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Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 8:07 PM
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Tallest Churches/Religious Buildings in the western hemisphere

I know that the US and Canada are generally dwarfed in this category by Europe which has many, many huge iconic religious edifices. For this thread, I'm interested in seeing pics of the tallest religious halls of worship (church/temple/mosque/etc.) in your US, Canadian, Mexican, Central, or South American city. I'm not a religious person in an organized religion sort of way, but find the architecture and histories behind them to be quite fascinating. I grew up in a very Catholic city which has a disproportionately high number of impressive religious buildings for a city of its size, so that may have something to do with my interest. And please, let's try not to list every church in your city... how about the tallest only?


East Liberty Presbyterian Church - Pittsburgh, PA
91m (300 ft)
Ralph Adams Cram
1935
-said to be the most expensive church per sq ft ever built in America

http://fatherpitt.wordpress.com/category/churches/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/91396833@N00/3917915236


Saint Peter Cathedral - Erie, PA
81m (266 ft) central tower, flanked by twin 46m (151 ft) towers
Patrick Charles Keely
1893
-among the tallest churches in the US when completed with St. Patrick Cathedral and Trinity Church in NYC and St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral in Buffalo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moodylady/2755501818/sizes/z/in/photostream/


http://www.panoramio.com/photo/21211510

Last edited by pj3000; Mar 16, 2011 at 5:45 PM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 8:14 PM
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Cathedral of st. john the divine. (largest cathedral on Earth)


http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/img...ine2008Ext.jpg


Riverside church (tallest church in the U.S)


http://www.medhanialem.org/Pictures/...ide-church.jpg
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  #3  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 8:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork View Post
Cathedral of st. john the divine. (largest cathedral on Earth)
And still under construction since 1892! I used to park my car for free in a St. John's church spot after a fire closed the church in 2001 and the spot was never used (except by me!). Maybe I'll spend some time in purgatory for that!

Riverside is awesome. I love seeing it when crossing the GWB... kind of an introduction to the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 7:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork View Post


Riverside church (tallest church in the U.S)


http://www.medhanialem.org/Pictures/...ide-church.jpg
Actually there's the Chicago Temple Building which is 568 feet tall. It's the tallest church building in the world.
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  #5  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 11:36 AM
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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
Actually there's the Chicago Temple Building which is 568 feet tall. It's the tallest church building in the world.
true though Riverside Church is the tallest "church only" building in the US.
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  #6  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2011, 12:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork View Post
Cathedral of st. john the divine. (largest cathedral on Earth)


http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/img...ine2008Ext.jpg


Riverside church (tallest church in the U.S)


http://www.medhanialem.org/Pictures/...ide-church.jpg
Is there service at St. John's scheduled for tonight, I have work that needs completing from home but am wondering if I ought to run out to a mass.
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Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 8:28 PM
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St. Peters (Rome) is considered the world's largest church building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...s_in_the_world


A great topic for a thread, by the way.
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Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 8:50 PM
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Good topic.

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, DC - 329 feet


Washington National Cathedral
Washington, DC - 301 feet

source: flickr user michael43rogers
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  #9  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 9:03 PM
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at 568' tall, the tallest church in chicago is the chicago temple building, but it's a weird hybrid church/office building. the first united methodist church of chicago built the building in the early 1920s to capitalize on the prime Loop real estate that the original church building sat on. there's a main sanctuary for the congregation on the ground floor, then 23 floors of commercial office space, topped by the sky chapel that sits directly below the building's dramatic steeple.



source: markh04 @ Flickr
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Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 9:14 PM
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^ Cool. Not really a church in the traditional sense, but a cool church nonetheless. I've seen that building before when I've been in Chicago, but figured it was just a Gothic-looking office building, not realizing it was an actual church as well.
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Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 10:16 PM
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For Miami I'm guessing the not very tall Cathedral of St Mary in Little Haiti. No idea how tall it is, but it's one of the few that stands out.

http://www.cathedralofsaintmary.com/ip.asp


src: http://www.exploring-america.com/mia...avel-guide.htm
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Last edited by brickell; Mar 15, 2011 at 1:27 PM.
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  #12  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 10:55 PM
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St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral - Buffalo, NY
82m (270 ft)
Richard Upjohn
1870
-architect also designed Trinity Church in NYC


http://www.buffaloah.com/a/pearl/128/06ext/index.html
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 1:50 AM
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Salt Lake's tallest church is also the most recognizable building in town:


The Salt Lake Mormon Temple (222 FT)

It's not the tallest in DC, but the temple there is the tallest of any Mormon temple in the world and was built to be a modern interpretation of the design of the Salt Lake Temple:


Washington, DC Mormon Temple (288 FT)

Last edited by arkhitektor; Mar 15, 2011 at 3:32 AM.
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  #14  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 2:44 AM
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Saint Matthew Lutheran Church - Charleston, SC
78m (255 ft)
John Henry Devereaux
1872; rebuilt 1966


http://www.flickr.com/photos/11293259@N03/2515668034/sizes/z/in/photostream/
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 3:01 AM
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Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe - Dallas, TX
69m (225 ft)
Nicholas Clayton
1902
-the 225 ft bell tower was not added until 2005


http://www.dallasarchitecture.info/cathguad.htm
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  #16  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2011, 12:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000 View Post
St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral - Buffalo, NY
82m (270 ft)
Richard Upjohn
1870
-architect also designed Trinity Church in NYC
I noticed my wikipedia entry was edited down to 270ft even though the church is actually 275ft. Now who edited it? and do you have a source for that 270ft height?

my 275ft value was taken from http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NH...t/73002298.pdf
7. description, 3rd paragraph.

EDIT: I just fixed it back.

Last edited by Fortunate4Now; Mar 17, 2011 at 3:55 PM.
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  #17  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2011, 3:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fortunate4Now View Post
I noticed my wikipedia entry was edited down to 270ft even though the church is actually 275ft. Now who edited it? and do you have a source for that 270ft height?

my 275ft value was taken from http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NH...t/73002298.pdf
7. description, 3rd paragraph.
270' is what I have from a rather detailed pamphlet about the church from the Buffalo & Western NY Society of Architectural Historians that I got when I went to a seminar/architectural history tour of Buffalo a few years ago. I don't do wikipedia or I would have entered St. Paul's on the list on that page to begin with... as you said earlier, it wasn't even listed. However, I put it on the very first page of this thread because I was familiar with the church and had the height data.
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 7:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brickell View Post
For Miami I'm guessing the not very tall Cathedral of St Mary in Little Haiti. No idea how tall it is, but it's one of the few that stands out.

http://www.cathedralofsaintmary.com/ip.asp


src: http://www.exploring-america.com/mia...avel-guide.htm
I think it might actually be Gesu Catholic downtown. Not sure, but I think it's probably taller than St. Mary... but that's only based on my memory from personal observation.

Gesu Catholic Church - Miami, FL
Height??
Architect??
1925


http://www.123rf.com/photo_4063363.html
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 8:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by metafizarc View Post
Not the tallest church in N. America, but the tallest AIDS Memorial in the world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by metafizarc View Post
(Also the home of Philip Johnson's "Interfaith Peace Chapel" -2010)
I think we already took care of the city of Dallas' tallest with the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe.

Let's keep it to tallest please, or else we will get every shrine, chapel, grotto, monument, etc.... and the whole purpose of the thread is lost.
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  #20  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2011, 8:28 PM
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Saint Ignatius - San Francisco, CA
65m (213 ft)
Charles Devlin
1914


http://www.aviewoncities.com/gallery/showpicture.htm?key=kveus4256


http://www.terragalleria.com/california/picture.usca43347.html
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