🔥 Important Christian CRYSTAL Cathedral PHILIP JOHNSON Architectural Collection For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

---

🔥 Important Christian CRYSTAL Cathedral PHILIP JOHNSON Architectural Collection:
$2750.00

Christ Cathedral(Latin:Cathedralis Christi;Spanish:Catedral de Cristo;Vietnamese:Nhà Thờ Chính Tòa Chúa Kitô), formerly and informally known as theCrystal Cathedral, is an Americanchurch buildingof theRoman Catholic Diocese of Orange, located inGarden Grove, California. The reflective glass building, by the firm ofPhilip Johnson/John BurgeeArchitects, seats 2,248 people.The church was touted as "the largest glass building in the world" when it was completed in 1981.The building has one of the largest musical instruments in the world, theHazel Wright Organ.

From 1981 to 2013, the building was the principal place of worship for Crystal Cathedral Ministries (nowShepherd's Grove), a congregation of theReformed Church in America, founded in 1955 byRobert H. Schuller. The ministry's weekly television programHour of Powerwas formerly produced from the building. Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed forbankruptcyin October 2010 and in February 2012 sold the building and its adjacent campus to the Diocese of Orange for use as the diocese's newcathedral. The building, especially the interior, was renovated by Johnson Fain to accommodate theCatholicliturgy.

Following the completion of construction, the building was consecrated and formally renamed "Christ Cathedral", the seat of the Diocese of Orange, on July 17, 2019.

The Garden Grove Community Church was founded in 1955 byRobert H. Schullerand his wife Arvella.A congregation of theReformed Church in America, the church first held services in space rented from theOrangeDrive-In Theatre.

The congregation moved to the present Christ Cathedral campus in 1961, erecting a building now known as the Arboretum, designed by architectRichard Neutra, as its initial sanctuary. In 1968, the congregation completed the Tower of Hope to provide office and classroom space but continued growth led to the need for a new sanctuary.Schuller commissioned the firm ofPhilip Johnson/John BurgeeArchitects to design the sanctuary.

Construction of the Crystal Cathedral began in 1977 and was completed in 1980, built at a cost of $18 million (equivalent to $67million in 2023). The signature rectangular panes of glass comprising the building are not bolted to the structure; they are glued to it using asilicone-based glue. This and other measures are intended to allow the building to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0. The building was constructed using over 10,000rectangular panes of glass.

Upon moving from the old Neutra sanctuary to the new Johnson/Burgee sanctuary in 1981, the congregation changed its name to the "Crystal Cathedral" – analliterationderived from the appearance of the building (though the building was not constructed withcrystal glass). The congregation added the Prayer Spire in 1990.

Beginning in 2010, creditors of Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed lawsuits to collect money due to them for providing goods, services and broadcastingThe Hour of Powerweekly TV show. A board member said that the total debt was $55million.

The church's board filed for bankruptcy October 18, 2010, citing $43million in debt including a $36million mortgage and $7.5million in other debt. Church officials said that they had been trying to negotiate payments but after several suits were filed andwrits of attachmentwere granted, the church had to declare bankruptcy.

The church received offers from a real estate investment group and nearbyChapman University.

On July 7, 2011, the Diocese of Orange, which had previously purchased land and started planning for construction of a new and larger cathedral in Santa Ana because growth of the diocese had renderedHoly Family Cathedralin Orange too small for diocesan functions, announced that it was "potentially interested" in buying the Crystal Cathedral campus for future use as its diocesan cathedral.There were three major factors that motivated the interest of the Diocese of Orange in the property:

• Its central location within the diocese made it more accessible to parishioners than the Santa Ana site,
• The cost of renovating the Crystal Cathedral building for Catholic worship would be far less than that of constructing a new building from scratch, and
• The other buildings on the campus would provide facilities for diocesan administrative offices and ministries with little modification, further reducing the cost of the whole project.

The diocese increased its initial offer of $50 million to $53.6 million, which included a lease-back provision at below market rates for a period of time. On November 17, 2011, a federal judge approved selling the Crystal Cathedral to the Diocese of Orange for $57.5 million (equivalent to $78million in 2023).

Days after the judge's ruling, Italian newspaperLa Stampaused a picture of the Crystal Cathedral to illustrate an article reporting on the establishment of aVaticancommission "to put a stop to garage style churches, boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship".The Vatican approved the use of the building two weeks after the judge's ruling.

The sale to the diocese was finalized on February 3, 2012. Under the terms, Crystal Cathedral Ministries was allowed to lease most of the campus including the church for up to three years; the diocese offered Crystal Cathedral Ministries a longer-term lease at nearby St. Callistus Church. The diocese transferred the parish to the Crystal Cathedral campus and renamed it Christ Cathedral Parish. The transfer of thecemeterylocated on the campus was immediate, and the diocese established offices on the campus soon after.Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange at the time, stated that the diocese would hire an architect to renovate the interior of the facility to make it suitable for the Catholic liturgy, but that it did not intend to substantially change the exterior.

