(San Francisco, USA) St. Mary's Church

San Francisco Architecture Walk 🚶‍♀️ "St. Mary's Church," located on the outskirts of downtown San Francisco, features a strangely shaped exterior with a hat-shaped roof on top of a rectangular volume. Designed by Italians Pietro Bellusci and Pier Luigi Nervi, the distinctive exterior with a streamlined tower rising from a square volume is modern yet heavy, reminiscent of Kenzo Tange's Tokyo Cathedral Association architecture. The interior space is even more dynamic than the exterior. The design flows from the HP shell structure roof to the lower columns, beautifully integrating design and structure. It also contrasts with the surrounding square planar volumes. Upon investigation, I found out that the architect, Pier Luigi Nervi, is also known as a structural engineer and was a major influence on Kenzo Tange. He argues that architectural design of such shell structures requires not only engineering but also intuition and artistic elements, and somehow, when you see this building, you feel like you can understand it. The columns that connect to the floor in an undulating manner also seem to grow from the ground, creating a very dynamic design. Looking up at the soaring HP shell structure ceiling, fantastic light pours into the gaps from the cross-shaped skylights. A cross is embedded in the dynamic ceiling, which is integrated into the design, and this is also reminiscent of Kenzo Tange's Tokyo Cathedral and Tadao Ando's Church of Light. Looking at the church from all angles and directions for about an hour, you can feel the mathematical beauty of this architecture, which is different from geometric architecture that is based on horizontal and vertical lines. It seems to be the original form that architecture aimed for, where design and structure, or engineering and art, are fused together. After all, beautiful architecture appeals to the five senses.