Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston

August 5, 2008

   Then, there’d be unheard-of conveniences, such as poured concrete walls and aluminum anchors for the cladding, as well as the opportunity to bring in stone from other parts of the world.
   In the end, however, the craftsmen who erected the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, dedicated this past April, shared one important trait with their 11th century counterparts: the immense pride in being part of constructing an edifice designed to last for centuries.

PLENTY OF PASSION
   Literally everyone involved with constructing a new seat for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston agrees that the there’s something special in building a new cathedral.
   For Scott Ziegler, senior principal at Houston-based Ziegler Cooper Architects, the project proved an opportunity to really expand the experience of his 30-year-old firm while indulging his own lifelong interest in cathedrals.
   However, he notes, it almost didn’t happen. The archdiocese began the design process by sending out a qualification statement he almost ignored.
   “We almost didn’t submit because we didn’t have any religious experience to speak of, but (then) we were told that no one had really designed a cathedral recently,” he says. “I think it was our passion for wanting to design a cathedral that got us the job.”
   Initial work on the project actually began a decade ago as the vision of then-Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza. Claudia Deschamps, archdiocese director of communications, explains that since the 1980s, the archdiocese grew tremendously, to where it’s now the largest in the southeastern United States with more than 150 parishes.
   “While the old co-cathedral of the Sacred Heart (dedicated in 1912) and St. Mary’s Basilica in Galveston hosted large archdiocesan ceremonies, there was an increased need to construct a site of worship that would be centrally located and that could accommodate the thousands of parishioners that, at times, attend these ceremonies,” Deschamps says.
   After receiving permission from the Catholic Church’s Council of Priests to go ahead with the project, a fundraising drive ultimately drew pledges of more than $100 million. Plans for the project went public in May 2001, with the formal groundbreaking in early 2005.
   Ziegler says there was little question as to what the archbishop aspired for in the new co-cathedral.
   “Even at the qualifying stage, he was clear that he was looking for a traditional line cathedral that had a noble simplicity,” says Ziegler. “Once we got the commission, he explained that he was looking for something that did not have a lot of distracting lines – that was almost monastic, if you will – in terms of a spiritual space. He felt the purpose of coming into the cathedral was to shut out the outside world.”
   Deschamps adds that the archbishop committed to follow the same construction forms used in cathedrals hundreds of years ago to model the building in the shape of a cross.
   “We talked about the Gothic and the Baroque and the Romanesque; the Romanesque has the simple line he was looking for, but in a more-modern expression,” says the architect. “We also wanted to capture 21st-century Houston, which is a dynamic, progressive city.”

ESSENCE OF A VISION
   Armed with the archbishop’s vision of the new co-cathedral, Ziegler and his staff set to work, aided by the locally-based Linbeck Group LLC, hired almost simultaneously with Ziegler in late 2000 to make certain the project ran as smoothly as possible.
   Linbeck prides itself on its ability to do one-of-a-kind signature structures, although senior project manager Mark Gore calls the cathedral “one of the most-unique projects the Linbeck team has ever constructed.”
   “We made it very clear that we felt it was important to tie down the general contractor to assist in many aspects of the project,” says Ziegler. “One was pricing, but we also had a lot of constructability issues. As we had questions, we wanted them to be close at hand as we made decisions about technology and construction aspects.”
   Deschamps explains that Linbeck’s selection used much the same process as the archdiocese used in picking Ziegler Cooper.
   “We interviewed a number of prospect companies,” she relates. “In the end, we chose Linbeck given its outstanding presentation. The archdiocese also felt that in order to take this project through fruition, we needed a company that captured the essence of our vision.
   “We were also looking for company that had a good corporate personality, and one that understood the importance of getting along with other archdiocesan entities.”
   Gore explains that Linbeck performed several tasks that it normally executes for clients, starting with an analysis of materials, building systems, schedules and costs. An important part of that involved the continued refinement of financial models that eventually brought the cost of the building in at approximately $40 million (with another $10 million in furnishings).
   Another key task came with devising a system for construction-material delivery. The new building – located across the street from the old cathedral – takes up the better part of a city block, creating the need to minimize onsite inventories of materials.
   Linbeck also prepared several important documents, including a planning manual to provide a clear and comprehensive framework for dealing with owners’ issues, a precise schedule and a set of project goals to be posted and measured each week.
   “A successful project requires a great deal of preplanning,” says Gore. “We believe it’s imperative for all parties involved in the project to come together and outline the goals and expectations for the project. The goals become the foundation for the project team’s efforts and give us objective criteria by which to measure our performance.”
   Finally, Linbeck hired what became a total of 69 subcontractors to complete the work, often with input from the architects. Scott Ziegler says that, given the scope of the project, a big concern was capacity.
   “We talked a lot with Linbeck about suppliers and installers,” he says. “We had capacity issues across the board, but a big question was whether one stone fabricator would do the entire cathedral. The interior was a complicated task, and the exterior was enormous.”
   Ultimately, the discussion came down to two companies: Dallas-based Dee Brown Inc. (DBI), and the local Lucia Group, a sister company of Linbeck’s.
   “In the end, we wanted companies that had the best craftsmanship and the most masons available,” the architect explains. “Their experience with institutional projects gave them the upper hand, and in the end we chose Dee Brown to do the exterior installations, while Lucia did the interior.”