On June 9, 2012, the diocese announced that the building would be known as "Christ Cathedral" when it became the diocese's new cathedral, and that Fr. Christopher Smith will be rector and episcopal vicar.The church's new patronal name was designated by theHoly See, while suggestions were also taken from the diocese and its members.In October 2012, the diocese held its first event at the cathedral, the 7th Orange County Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Prayer was held as part of the event, but the diocese did not celebrateMassin the cathedral building until itssolemn dedicationafter completion of the renovation.In the interim, the former St. Callistus Parish, which had relocated to the campus from its previous campus a couple blocks away and officially assumed the name Christ Cathedral Parish, held its Masses and other liturgies in the building known as The Arboretum—the same building that had served as the sanctuary church for Schuller's congregation before the opening of the new cathedral building in 1981.

Crystal Cathedral Ministries held its final worship service in the Crystal Cathedral building on June 30, 2013. That congregation held its first service at the campus of the former St. Callistus Church, which it renamed Shepherd's Grove, on July 7, 2013. The new location is 12921 Lewis Street at Garden Grove Boulevard, one mile south of the Crystal Cathedral. At the same time, St. Callistus Parish moved to the Crystal Cathedral campus, conducting worship in the Arboretum until the completion of the renovations to the cathedral building.St. Callistus Catholic school moved into the former Crystal Cathedral Academy facility, changing its name to Christ Cathedral Academy, in September 2013.

On September 24, 2014, the diocese released its proposed remodeling plans for the building, created by Johnson Fain, including extensive changes to the interior to make it more suitable for thealtar-centric Catholic ritual, whilst preserving its architectural qualities.

The cathedral's glass walls were deemed problematic, as they contributed to heat and glare;the diocese's vice president of philanthropy Tony Jennison explained that "you could see people fanning themselves and even wearing sunglasses onHour of Power". It also hampered the ability to illuminate the interior at night, as well as its acoustics. The glass walls were lined with angledquatrefoils, which serve to reduce the amount of heat and outside light that enters the building, and improve its acoustics. Lights are also installed on the quatrefoils; at night, they give the building a shimmering effect described as a "box of stars".

Crape myrtletrees were planted along the route from the parking lot to the plazas, symbolizing the "beginning" of holiness in progression to the altar. The Hazel Wright Organ was disassembled and shipped back to Italy for an extensive restoration; it was also painted white so that it will not distract from the altar.To reflect the diversity of the Catholic community in the region, thereliquaryof its altar conceals donatedfirst-class relicsconnected to saints of American, Korean, Mexican and Vietnamese descent, including theCanadian Martyrs,Andrew Dũng-Lạc,Junípero Serra,Andrew Kim Taegon, andRafael Guízar y Valencia.Other improvements made included the installation ofair conditioningat the Arboretum, andseismic retrofitting.

From the proceeds of a "For Christ Forever" fundraising campaign held in 2012, the diocese allocated $59 million towards the cost of renovating the cathedral. In 2014, an anonymous benefactor contributed $20 million in additional funding. However, it was later found that the estimates were reached without "serious study or professional recommendations"; in July 2016, it was estimated that the total cost of the renovations, as originally planned, would actually be $108 million. The diocese established a task force to reduce the cost of the project to $72 million, which was accomplished by using a marble veneer altar instead of solid marble, using a lower-cost source of stone of an equivalent quality rather than importing it from Italy, and planning to "keep the bones of the building intact".

On May 25, 2017, the diocese signed general contractor Snyder Langston for the renovation, with construction slated to begin on June 1, 2017, and expected to be completed by late-2018. On June 29, 2018, the Bishop of Orange,Kevin Vann, proclaimed a "holy year of preparation" ahead of the solemn dedication.On October 13, 2018, the quatrefoils were blessed and officially illuminated for the first time.The formal dedication Mass was held on July 17, 2019;at that time, Vann solemnly dedicated the former Crystal Cathedral building as Christ Cathedral and the building canonically assumed that name.A formal celebration event andPacific Symphonyconcert was held on July 13, 2019, ahead of the dedication Mass.

The shrine ofOur Lady of La Vangwas installed on the grounds in 2021. The 12-foot-tall (3.7m) statue of the Virgin Mary is capped by a spiraling canopy.

The church'sHazel Wright Organis the fifth largestpipe organin the world, with 273ranks and five manuals.Constructed byFratelli Ruffattibased on specifications byVirgil Foxand expanded byFrederick Swann, the instrument incorporates the largeAeolian-Skinnerpipe organ built in 1962 for New York'sPhilharmonic Hall(nowDavid Geffen Hall), and the Ruffatti organ which had been installed in the church's previous sanctuary. Swann was organist at the Crystal Cathedral from 1982 to 1998. Following the Crystal Cathedral's finalHour of Powerin June 2013, the organ was dismantled for a $2million refurbishing led by Ruffatti.Re-installation of the renovated organ was completed in early 2020. Re-voicing was put on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed at the end of 2021 and the organ's restoration was completed on February 7, 2022. The organ is now regularly used during weekend Masses. A re-dedication concert featuring Hector Olivera was held September 30, 2022.

Given that history, it was not surprising theRev. Robert H. Schuller's newest church was designed to allow for drive-in worship. Two enormous walls of glass were designed to swing open so that, in addition to the 3,000 seats inside the church, those who preferred not to go into the church itself could simply sit in their cars and listen to Rev. Schuller’s motivational sermons. Completed in September 1980, it was soon published in all the leading architectural journals, and I marveled at the all-glassdesign of this brand-new church with thefifth largest pipe organin the world.

