Concept and Design, interior sacred environment - Andrea Bacigalupa
Architect - Paul M Deeley, A.I.A, Fort Worth, Texas
Rector - Reverend Norbert G Kuehler, St Laurence Cathedral
Progenitor - Reverend Blase Schauer, O.P., Liturgy in Santa Fe
Design and Execution, Sacred Appointments:
Andrea Bacigalupa, Ellen Williams Bacigalupa, Angelo Marelli, Mary Virginia Lee
St Laurence Cathedral was not a new structure but grew from the bold transformation of a former gymnasium/parish hall into the exceptional house of worship it is today. Social and economic considerations in the early 1970s discouraged plans for new building programs -- "bricks and mortar" -- by the Catholic Church, and when Amarillo's old cathedral was designated an unsafe structure and scheduled to be razed for downtown urban renewal, the Diocese faced a dilemma. The Reverend Norbert Kuehler, pastor of St Laurence Church, had seen the pioneering work of Blase Schauer, O.P. and his dedicated community of Liturgy in Santa Fe to using all the arts in the service of sacred environment for better public worship. Father Kuehler, convinced that the people of Liturgy in Santa Fe could turn a gymnasium into a cathedral suggested this path to the Most Reverend Lawrence M DeFalco, Bishop of Amarillo. Pending approval of the plan, designer Bacigalupa and architect Deeley with full cooperation of Father Schauer and artist parishoners of Liturgy in Santa Fe began the work which at completion was to win national attention and the award for Best Restoration by the Fort Worth Chapter of American Institute of Architects.
"A church should take us out of one reality into a richer, transcendent reality, pointing to our ultimate identity. It should be a transcendental space, a new dimension of time as well as space -- a touch of eternity." Father Blase Schauer
