Church Buildings That Aren't Awful

Church Buildings That Aren't Awful

Since we can't post images in the comments, I've been looking up the churches that several of you have linked to or mentioned in response to my earlier post. I'll update if you'll give me more links.

More views of the lovely Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamp in northeastern France, design by Le Corbusier, completed 1954 (left).


The interior light wall:





Left: the swooping wings of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, completed in 1971 from a design team including Pier Luigi Nervi.

The exterior doesn't do that much for me, but I've got to love this interior (right):





And this organ (left).




The Mission San Xavier del Bac (a/k/a La Golondrina) near Tucson, Arizona, late 18th century. Now that's what I call decoration! No austerity here.









Douglas mentioned the "meeting house" style, which doesn't have to be ugly at all.



This is one of my favorites: the Live Oak Friends Meeting House in Houston, Texas, built in 2001 with a distinctive "Skyspace" work by James Turell. Outside it's an almost aggressively plain clapboard work, a modern take on the basic early American rectangle.


The plain interior is transformed by the extraordinary skylight. These aren't tricks of artificial light, they're the changes that occur with sunlight every day. A Quaker meeting hall is laid out perfectly for a shape-note singing, with its pews facing an open square from four directions.











Here is my old Episcopal Christ Church Cathedral in Houston. The exterior shots don't really capture what's so nice about it, so I included a floorplan. This cathedral has all kinds of wonderful interior and exterior spaces.











Update: GunnerMk42 adds these:


Angel Fire Veteran's Memorial in New Mexico.










St. Malo Church, Colorado.

And he seconds the vote on the AFA Chapel, pictured in the comments.

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