Who would have guessed that 32 years later, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange would purchase the Crystal Cathedral and its adjacent campus from the now-bankrupt church for $53.6 million with plans to make it the new cathedral for the diocese? I chatted with Joe Novoa, Director of Construction for the Diocese of Orange, at theCCFMConference in Seattle last Spring about the diocese’s latest real estate acquisition. We talked about the challenges of owning this new building and making it work for Catholic worship. He told me that the seating and sightlines were quite good but there were design elements that just didn’t work for a Catholic church. And of course, there is the issue of the walls of glass creating competition for the liturgical focus as well. He shared some preliminary sketches with me as well, which were quite interesting to see

During the summer, theCatholic News Agencywrote about the renovation of the building, which has now been renamedChrist Cathedral. The local bishop called it “a thorough Christological transformation.” Clearly, that is what is required to convert this building from a preaching focused church to a Eucharist-focused worship space. Though I never had the opportunity to visit the Crystal Cathedral in person, I have seen enough photos, have read enough about it and have seen it on TV duringThe Hour of Powerthat I feel I know it pretty well. I hope I will have the opportunity to visit Christ Cathedral once the renovation has been completed to see if the transformation was as thorough as described. Although the cathedral has already been used as a worship site, with 11 Masses each weekend, according to theNational Catholic Register, the renovation of the cathedral interior could take several years to complete.

It’s June 2011, and I’m sitting in one of the movie-theater style seats of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Orange County. Southern California sunshine pours in through the soaring glass above me. But even as the sheer quantity of blue sky inspires awe, otherfeatures, like the strategically placed water fountains that bubble to life at key moments in the service, seem a little dated. Pastor Robert Schuller’s sermon finishes and the images of his daughter (and co-pastor) fill up the Jumbotron. She is appealing to church members to give more.

The Crystal Cathedral is in trouble, and it needs donations. I look around and see while many seats are filled, most of the megachurch’s pews are empty. It appears that the days of the Crystal Cathedral, a landmark of late 20th-century American Protestantism, are numbered. And sure enough, less than a year later, it goes bankrupt. Historians of evangelical Christianity and the American Right have pointed to Orange County as the ultimate expression of white, evangelical and Republican suburbia. So what does the demise of Crystal Cathedral tell us about Orange County in the 21st century?

The story of Crystal Cathedral, and its founder Robert Schuller, begins in the 1950s. An Iowa transplant, Schuller first began preaching to L.A. motorists at a converted Garden Grove drive-in movie theater in 1955. He couldn’t have picked a more promising spot. The newly built Santa Ana Freeway ensured easy access to the region from Los Angeles. Nearby theme parks Knott’s Berry Farm and Disneyland not only drew tourists to the area, but also celebrated a vision of all-American, wholesome family life that complimented the social ideals of evangelical ministries like Schuller’s. Most importantly, the agricultural land of northern O.C. was being rapidlyfilled in with housing. Developers eager to cash in on the postwar economic prosperity of the region were constructing vast suburban tracts. They were filled by thousands of white families, first-time homeowners eager to enter the middle class.

By the late 1950s, Schuller’s constituency had outgrown the original Garden Grove Community Church and he commissioned noted architect Richard Neutra to design a larger building. With a firmly evangelical theology but an uplifting, positive style, Schuller promoted a message of spiritual salvation and self-help. It was a package that resonated with Southern Californians and, ultimately, with the entire nation. In the 1970s Schuller’s “Hour of Power” broadcast became America’s most watched religious television show, marking his rise as one of the top televangelists in the country. He was also a prolific writer, and published numerous books on spirituality and positive thinking.

​Schuller set about creating the Crystal Cathedral adjacent to his existing church. If his previous drive-in churches had paid homage to the car culture of Southern California, the Crystal Cathedral was a worship space that captured the zeitgeist of a new era. Designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, Crystal Cathedral exhibited an aesthetic that seemed poised somewhere between striking postmodernism and shopping mall.

The 128-foot glass-and-steel structure was a bold statement of thriving evangelical community amidst the suburbs and freeways of northern O.C. Able to seat over 3000 (and to accommodate thousands more in the adjoining parking lot) the Crystal Cathedral combined consumer culture with Christ.The completion of the Cathedral in 1980 was timely: it coincided with the election to the presidency of former Californian governor Ronald Reagan and the emergence of evangelical Christianity as a vocal and influential constituency in America. Schuller’s ministry, and the Crystal Cathedral which housed it, were carefully constructed products of an ascendant conservative Southern California culture, economics and politics.

However, while the Crystal Cathedral drew support from the large local community of white evangelicals in the 1980s and ’90s, by the new millennium Orange County was changing. Census data shows that between 2000 and 2010, the O.C.’s demographics started to undergo significant shifts. The white, non-Latinx population of the county was aging and diminishing; at the same time, the proportion of non-white residents was increasing. This was happening all over the region, but it was particularly pronounced in parts of Orange County like Anaheim and Garden Grove that surrounded the Crystal Cathedral. While the Crystal Cathedral was not an exclusively white space (when I visited in 2011, the Spanish-language service seemed to be a lot more popular than the English version), broadly speaking, the experience offered by Schuller’s ministry was not what the newer residents wanted.

