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The Cathedral
of Saint John the Divine was a product of
the Episcopalian Diocese's aspirations for the revival
of urban life through the construction of a new institutional "Acropolis"
atop Morningside Heights. The Episcopalian church also built the cathedral
to compete with the city's Catholic constituency and their recently built
St. Patrick's Cathedral. Still unfinished today, the
project was initiated by
Bishop Henry Codman Potter in 1872. In 1887 the congregation acquired a
difficult site on the promontory at 112th Street, chosen for its
prominence and view.
Early debates over the building's style led to a competition in 1988 that
was won by the young firm of Heins and Lafarge. Beginning in a
Byzantine/Romanesque
style at the Eastern choir end of the Cathedral, the architects shifted
towards a more traditionally Episcopalian style, the English Gothic,
during its
construction. This stylistic variety, further complicated by the French
Gothic mode of Cram and Ferguson's later work on the nave and Western
facade, is similar to that found in Medieval churches. It endows the
Cathedral with a sense of authenticity although it is a modern
structure.
The building rests on a Guastavino vaulted crypt. Inside, 100-foot
composite piers support the ribbed groin vaults of the 600-foot long nave
and side aisles. Built without the support of a steel frame, this
structure is the largest load-bearing wall cathedral in the world.
Heins and Lafarge's work meets Cram and Fergusons portion at the
unfinished
Guastavino vaulted crossing, whose southern transept is the Greek Revival
shell of the 1840 Leake and Watts Orphanage.
Suspended during World War II, construction recommenced on the unfinished
Cathedral in 1979 under the supervision of the British stonemason James
Bambridge. In keeping with the Cathedral's contemporary role as a social
institution, the work took the form of a community
development project. Local residents, trained in the traditional art of
the masonry, became highly skilled artisans who could apply their
specialized
knowledge to work on the Cathedral, or on other buildings in the city. It
is estimated that work on the Cathedral will take another one hundred
years.
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