Architecture
Like a number of other Polish churches in the so-called Polish Cathedral style such as St. Josaphat's Basilica in Milwaukee or Immaculate Heart of Mary in Pittsburgh, the architectural firm of Worthmann and Steinbach modeled the church's design on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It has been acclaimed as one of the finest specimens of Roman Renaissance architecture in the United States. The imposing brick edifice with its twin bell towers and magnificent dome was constructed at a cost of $400,000-a testament to the zeal of Father Gordon and to the generosity of the members of St. Mary of the Angels parish.
In 1948, John A. Mallin decorated the interior of the church with ornate designs and paintings. The W. W. Kimball pipe organ was installed at a cost of $23,750. Its four manuals and 57 ranks equipped with theater stops make it practically one of its kind in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The cost of overhauling this organ in 1962 amounted to $15,000.
In 1973, extensive repairs were made on the exterior of the dome of St. Mary of the Angels Church and the Holy Name Society donated the blue "Guiding Light" in the cupola which can be seen at a distance-especially from the nearby Kennedy Expressway.
Read more about this topic: St. Mary Of The Angels In Chicago
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“I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)
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“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)