With membership rolls dropping off, donations to the ministry also declined. This meant that despite the upbeat messages of its leader —Schuller had regularly published titles likeSuccess is Never Ending, Failure is Never Final—the debts incurred by the Crystal Cathedral grew to be overwhelming. Schuller’s ministry filed for bankruptcy, and in 2012 the complex of church buildings were purchased by the local Catholic diocese and rechristened Christ Cathedral. But the demise of Crystal Cathedral Ministries was not the only rupture in Orange County’s image as the bastion of conservatism. As much as the area has been renowned as a stronghold of conservative Christian churches, organizations and colleges, it has also been reliably Republican. So reliable in fact, that ever since the Great Depression, the county has gone for the GOP in every presidential race. This changed in 2016, when Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton carried a majority of Orange County voters.

So has there been a fundamental transformation behind the Orange Curtain? On the one hand, the answer is a firm yes. Demographically, no single racial or ethnic group now dominates the county’s population. The frequency of Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Cantonese Sunday Mass services that the rebranded Christ Cathedral offers reflects a far more diverse population than Schuller encountered in the mid 20thcentury.On the other hand, there are continuities as well as changes. While Crystal Cathedral is no more, other successful evangelical megachurches in Orange County remain, like Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. A majority of O.C. voters might have rejected Donald Trump, but this last election might not have been (to put it mildly) typical. In other words, the 2016 returns may have signaled a protest against Donald Trump, rather than an indication that Orange County had turned solidly blue.

Political and religious conservatism have deep roots in this part of the nation. Decades before Schuller exchanged Iowa for Garden Grove, Southern California religious and business leaders played a decisive role in creating the evangelical movement itself.

Parts of Orange County remain staunchly wealthy, white, and Republican. And before any assumptions are made about how the millions of suburban Latinx and east Asian voters (many of whom have traditionally leaned Democratic) might shape future elections, it is worth considering that demography isn’t destiny. The links between political affiliation, racial identity and religious beliefs are not immutable. How might the county align itself politically in the future? Perhaps it will become a reliable regional base of the Democratic Party, albeit socially conservative as well as racially and ethnically diverse. Alternatively, constituents might find a home in a future iteration of the California GOP. The cultural and demographic realignments of the recent past have fractured the 1950s-era image of Orange County as a bastion of white conservatism. What will come to replace this image, however, is not yet (crystal) clear.

Philip Cortelyou Johnson
July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005

Philip Johnson’s career spanned nearly 75 years. From his initial work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, which began in 1930, as the then-new institution’s inaugural curator of architecture and design, to his prominence in architecture as a practitioner, which included being awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA)’s Gold Medal in 1978 and the first Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979, Johnson’s influence is hard to ignore. An early proponent of modern architecture who later went in various design directions, from postmodernism to later explorations of non-Euclidean geometry, Johnson was not easy to pigeonhole stylistically. What is undeniable is that Johnson would go on to build substantial projects worldwide and also became one of the central powerbrokers of architecture in America for much of the 20th Century.

Johnson was born in 1906 to a wealthy and highly educated family in Cleveland, Ohio. He would go on to Harvard for an undergraduate degree in philosophy and classics (1923-30) and then graduate studies in architecture (1940-43). In 1942 he built a house for himself in Cambridge, Massachusetts based on the ideas of Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and upon graduation in 1943 served in the US Army during WWII (1943-45).

During those undergraduate years, he took off substantial time to travel throughout Europe (1925-30). Those early trips, especially to Berlin and the new school of architecture and design in Dessau, the Bauhaus, were especially influential on him and led to his early work at The Museum of Modern Art. In particular, Johnson would develop a relationship with Mies that would lead to not only Mies designing an interior for Johnson’s 1930 home in New York but also a collaboration between both men on Manhattan’s Seagram Building in the 1950s.

At MoMA, Johnson worked with its founding director Alfred H. Barr Jr. and also with architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock. He was co-curator with Hitchcock on the seminal 1932 show of modern architecture and book,The International Style, and later with Barr onMachine Art(1934) as well as retrospectives on Frank Lloyd Wright (1947) and Mies van der Rohe (1949), among many other exhibitions. As a museum trustee he continued to advise the Department of Architecture and Design for many decades. Throughout his career in architecture he continued to support The Museum of Modern Art, supplying so many works of art he was widely considered the second largest donor to the museum in terms of number of works during his lifetime.

Johnson became a lightning rod for criticism, not only for his stylistic inconsistency, architectural formalism and his oft brash statements, but also for his embrace of fascist politics early in his life. While he did not appear to maintain these attitudes lifelong, he espoused pro-Nazi and American fascist sympathies during 1934-1940, which his biographer Franz Schulze referred to as the “inglorious detour.” This period was bookended by Johnson’s early work at MoMA and his return to Harvard for graduate studies in architecture. Briefly working as a journalist at that time, he made statements that included not only pro-fascist attitudes but also anti-Semitic commentary. Although Johnson would attempt to distance himself from these early beliefs and statements from the 1940s on, these activities brought condemnation and criticism throughout his life.

