CELESTIAL DISK FOUNDATION, 2002

White carrara marble, text sandblasted onto marble, star map sandblasted into stone, gold leaf, tumbled blue glass.

Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, Los Angeles

Architect: Jose Raphael Moneo

Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles was the first Catholic Cathedral built in the Twenty First Century. Albuquerque, in collaboration with architect Robert Kramer, created the entrance courtyard:  a twenty-foot diameter circular white marble fountain engraved with scripture picked by Cardinal Roger Mahoney. The verse is translated into the thirty seven languages spoken in the parish, embodying the many voices that surround it. The white marble circular fountain floats in the center of the courtyard as a planet or star as part of a star map reflection etched  into the granite floor of the entrance courtyard and mirroring the sky at the moment the Cathedral was consecrated on the Vespers of September 1, 2002. A blue arc across the courtyard representing the horizon of the Earth delineates a worshipper’s passage from secular space to sacred space as one enters into the stellar configuration. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is part of Los Angeles’ downtown art corridor that includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art.