Fire at Holy Name

Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago looks like a disaster. I will go take a look later today or tomorrow.

It is a sad day for the Church in Chicago.

Story Here

Bankruptcy comes to Loyola Project

Say its 2001 you were given an Old Girls school designed by Herman Gaul that the Village of Wilmette purchased for around $25 Million. Then you decided to try and turn the school into a set of high end condominiums. What are the odds you would be bankrupt now?

Given the history of these projects in Chicago, there is about a 100% chance that buying beautiful schools, then trying to turn them into residential units will make you bankrupt. Loyola Mallinckrodt is no exception, with bankruptcy, lawsuity, unhappy residents, and unpaid bills all around. The Sun-Times has it here in a detailed story.

I'll limit it to a top 5 of wretched behavior that got the project into such a fix

1) The stained glass windows were very good. Canonically, liturgical goods can not be sold. A rather questionable set of circumstances put them on the "market" for $100K, souring any thoughts of working with a property developer interested in preserving sacred objects.

2) The Village of Wilmette, in a Jacobin fury, decided that all Christian symbolism had to be removed from the building. Never mind that there are various historical preservation ordinances preventing the destruction of great architecture, the Jacobins destroy to preserve. Crosses, statues, Latin phrases...all banished from the collective memory.

3) In a fit to provide parking the developer tore out a grove of mature trees on the Ridge Ave side of the building. Part of the sales pitch in spending $25 Million to buy the property was to preserve the park like nature (albeit in a desecrated form) of the school grounds. Not only the devout, but also the nature-lovers also began getting miffed at the project.

4) The Village of Wilmette never fully represented the financial nature of the project. The building and the Chapel were provided free of charge to the developer, in exchange for a whopping $250,000 in projected fees to the village. So, for a net loss of $24.75 Million, the village got a park.

5) In a burst of Rezko-inspired corruption, various community activists in Wilmette forced the developer to assign parts of the building as "affordable" housing. Even if the developer was humming along it is hard to fathom why he should provide below market rate housing, or why a $300,000 condo is somehow affordable, for that matter.

The trouble with these projects is that there is no "next time". The stained glass and liturgical elements are spread all over the country. The finances are a disaster. The village has astronomical property tax rates and a $25 million hole for this property. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube here.

The papers may claim this project is a victim of the "credit crisis" but to me it seems only to be a near total void of common sense and respect for the architectural heritage of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Creative Minority Report: One for the Good Guys: Artist Alexander Stoddart named Queen's Sculptor

Creative Minority Report: One for the Good Guys: Artist Alexander Stoddart named Queen's Sculptor

St. John of God Interior

Here are some photos of the interior at St. John of God (as well as the exterior). These were taken in 2006.

There are more photos here

More Trials Of St. Boniface

rose window
Originally uploaded by primeau

The Tribune highlights some of the recent distress at St. Boniface on the near northwest side.

I have been attempting to keep St. Boniface standing for 7 years now, with some major ups and downs. I'll offer 5 tonics to the Tribune story gin.

1) The $25 Million number is absurd. I could rebuild 2 of the new Shrine in LaCrosse Wiscsonsin for that price, and have quite a bit of money to spare. It does not do much to instill confidence when a spokesman conjures up ridiculous numbers to overstate the case.

2) On the other hand, there are quite a few people at high levels in the Archdiocese who want to see this structure put to good use. If the right team is put together, I am sure the structure will stand, preferrably as a Church.

3) Making condos out of the Church was a terrible idea. Dealing with some highly questionable real estate speculators on a sacred structure is no business for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

4) The Church itself is awesome. Here are some previous posts on the Church.

Awesome interior at St. Boniface

New Hope in the Trial of St. Boniface

More Trials of St. Boniface

5) The structure could be cleaned, secured, and sealed for a $100,000 or so. In this current real estate cycle, holding the Church in a reasonable condition should be considered.

I'll quote myself

"The heathens fell upon them and murdered Boniface and fifty-two companions (according to some, thirty-seven)": I suppose when you are being attacked by heathens, 15 companions can make a real difference. At St. Boniface in Chicago, we could use at least 52 companions in getting Henry J. Schlacks faded masterpiece back into shape.

William Heyer, Architect, The Classical Architecture Studio

Bill Heyer, one of the top traditional architects practicing today, has livened up his website, with plenty of images of his work and proposals. Heyer, probably best known in Chicago for his work at the Institute of Christ the King, hails from Columbus Ohio, with a Notre Dame degree and a practice in Sacred, Educational, and Residential architecture.

Here are two images of William Heyer's work on the classic (Old Main?) Building at the Josephenium Pontifical College in Columbus Ohio.

Here's Bill Heyer, Architect

Barat Woods Development in Foreclosure

No surprise here, but the developer who simonized the Chapel at Barat College is in foreclosure proceedings for defaulting on a $16 Million Loan payment. The Chapel, of course was destroyed first before the developer went broke. Priorities!

"After closing in 2005, Barat College in Lake Forest was supposed to be transformed into a $125 million development featuring a variety of homes, preserved historic structures and a service attendant for residents.

Instead, the land on Lake Forest's posh east side is just another U.S. foreclosure statistic.

On Monday, there were no-trespassing signs and fencing around the property at Westleigh and Sheridan roads, where the private school opened in 1904. Harris Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Robert G. Shaw and his Barat Woods LLC development team Oct. 16. Barat Woods is accused of not repaying a $16 million loan before the Dec. 31, 2007, termination date.

Attorney Jeffrey Close, who represents Harris, said the bank was forced to foreclose on the land because of court action two contractors are pursuing against Barat Woods in federal court."

Link on title to Daily Herald story.

Saint Michael the Archangel in Leawood, Kansas

Denis McNamara has a informative piece (lifted here from the Creative Minority Report) on St. Michael's Parish in Leawood Kansas.

St. Michaels’ new church partakes of a “high” theology of ecclesiastical architecture, meaning that the building is understood as a "sacrament."

In the broad sense of the word, a sacrament is a sign which makes an otherwise unknowable spiritual reality knowable, active and present, to the senses. The Eucharist, of course, is our supreme sacrament, but a church building is a sacramental image of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the biblical term for heaven itself. So the church building is more than simply a luxurious meeting hall, but in its very art and architecture, allows worshippers to participate in the “signs and symbols of heavenly realities” as the Second Vatican Council requested in its document on the sacred liturgy called Sacrosanctum Concilium.

While the world still shows evidence of the Fall, when humanity and the rest of creation fell into disorder and chaos, the church building shows us what our heavenly future might “look like”: radiant, ordered, centered on the worship of God in Christ, restored, renewed, and populated with the harmonious interaction of angels and saints.

In theological terminology, this looking forward to the realities of heaven is called “anticipated eschatology,” the participation now in the things of the eschaton, or end times, when God has fully restored his creation through the sharing His own Divine Life. The church building is therefore oriented toward the east, the direction from which Christ will return at the end of time (Acts 1:10). As the congregation assembles, it takes an eschatological orientation; in its very arrangement, it looks to the return of Christ, signaling the completion of his mission of restoration.

In the world outside, people interact with discord and slander; in the church they speak in one voice, praising God in liturgical texts and songs. Outside, the world is filled with the smell of stench and decay; the church gives us the scent of a renewed creation in its flowers and the sweetness of rising prayer in its fragrant incense.

The dullness of concrete and asphalt gives way in the church to marble, bronze, silk and gold. The chaotic tone and secular content of movies and television are replaced in church by images of Christ, the saints, angels—with whom we all worship as a sacramental image of the Mystical Body of Christ. For this reason, the small, high windows of the new church design allow light to flood in, but prevent looking out to the fallen world. Instead, they allow the faithful to enter a sacramental image of the new heaven and earth, participating now by way of foretaste in the realities of heaven.

More Images Here

St. Thomas the Apostle

Here's quite a bit on Barry Byrne's Masterpiece, St. Thomas the Apostle in Hyde Park. Prairie (sort of) Spanish Mission (sort of) Barry Byrne (definitely). Here's a shot from James Morris and a link to St. TtA website.

http://www.stahydepark.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=3

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London Open House 9/21/08. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Perhaps the most beautiful government building in the world.

CNW on Fr. Simon

Could it be? A pleasant story about the Clergy in Chicago...well it is and Dolores Madlener has it here at the Catholic New World. Fr. Simon, from St. Lambert's in Skokie, is one of the bright lights of the Catholic Renaissance in Chicago. Formerly at St. Thomas of Canterbury in Chicago (our sharing parish from St. Francis Xavier in Wilmette).

Speaking of the New World, it has become a good newspaper over the short term of Joyce Duriga. Way to go Joyce!

The La Crosse Guadalupe Shrine and What it Means

Cross Posted from Creative Minority Report, by Dennis McNamara

I've noticed a few blogs have posted some of the beautiful photos from the LaCrosse Tribune's coverage of the new Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe dedicated recently by Archbishop Burke. Most of the comments about the building are quite positive, as they should be. The faithful have an innate desire for Beauty with its completeness, order and clarity, and architecture like this comes as a long cool drink in the desert of liturgical beauty in the last few decades.