Following his time in the military, Johnson elected to come to New York rather than return to Cambridge, Massachusetts and began looking at property as early as late 1945, purchasing his initial five acres of property in New Canaan in 1946. He would spend the next few years developing the design of the Glass House, completing the two main structures in 1949. Exactly at this time Johnson would become familiar with Mies’s design for the Farnsworth House, a weekend home outside of Chicago for Dr. Edith Farnsworth. There is a clear relationship between the design of Farnsworth and that of the Glass House, albeit with significant differences, and today both the Farnsworth House and the Glass House are historic sites owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

For a person of his generation, Johnson lived relatively openly as a gay man. While Johnson was linked with a number of partners it was not until he met David Grainger Whitney that he found a life partner. They met in 1960 and Whitney would go on to play a critical role in shaping the landscape and collections at the Glass House. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Whitney would work as a studio assistant to Jasper Johns, open a gallery in New York and serve as an art advisor, developing many deep friendships with significant figures in the American post-war art world.

Along with the Glass House, which was designed during 1947-1948 and completed in 1949, Johnson (and his various associated firms) would create such notable works as: the Pre-Columbian Pavilion at Dumbarton Oaks (1963), the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (1964), the New York State Pavilion for the World’s Fair of 1964-65, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at The Museum of Modern Art (1953) and a whole host of civic, museum, commercial and residential projects over the ensuing decades.

Johnson continued to work until he turned 97 in 2003. By then he had been considered one of the posterboys of Postmodernism, especially for his AT&T Building (1978-84), and yet also was seen as one of the biggest promoters of modernism, especially that of Mies van der Rohe. After all, he had served under Mies as co-architect of the Seagram Building in New York (1954-58) and had the opportunity to design its famed Four Seasons Restaurant in 1959, done very much in the style of Mies.

Johnson was also an avowed promoter of new work in architecture, supporting the efforts of many younger figures and firms with financial support, publicity or introductions to MoMA. but he was also very much a committed preservationist. He marched publicly — with others from MoMA — to object to the pending destruction of New York’s Pennsylvania Station and successfully joined other prominent New Yorkers in fending off efforts to build on top of Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal. It is hardly surprising that Johnson elected to give his personal property, the Glass House, to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This bequest was arranged in 1986, nearly two decades before he died. He and Whitney maintained a life estate on the property; both men died in 2005.

It is often asked why the Glass House is in New Canaan, Connecticut, a suburb in Fairfield County, located only about one hour from New York. The town became a magnet in the 1940s for several figures in architecture at Harvard. Marcel Breuer, Eliot Noyes, John Johansen and Landis Gores all came to New Canaan to build homes for their own use as well as for clients. Johnson was part of this group that became known as the Harvard Five. Since his early days visiting the Bauhaus, Johnson had been an admirer of Breuer’s with whom Johnson also studied while at Harvard. Breuer had joined a number of his former Bauhaus colleagues under Walter Gropius’s leadership at Harvard following their departures from Germany in the late 1930s.

Therefore, what Johnson, along with his partner Whitney, created in Connecticut is an environment that stems from not only Johnson’s early years witnessing new architecture at the Bauhaus, but also from Johnson’s experience at Harvard and from their very rich life in the arts. Today the property has many structures beyond the original two of 1949, including two galleries for painting and sculpture, a library, a pavilion in a pond and series of other built works, all generated by Johnson’s ongoing interest in architecture and the way in which it changed from the 1920s. The art on site is all from their combined collection and for the most part was produced by artists they knew well. The property was not only their home it was a frequent salon for figures in the arts.

This property, which is now nearly 50 acres in size due to additional purchases by Johnson, is also an elaborate landscape. Johnson and Whitney both shared a fascination with the grounds and its design, a project that lasted for decades. In particular, Johnson understood the relationship between architecture and landscape as an essential one. Any visitor to the Glass House will understand more fully that passion for the land both men shared.

Johnson had a dynamic life that spanned the earliest days of modernism to the brink of the 21st Century. He was greatly committed to the inevitability of change, not only in architecture but in all things. He infused this mentality within his architecture, restlessly embracing new ideas as developed by those around him. His record of accomplishments is both uneven and prodigious but the highlights alone are quite significant. For much of his adult life he wielded great influence on the field of architecture and maintained his interest in the work of others until the end of his life. Originally a curator, he never lost that desire to present new and evolving ideas in architecture, design and art. Today, the Glass House carries on that mindset by presenting innovative programming in the arts within the framework of 21st-century culture, which is far more diverse and inclusive than in Johnson’s time.

Philip Cortelyou Johnson(July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an Americanarchitectwho designedmodernandpostmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernistGlass Housein New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern550 Madison AvenueinNew York City, designed for AT&T;190 South La Salle StreetinChicago; the Sculpture Garden of theMuseum of Modern Art; and the Pre-Columbian Pavilion atDumbarton Oaks. In his obituary,The New York Timeswrote in January 2005 that his works "were widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century."

In 1930, Johnson became the first director of the architecture department of theMuseum of Modern Artin New York. There he arranged for visits byWalter GropiusandLe Corbusierand negotiated the first American commission forMies van der Rohe, after he fledNazi Germany. In 1932, he organized withHenry-Russell Hitchcockthe first exhibition dedicated to modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, which gave name to the subsequent movement known asInternational Style. In 1934, Johnson resigned his position at the museum.

