The Crystal Cathedral is still a cathedral, but soon a Catholic one
Once the symbol of evangelist Robert Schuller’s success, the 128-foot-tall glass building went into foreclosure and the Diocese of Orange bought it.
For nearly 30 years, Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral was not only a religious landmark but an architectural wonder and an embodiment of flush times in Southern California’s Orange County.
Schuller, who died in 2015, was one of the most widely known pastors in the Reformed Church in America. He captured the ebullient positivity of midcentury America, and by the 1970s he was one of the country’s top televangelists, broadcasting Hour of Power.
The symbol of his success was the Crystal Cathedral, a 128-foot-tall building designed by the modernist architect Philip Johnson to be the largest glass building in the world. It was a physical representation of the limitless hopes of the evangelical community of the time.