But this building is much more than a pretty haven for people who like old things. This is a direct attack on the tyranny of the Zeitgeist theory of cultural evolution, and proves that the Modernist stranglehold on architectural thinking is no longer only sick, but, in fact, dead. The Zeitgeist (the "spirit of the age") was the favorite bludgeoning stick of Modernist architects, who claimed that architecture must be "of its age" in order to be valid. And the "age," they said, was defined by industry, engineering and mass production. Houses were "machines for living in." Churches were banished. Leading Modernist architect Le Corbusier wrote that civilizations advance when they "pass through the age of the solider and the priest and achieve what is rightly called culture."

See the real issue here in Modernist architecture? It's not really about architecture. It's about a competing theory of the world where culture is understood as secular, atheistic, rationalist and mechanistic. "Old" architecture supposedly represented a time when society was sacred, Godly, spiritual, and humanistic. To do the "old" in architecture was to claim the validity of the "old" culture with all of its spiritual and philosophical presuppositions. To build anything other than the "engineer's aesthetic" was to thwart the development of secular culture, or as the Modernists argued, the development of culture itself. This is why traditional architecture makes Modernist architects livid.

Sure, there are still architects out there devolving into greater and greater chaos and anarchy with "blob" architecture (really) and the hopelessness of Deconstruction, beating the dead horse of the Zeitgeist. Modernists still run the museums, the big architectural firms, the architectural journals and many avenues of power in Catholic chanceries. But they are growing weaker and weaker. The modernist cathedrals of recent years will no doubt be looked upon by future historians as the strange last gasp of "Modern" architecture in a period which has already been "postmodern" for nearly 40 years. How ironic that even if one accepts the premises of the Zeitgeist, the age has become "postmodern" and the architects are still "modern"!


The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe proves that the Zeitgeist argument is a fallacy. We built it in our time, so it is of our time. Period. The bizarre and wrong-headed theories of secular radicals have been debunked. God still reigns on his throne, angels and saints still sing his praises in heaven, the Spirit still inspires new saints, and humans still adore their Lord and receive divine life by eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood. The Truth of the Faith always outlives the truth of all human inner-worldly theories. Truth and Beauty are like a beach ball in the ocean; you can push it under water for a while, but it will always resurface beacuse it is in its nature to do so. Try as we might to deny God, Beauty, Truth and Goodness keep coming back, calling us to rediscover them afresh in our own time.

Is the Guadalupe Shrine a perfect artistic achievement? No. There are certainly small things that critics can point out to urge improvement in the future. But is the Guadalupe Shrine a momentous achievement? Yes, and yes indeed. Quite simply, it is the first large-scale church since Vatican II which articulately and fully proclaims itself to be a church rooted in the deep tradition, from the beautiful details in the custom-designed pews which are so vastly superior to the usual stock of catalogue-ordered type, to the sacristy which is understood as a chapel with beautiful finishes and design rather than a large closet as in most new churches. The altar reads as altar, table and tomb, proclaiming the theological richness of this object which sacramentally "is" Christ. The baldachino is a virtuoso piece of design and a stunning work of craftsmanship, bringing together the bishop, architect, historian, theologian, donor and the craftsman to their liturgical end. The flooring proclaims that it sacramentally represents the streets of the heavenly city. The saints in the side chapels prove to us that the Church goes on proclaiming the virtuous deeds inspired by the Holy Spirit in our own day and on our own American soil. The interior is flooded with light even as there are no eye-level windows giving views to the outside world, and for good reason. The interior of a church is not simply a human gathering hall, but a sacramental image of the world redeemed and glorified, where heaven, earth, God, saints, angels and humans coexist in harmony once again-- all while illuminated by the light of Christ.

This building is not about the Zeitgeist at work in our world, some anonymous spirit of an "age" which has no real identity. It is evidence of the Heilige Geist (Holy Spirit) at work in our world today as always, the Spirit of love which binds the Father who created us and the Son who redeemed us. This is the true Spirit of our age as it is of every age, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Uptown Sold to Jam Productions

Uptown Theater Main Lobby
Originally uploaded by primeau

There may be hope yet to re-open one of the greatest public spaces in Chicago Architecture. Jam Productions.

The pricetag was only $5 Million, which would get you a good sized house in Winnetka, (or about 1/2 of any of the last 20 botched restoration projects pursued in the Archdiocese), but there is at least $10 Million in restoration to be done (in my estimate, but I am sure the owners will ask for more).

Like most of these projects, these things are never 100% perfect, but it is great to see that this grand facility may be put back into use.

Did Barat Condo Conversion Fail?

I received a call from a real estate agent (a Barat Grad) Saturday concerning the continuing tragedy of Barat Chapel in Lake Forest, Illinois. Apparently the condo conversion has gone bust, perhaps proving the market for sacreligious destruction of Holy Sites is not what it used to be.

But not before the Stained Glass and much of the liturgical goods had been removed from the chapel. It seems as though the developer had put such a priority on destruction of the chapel that he was not able to prioritize his spending on actual construction and sale of residential units.