During the 1930s, Johnson became an ardent admirer ofAdolf Hitler, openly praised theNazi party, and espousedantisemiticviews.He wrote forSocial JusticeandExaminer, where he published an admiring review of Hitler's Mein Kampf.In 1939, as a correspondent forSocial Justice, he witnessed Hitler'sinvasion of Poland, which he later described as "a stirring spectacle".In 1941, after the U.S. entered the war, Johnson abruptly quit journalism, organizing anti-Fascist league atHarvard Design School. He was investigated by the FBI andwas eventually cleared for military service.He evaded indictment and jail largely due to his social connections.Years later he would refer to these activities as "the stupidest thing I ever did[which] I never can atone for".

In 1978, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. In 1979, he was the first recipient of thePritzker Architecture Prize.Today his skyscrapers are prominent features in the skylines of New York, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Madrid, and other cities.

Johnson was born inCleveland, Ohio, on July 8, 1906, the son of a lawyer, Homer Hosea Johnson (1862–1960), and the former Louisa Osborn Pope (1869–1957), a niece ofAlfred Atmore Popeand a first cousin ofTheodate Pope Riddle. He had an older sister, Jeannette, and a younger sister, Theodate. He was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam. His ancestors include the HuguenotJacques Cortelyou, who laid out the first town plan ofNew AmsterdamforPeter Stuyvesant. He grew up inNew London, Ohio.He had astutterand was diagnosed withcyclothymia.He attended theHackley SchoolinTarrytown, New York, then studied as an undergraduate atHarvard Universitywhere he focused on learning Greek,philology, history andphilosophy, particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers.

Upon completing his studies in 1930,he made a series of trips to Europe, particularly Germany, where his family had a summer house. He visited the landmarks of classical and Gothic architecture, and joinedHenry-Russell Hitchcock, a prominent architectural historian, who was introducing Americans to the work ofLe Corbusier,Walter Gropius, and other modernists. In 1928, he met German architectLudwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing theGerman Pavilionfor the1929 Barcelona International Exposition. The meeting formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition.

Johnson had a substantial fortune, largely stock given to him by his father. With this fortune, in 1930 he financed the new architecture department of theMuseum of Modern Artin New York, and in 1932 he was named its curator. As curator he arranged for American visits by Gropius and Le Corbusier and negotiated the first American commission for Mies van der Rohe. In 1932, working with Hitchcock andAlfred H. Barr, Jr., he organized the first exhibition on Modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art.The show and their simultaneously published bookInternational Style: Modern Architecture Since 1922, published in 1932, played a seminal role in introducingmodern architectureto the American public.

When the rise of the Nazis in Germany forced the modernistsMarcel BreuerandMies van der Roheto leave Germany, Johnson helped arrange for them to come to work in the United States.He created a small organization called the Gray Shirts, styled after the Nazi Brownshirts.

In 1941, at the age of 35, Johnson abandoned politics and journalism and enrolled in theHarvard Graduate School of Design, where he studied withMarcel BreuerandWalter Gropius, who had recently fled from Nazi Germany.In 1941, Johnson designed and built his first building, a house at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house, strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, has a wall around the lot which merges with the structure.It was used by Johnson to host social events and was eventually submitted as his graduate thesis; he sold the house after the war, and it was purchased by Harvard in 2010and restored by 2016.

In 1942, while still a student of the architecture school, Johnson tried to enlist withNaval Intelligence, and then for a federal job, but was rejected both times. In 1943, after his graduation from Harvard, he was drafted to the Army and was sent toFort Ritchie, Maryland, to interrogate Germanprisoners of war.He was investigated by the FBI for his involvement with the German government, Coughlin andLawrence Dennis, an American fascist economist, and was cleared for continued military service.After thetrial of Dennis and his collaborators, Johnson was relieved of his interrogation duties and transferred toFort Belvoir, Virginia,where he spent the rest of his military service doing routine duties

In 1980, Johnson and Burgee completed a cathedral in a dramatic new style: the Crystal Cathedralin Garden Grove, California, is a soaring glassmegachurchoriginally built for the ReverendRobert H. Schuller.The interior can seat 2,248 persons. It takes the form of a four-pointed star, with free-standing balconies in three points and the chancel in the fourth. The cathedral is covered with more than ten thousand rectangular pieces of glass. The Glass panels are not bolted, but glued to the structure, with a silicon-based glue, to give it greater ability to resist Southern California earthquakes.Johnson and Burgee designed it to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0.The tower was added in 1990.

The cathedral quickly became a Southern California landmark, but its costs helped drive the church into debt. When the church declared bankruptcy in 2012, it was purchased by theRoman Catholic Diocese of Orangeand became the Roman Catholic cathedral for Orange County.

Working with John Burgee, Johnson did not confine himself to a single style, and was comfortable mixing elements of modernism and postmodernism. For theCleveland Play House, he built a romanesque brick structure; His skyscrapers in the 1980s were clad in granite and marble, and usually had some feature borrowed from historic architecture. In New York he designed theMuseum of Television and Radio, (now the Paley Center for Media) (1991).

In 1978, Johnson was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. In 1979, he became the first recipient of thePritzker Architecture Prizethe most prestigious international architectural award.

In 1991, Johnson received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.

Robert Harold Schuller(September 16, 1926– April 2, 2015) was an AmericanChristian televangelist,pastor, motivational speaker, and author. In his five decades of television, Schuller was principally known for the weeklyHour of Powertelevision program, which he began hosting in 1970 until his retirement in 2006. His grandson,Bobby Schuller, carries on theHour of Powernow airing for over fifty years.During his time as a minister, Schuller oversaw the construction of two churches in Garden Grove, CA. The first church built under his tenure was the Garden Grove Community Church chapel, which seated 500, and the second that he oversaw was the building of the much largerCrystal Cathedral, which has a seating capacity of 2,200.

