Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels - Los Angeles                        

Design Architect: Professor José Rafael Moneo
Project Architect in Los Angeles: Leo A. Daly
Consultant: Shen, Milson & Wilke +Paoletti
Dennis Paoletti, John Prohs
Installation: AMT Systems Inc.
Programming: AMT Systems Inc.

Description of project

For many years, a relatively small building - St. Vibiana’s in downtown Los Angeles - served as the Cathedral Church for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, until the earthquake of 1994 made it unusable. Cardinal Roger Mahony chose to begin construction of a new and imaginative Cathedral complex to become the hub of the Catholic Communities of greater Los Angeles, featuring a new conference center, a rectory, a large plaza, and the visually stunning new Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels. It was dedicated in September 2002. Cardinal Mahony referred to its location on the fabled El Camino Real in his dedication homily, and expressed his hope that it will become a place for all peoples to gather in peace.

The Cathedral sound system is primarily a digital signal processor-based multi-microphone mixer controlling the variety of wireless and hard-wired spoken word microphone sources and routing them to a series of down-firing speaker elements contained within large brass trumpet-style lighting fixtures throughout the nave, transept, and baptistery areas. A separate programmable digital mix console controls the music system portion of the sound system. When required it can be operated from one of three separate locations. A separate system serves only the baptistery area near the main doors of the building.

The Conference Center building will serve both the parish community of the Cathedral, and all of the archdiocesan parishes throughout the LA basin, with large and small meeting rooms, kitchen banquet facilities, and a variety of office areas. The meeting rooms are all equipped with touch screen-based sound reinforcement systems, operating independently or tied together in several room-combine variations. These systems provide local access and control of playback electronics, and microphone level adjustments. Paging and playback systems serve many of the hall and assembly areas in the building.

The Plaza area includes sound systems in Colonnade and Trellis walkways, connected through the Conference Center to the Cathedral system.

This landmark building has become a highlight within the already diverse architectural symbols of downtown LA recognized around the world, and more importantly, will serve as a visible sign of the spirit of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles.