Holey Christ

Jesus TV

Here’s a sneek peek inside Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light. Although the 190 million dollar addition to the Lake Merrit skyline will not be open to the public until 2:00 PM this afternoon, I was able to sneak in yesterday and shoot a quick panorama.

After scratching my head about the outside of the cathedral for months, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the interior is quite nice. The sparsely decorated cathedral is flooded with a diffuse light warmed by the wood louvers. The cavernous space produces the expected acoustics – you know you’re in church with your eyes closed.

The odd feature though is the ginormous Jesus hovering above the altar. The image seems to be created by light passing through a drilled sheet of aluminum. To my eye, the points of light resemble LED’s on an outdoor advertising display or some kind of giant black and white TV, making the effect seem sorta cheesy. Now, imagine that space filled with a colorful stained-glass window. Yes, that would look better.

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Wen says:

    GAAAAGHHHH!!!! MY EYES!!!! MY EYES!!!! As my always articulate roommate would say, “Holy sheep shit Martha!” LOL

  2. Susan Davis says:

    Dear Dude,
    I am contacting you on behalf of the San Francisco office of Smith-Emery, a company that has been providing testing and inspection services to the construction industry for over 100 years. They have contracted our company; Ntelligent Systems, to assist with the development of a new website for them. The homepage of the new website will feature a photo animation with a number of photos of projects that they have worked on. They particularly liked your photo of Cathedral of Christ the Light from http://thedude.com/2008/09/ , and have asked us to contact you to request permission to use this photo on their new website.

    Please advise if you will permit this use of your photograph. If you have any questions, I will be happy to respond.

    Sincerely,
    Susan Davis
    Project Manager
    Ntelligent Systems

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