Remarkable new photos from the renovation project at the magnificent Cathedral of St. Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In the capable hands of Notre Dame’s Duncan Stroik, the cathedral has emerged from its pall of cream paint and unfortunate 1970s renovations into a truly stunning interior. Among the many interesting images from the renovation are these showing the newly-designed hanging lamps for the nave. Proof what when it comes to the church building, a lamp is not only a lamp, but a sign of Christ and humanity reconciled.
April 8, 2011 at 4:52 am
Duncan Stroik is the best church architect alive today! He is heir to the builders of the great Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. He deserves our gratitude for defying the depraved conventions of modern architecture, and for restoring the idea of the church as a structure glorifying to God and edifying to Man.
April 8, 2011 at 7:01 am
Each diocese that endured the wreckovation phenomena in the 70s/80s needs to establish a foundation that can begin funding restorations like this. It's excellent to see clergy and lay people in Sioux Falls deciding that everyone needs to be able to see God in the Beauty of Holiness, that sacred beauty shouldn't be hidden under a bushel. Congratulations to the diocese of SF. The first rays of a slowly emerging dawn perhaps? Also, it seems that Duncan Stroik continually disproves the statement that the craftsmen it takes to do this kind of work don't exist anymore.
April 10, 2011 at 1:36 am
The beauty of St. Thomas Aquinas in Dallas, TX was part of "the story" of my conversion. I had never been in a church that felt Holy before that fateful day in 2003. Thomas Merton had a simular experience in Europe.