Baldacchino – 1970 – Saint Mary Cathedral, San Francisco (CA)

Perhaps the grandest concrete building in the Bay Area is Saint Mary's Cathedral, designed by architects Pier Luigi Nervi and Pietro Belluschi as consultant.

The “Baldacchino” is made of thousands of aluminum prisms, suspended with gold-plated cables and it stands twelve stories high.

This work, over the main alter, suggests a benevolent space enclosing and protecting the congregation. As one enters the Cathedral, the sculpture seems a floating cloud of light, suggesting a luminous rope of the Virgin. Near the altar, the gold wires from which it is suspended from the main beams, like great golden angel wings, become visible.

Pope John Paul II celebrated mass under Lippold’s Baldacchino, September 17, 1987.