Schuller began broadcasting hisHour of Powerprogram from the smaller Garden Grove chapel in 1969. He made the decision to begin his broadcast ofHour of Powershortly after he had received encouragement from longtime friendBilly Grahamduring a visit with the popular evangelist.TheHour of Powerbroadcast later continued in the Crystal Cathedral.

Like his good friend Billy Graham, the Schuller organization never became closely associated with any major scandal. During the 90's his televised sermons were regularly viewed by an estimated audience of 20 million. Schuller's weekly telecast of his sermons which began in 1969 was one of the first instances of such weekly televised church services, and was the world's most widely watched hour-long church service ever.

Robert Harold Schuller was born on September 16, 1926, nearAlton, Iowa, the second son of Jennie (née Beltman; 1891–1970) and Anthony Schuller (1882–1964).He was the youngest of five children. All of his grandparents wereDutchimmigrants,and he was raised on his parents' farm nearby in a small, close-knit community of Dutch-Americans, without running water.

In 1927 on the day of his baptism at his family’sReformed Churchin Newkirk, Iowa, the six-month-old Schuller was clothed in a certain "baptismal gown.” Years later Schuller announced that he had kept his baptismal-gown and placed it on display in his office, referring to it as his most-prized-possession. To Schuller apparently the gown had represented the day that his life had first been dedicated to God. In his later years Schuller placed an inscription beneath the gown reading: "This is the reason my life has been a success. As a child I was dedicated to our Lord."

In 1931, just weeks before his fifth birthday a visiting uncle, Henry Beltman, who was a minister had predicted that the young boy was destined to spread the word of God to many when he grew up. Schuller called the moment that he had first heard his uncle's prediction the "single most defining moment of my early life."After graduating from Newkirk High School in Newkirk, Iowa, in 1944,Schuller continued his education atHope College, located inHolland, Michigan.

Schuller received hisMaster of Divinitydegree in 1950 fromWestern Theological Seminary, which taught in the theological tradition and practice ofJohn Calvin. He was soonordainedas aministerin theReformed Church in America. After his ordination, he first worked at Ivanhoe Reformed Church inRiverdale, Illinois, before moving toGarden Grove, California.

Ground was broken September 10, 1958, for construction of Schuller's second church-home in the area, which was designed by international architectRichard Neutra. This second church was completed in 1961, at a cost of $3 million(equivalent to $31million in 2023). The dedication service was held November 5, 1961.The design of the new church building enabled Schuller to preach his sermons to worshipers in 500 cars, as well as to members of the congregation inside the church.Schuller's second area church was built on what was to later become a part of the campus of his future (and much larger) "Crystal Cathedral Church.

Seven years later in 1968 a "Tower of Hope" steeple structure was added onto the north side of the property. The Tower of Hope structure rose 13 stories (approximately 130 to 150 feet (40 to 46m)) into the air and was the tallest structure in Orange County at that time. The steeple structure was then topped by an illuminated cross which added another 90 feet (27m) to the structure's overall height.

Also in 1968, Schuller purchased a 10-acre (4.0ha) walnut grove that had bordered on the north boundary of the then current Garden Grove Community Church property. This new purchase of land was to enable the construction of a future much largerCrystal Cathedralon the newly expanded property. The architectural firm ofPhilip Johnson/John Burgeewas soon retained to draw up plans for a primarily glass church that would be able to accommodate over 2,000 church goers, which was to be built on a spot on the newly expanded church campus adjacent to the original church structure.

In order to meet the needs of the church's ever-expanding congregation, the architectural firm designed a reflective glass building that could seat 2,248 people.At the time that it was built, the church was touted as "the largest glass building in the world." The church was dedicated on September 14, 1980. Once the newer, larger, and more noticeable "Crystal Cathedral" structure was completed, Schuller renamed his organization as the "Crystal Cathedral Ministries." Schuller's Crystal Cathedral Church soon became the iconic backdrop from which he preached his popularHour of Powerbroadcasts every Sunday morning for the next 25 years. These broadcasts regularly reached a worldwide audience of 20 million.

He was known to say, "Sin is a condition before it is an action." Schuller encouraged Christians and non-Christians to achieve great things through God and to believe in their dreams. He wrote, "If you can dream it, you can do it!"

As the Crystal Cathedral's founding pastor, Schuller was seen and heard internationally on Sundays on the world's most widely watched hour-long church service, theHour of Power, 1,500 of which were recorded.

On June 15, 1950, Schuller married Arvella De Haan (1929–2014), a churchorganist, who became instrumental in developing the music department at the Crystal Cathedral and was the creator and producer of theHour of Powerfor over 40 years. The Schullers had five children: Sheila, Robert, Jeanne, Carol, and Gretchen.

On January 22, 2006, Schuller's son,Robert A. Schuller, assumed the role of senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. On October 25, 2008, however, he resigned. His father cited "a lack of shared vision" as the cause.Schuller stated that "different ideas as to the direction and the vision for this ministry" with his son "made it necessary ... to part ways in theHour of Powertelevision ministry".Schuller also said, "I love my son and am proud of my son" and that the long-term survival of his ministry was dependent on expanding its imprint beyond the Schuller name. "The real minister's name that we honor isJesus, not Schuller", he said. The ministry then opened the pulpit to a variety of notable Christian speakers.

