhà Thờ Chính Tòa Chúa Kitô), formerly the Crystal Cathedral, is a Catholic church building in Garden Grove, California, United States. Since 2019, it has served as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.
The Modern-style reflective glass building, originally designed by Philip Johnson/John Burgee Architects, seats 2,248 people. After its completion in 1981, it was described as "the largest glass building in the world". The building has one of the largest musical instruments in the world, the Hazel Wright Organ.
From its opening in 1981 until 2013, the building was home of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, a congregation of the Reformed Church in America that was founded in 1955 by Robert H. Schuller. The ministry's weekly television program, Hour of Power, was broadcast from the church. After filing for bankruptcy protection, Crystal Cathedral Ministries sold the building and its adjacent campus to the Diocese of Orange in February 2012 for $57.5 million.
After a two-year renovation of the cathedral to convert it for the Catholic liturgy, the building was consecrated as Christ Cathedral—the seat of the Diocese of Orange—on July 17, 2019.
Shortened from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