I will follow up Monday with a few calls, and post something more than my brief conversation.

Here's a pleasant video tour of Barat

Marian Devotion, High Altars, and 19th Century Kenosha Episcopalianism

One of the most pleasant sites in all of the Midwest is the Kemper Hall, a convent and girls boarding school on the Kenosha, Wisconsin Lakefront. Run for over 100 years by the Sisters of St. Mary, a small order of Episcopalian nuns, the former Durkee Mansion and school complex is in remarkably good condition to this day, thanks to the dedication of many volunteers and donors, as well as the management of the local Episcopalians in keeping this site as a much used public facility.

The chapel interior is more Catholic in style than most Roman Catholic facilities, with a massive wooden high altar, Marian imagery, stations of the cross, and magnificent-if not always consistent-stained glass.

The chapel is pretty much open to the public. There is a kind staff in the adjoining Durkee Mansion more than willing to show you around the grounds, as well as leave you alone for contemplation and devotion.

This is a grand place, right on Lake Michigan, available for weddings and other sacraments, with catering in the adjoining (rather fine) halls.

Walking Around Oak Street in Evanston

While waiting for an appointment in Evanston last week, I took some snapshots of the Oak Street neighborhood looking pretty good in early summer.

I'll start with Holabird and Roche's Masonic Temple, which is supposed to be undergoing some type of adaptive re-use. It is very empty, and locked tight, needing a yard mowing. It is also very beautiful and looks to have some stained glass inside.


















The Emmanuel United Methodist Church is a Red Brick Prairie (sort of) Church by Burnham and Root on the south end of my tour. The Brick is in remarkably good condition for a Church built in 1891. It sort of looks like the same brick as St. Gabriel's on the South Side.














Here's the Rectory at St. Mary's Roman Catholic, an arts and crafts beauty, in need of some HVAC work and a coat of paint.














This Queen Anne is the Catholic Woman's Club of Evanston. I think it is closed, or maybe not, but it is a standout bit of Architecture.

Here is Botti Studio, the premier stained glass restoration facility in the United States, aptly managed by Chris Botti, under a Papal Warrant from the 15th Century. Chris recently finished work on the Chicago Cultural Center Tiffany Dome.

The Merrick Rose Garden is a large urban garden giving a shot of floral beauty to this pleasant neighborhood. It is larger than I expected, occupying about 4 lots.

Here is the Entrance to the Margarita Club, a Catholic Woman's residence of 1927 Vintage. It is in remarkably good condition, and is in use as a bed and breakfast, with Va Pensiero restaurant inside (a good one the last time we went). Perhaps my favorite building in Evanston.

Sun-Times Notes Locked Doors on Churches

Repeating a theme from the Society of St. Barbara, the Chicago Sun Times notes that many Churches in Chicago near downtown have locked doors, and a few have open doors. The story is mostly individual reflections on open or locked churches.

The Sun-Times decided to only list Roman Catholic Churches that are locked, while I have noticed that locking churches is an ecumenical practice. Only Fourth Presbyterian has been generally open in my many years of Chicago Church Touring, though the United Methodist Temple is mainly accessible as well, through a security guard.

The included photo is of St. Michael's Church in Old Town.

Archbishop Burke to Rome

His Grace, Archbishop Raymond Burke of the Archdiocese of St. Louis has been appointed to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, and has also named His Grace to the Congregation for the Clergy. His presence on both bodies will benefit the Church due to his canonical expertise, steadfastness and pastoral care.

Archbishop Burke (pictured here with Fr. Leinhart and another Abbot from the Institute of Christ the King whose name I should remember, as well as Bishop Braxton of Belleville (I think) and another Bishop I do not recognize) is the leader of Traditional Liturgy in the Catholic Church in the United States.

He has been a driving force in the building of the Shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, as well as the convent for the Nashville Dominicans.

The Society of St. Barbara sends it congratulations to His Grace on his appointment and wishes him continued success in his calling to Rome.

It's Unanimous: 1200 More Condo's Available in Wilmette

In near complete disregard to the residents, tenants, and taxpayers of Wilmette, the Wilmette Village Trustees unanimously appproved a new zoning district for the 4th and Linden neighborhood, allowing 1200 new condo units to begin construction.

Despite lack of parking, saturated roads, and the vocal disapproval of an overwhelming majority of the incumbent residents and businessmen in the neighborhood, the Wilmette Trustees decided that a dogmatic adherence to "green living" is worth the consequences of greater traffic, longer commutes and congestion.

Neighbors have begun a petition drive to stop the upzoning. Without any apparent irony, the trustees thanked the high level of participation of residents of the area, which the Trustees ignored.