On June 11, 2009, Schuller announced that the church's leadership would pass to his eldest daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman. On July 11, 2010, he announced that he was retiring as principal pastor of the Crystal Cathedral and would become chairman of the church's board of directors. After a year as interim senior pastor, Sheila Schuller Coleman was elevated to senior pastor in July 2010.

In the wake of Robert Schuller's retirement and after much sorting out, in 2013 Robert H. Schuller's grandson,Bobby V. Schullermoved the remaining congregation from the Crystal Cathedral building and eventually into the somewhat smallerShepherd's Grovechurch building in nearby Irvine, CA. Along the way, from 2013 through 2018 the congregation also temporarily leased what had formerly been the St. Callistus Catholic church of Garden Grove for their Sunday services. During these years, Schuller's grandson took over the leadership of the remaining congregation and also resumed the broadcast of his grandfather'sHour of Powerweekly TV broadcast.

The Crystal Cathedral building, and its campus was then sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for use as its diocesan cathedral and offices. Subsequently, the Diocese of Orange renamed the building theChrist Cathedral.

On October 18, 2010, Coleman announced that the Crystal Cathedral was seeking bankruptcy protection, in the midst of what became known as theGreat Recession.

In May 2011, the senior Schullers, along with their daughter Carol and her husband Tim, were dismissed from the ministry at the Crystal Cathedral. They filed for bankruptcy. The court would eventually allow them approximately 20 percent of what they were owed.The creditors would be paid in full plus interest. In July 2011, it was reported in theOrange County Registerthat Schuller had been ousted from the Crystal Cathedral board.In July 2011, Coleman attempted to reverse the decision that had been made in her absence, saying, "Dad will continue to provide leadership for this ministry through me for as long as possible" and, "I have and will continue to defer to his wisdom and honor him for his unprecedented accomplishments."

On March 11, 2012, after months of attempting to change the attitude of the ministry's board, Coleman told the Crystal Cathedral congregation that she was leaving to start a new church because of "a hostile work environment". TheInternational Business Timesreported that this came following "a bitter fallout between the ministry and its founding family".According to the Religion News Service, the founders were left with little to no assets; their home was fully mortgaged.

On January 24, 2013, the Crystal Cathedral's board of directors voted to makeBobby Schuller, Schuller's grandson (son of Robert Anthony Schuller), the new pastor for theHour of Powertelevision program as well as a non-voting member of the board.

In late August 2013, Robert H. Schuller was diagnosed withesophageal cancerthat had spread to thelymph nodes. A follow-up examination in September 2013 presented Schuller with the possibility of undergoingchemotherapyandradiation therapythat could extend his life. Schuller then agreed to receive the cancer treatments, which may have been responsible for extending his life by nearly two more years as had been predicted by his physicians.

Arvella Schuller died on February 11, 2014, aged 84.The Schullers had been married for 63 years.

Schuller died peacefully, early on the morning of April 2, 2015, at a nursing facility inArtesia, California, aged 88. His funeral was held at Christ Cathedral, the former campus of the Crystal Cathedral. He is interred next to his wife at the Christ Cathedral Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Garden Grove, California.

Schuller authored over 30 hardcover books, 6 of which madeThe New York Timesand Publishers Weekly bestseller lists,including:

• Way to the Good Life(1963)
• Your Future is Your Friend(1964), Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Reprinted 1991 by Cathedral Press. A devotional on the 23rd Psalm.
• Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking(1967)
• Self-Love(1975)
• You Can Be the Person You Want to Be(1976)
• Toughminded Faith for Tenderhearted People(1979), Thomas Nelson
• Self-Esteem: The New Reformation(1982)
• Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do(1983),Thomas Nelson
• The Power of Being Debt Free(1985); Thomas Nelson Publishing
• Living Positively One Day at a Time(1986)
• Success Is Never Ending, Failure Is Never Final(1990)
• Life's Not Fair, But God Is Good(1991)
• Possibility Thinking(1993)
• Prayer: My Soul's Adventure with God(1995)
• If It's Going to Be It's Up to Me(1997)
• My Journey: From an Iowa Farm to a Cathedral of Dreams(2001)
• Hours of Power(2004)
• Don't Throw Away Tomorrow(2005)

Important Unitarian Minister Supported Chinese Immigrants, Embarrassed Opponent

$145.00

1912 Vintage Illustration Map Showing Important Battlegrounds of Civil War

$19.99

Important Antique Religious Silver Pendant -7cm - Manetein Dilectione Mea

$189.00

gorgeous Uraeus Serpent -cobra statue, one of the most important protection

$110.00

NWA 998 ~ Martian Nakhlite Meteorite ~ RARE & Scientifically Important ~ 0.101 g

$115.00

NWA 011 Meteorite ~ Achondrite-Ungrouped ~ Rare & Scientifically Important

$85.00

IMPORTANT LETTER CONCERNING ORIGIN OF NEW DEAL: 1948: HARMAN KAHN: SIGNED: F

$36.00

5X High Quality White Short Comic Book Storage Boxes Holds 150-175 Comics New

$29.40