EXTRA TOLERANCE
   Rob Barnes, president and chief operations officer (COO) for DBI, says Ziegler courted his firm for a couple years just to get the firm to bid on the project.
   “We have a strong history of quality work, and I think our credentials spoke for themselves,” he says of the selection.
The company was also actively involved in helping Ziegler select the Indiana limestone that clads the 80’ exterior walls.
   “They went through some different materials,” Barnes says. “At one point they were looking at a French limestone, and we provided samples of Bulgarian limestone. By the time we reached the bid stage, it was down to either an Indiana limestone or a Texas Lueders limestone. The Indiana limestone happens to be a bit more in the buff range, and that was the deciding factor.”
   Even after the Indiana limestone was selected, Barnes says an additional selection process took place at the Bedford, Ind., facility of Evans Limestone Co.
   “The project team all went to Indiana; Evans cut some material and gave us a color range to look at in panel sizes that were the same as those that would be installed on the cathedral,” he explains.
   Once that was determined, DBI also helped with the selection of a Fatima beige limestone from Portugal, used in a decorative band and as a match for the architectural precast stone that DBI installed on the 80,000-lb. dome topping out 117’ above the ground.
   DBI was also responsible for finding a particular Calcatta Oro marble with a gold vein to be used on exterior columns at the entries.
   “This is from a unique ledge that’s only quarried every four or five years, and there are not a lot of blocks from that specific area,” says Barnes. “We had a fabricator we know in Italy do the columns, which are end-matched with the veining running from the bottom of one column to the top of the one below it. We had that sitting in our yard for five or six months, because we waited to do the installation until they were done running material through the doors.”
   Perhaps the biggest surprise with the installation of the exterior limestone panels came with the speed of finishing the job. Barnes says the company had a crew on site for only eight months; during that time, it not only installed approximately 73,000 ft(2) of limestone, but also hung the precast on the dome.
   The company – as well as the other subs on the project – benefited from Linbeck’s decision to erect one scaffolding system for the entire project, both inside and out. Gore says the scaffold system alone cost more than $1 million, but was able to handle the diverse needs of the masons, plasterers, caulkers and others, all the while meeting state and OSHA (federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations.
   To help accomplish its part of the job, DBI opted not to use a steel anchoring system, choosing instead its own two-part aluminum anchor system with a baked anodized finish.
   “Because we were installing on concrete backup walls, and concrete has a tendency to have a little more tolerance in it, we also built more tolerance into our system,” Barnes says. “We installed two-piece assemblies with a piece affixed to the wall and a piece that could adjust in and out affixed to that piece. Those were set at the quarter points of the stone in a kerf system.”
   While that’s not atypical, Barnes adds it provided about an extra 1/2” of tolerance. That, in turn, allowed the company more leeway in dealing with areas of the poured concrete that didn’t quite meet specifications.
   Barnes adds that the other advantage to the system is that, by hanging the limestone panels on the concrete, it should be better able to deal with hurricane-force winds. If a panel is damaged by flying debris in such a storm, it can be removed and replaced – each stone is self-supporting.
   Despite Linbeck’s efforts on scheduling material delivery, Barnes says that was probably the toughest part of the process.
   “We sequenced the stone materials from bottom-to-top per elevation, so we had to closely coordinate shipping with the fabricator,” he says. “They’d bring in a trailer and drop it, and then the next load would come down and they’d take the empty trailer back. We tried to have materials on an as-needed basis, and there was a lot of coordination that went into making sure that worked.”
   At times, he adds, the company stored some materials at its Dallas yard to keep Evans from having to keep it due to job constraints.
   Despite those issues, Barnes says he doesn’t believe the DBI crew, led by foreman Burt Burbidge, could’ve done a better job.
   “Everybody’s been real pleased,” he concludes. “I don’t know that we’ve had a whole lot of jobs that went as well. We do a lot of high-profile jobs, but this has been as rewarding an experience as we’ve had in a long time.”

WEIGHTY ISSUES
   As with DBI, the Lucia Group was chosen to install the interior stone on the co-cathedral because of its expertise and its ability to muster adequate manpower to do the job.
   “Not only are we a major stone contractor here in Houston, but this is the type of work that’s really our forte,” says Clay Bruce, Lucia’s vice president. “We enjoy jobs that are difficult and incorporate a lot of ornate marble and granite work.”
   The company also worked closely with architect Ziegler and officials from the archdiocese to make sure the interior stonework was exactly what they wanted.
   “Especially with marble, it ranges so much that from one piece to the next you can get a lot of difference,” says Bruce. “We like to take the architect and the client to the quarry so they can see where it’s coming from, and to the fabricator who’s going to be fabricating it. That way, there aren’t any surprises at the end of the job.”
   Bruce estimates that 14 different stones went into the co-cathedral, including the exterior; finding good sources for the materials used on the interior, and getting them fabricated was a major undertaking.
   Further complicating the matter was that Lucia didn’t supply all the stone for the project.
   “A liturgical committee had funds for certain furniture items within the church, such as the altar, the pulpit and the baptismal font,” Bruce explains. “They chose the sources for that stone and the fabricator, and we did the installation.”
   He adds that fabricator – in Italy – also did some of the fabrication required by Lucia because it used the same stone.
“We chose another fabricator do to the majority of the stonework in the church and that went through our process,” Bruce says. “We went to three or four different Italian suppliers and asked them to price the job, then did the same with different fabricators we knew were very capable of doing a job like this.”
   Architect Ziegler says the dominant stone on the interior is a Botticino Classico marble tile used on the floors.
“It was chosen for its compatibility with the Indiana limestone,” Ziegler explains. “(and) its quiet, soft palette. It has some character, but it became a nice, neutral background for our accent pieces, including the altar.”
   Although the interior walls are predominantly plaster, stone accent pieces abound. Along with the liturgical furniture, the cathedral displays two pieces of liturgical art: statues of Mary of the Immaculate Conception and the Scared Heart of Jesus. Each weighs six tons, and was carved from Carrara marble in Carrara, Italy.
   An Italian engineer designed mounting plates on the back of the statues, but placing them 6’ above the cathedral’s floor became the task of a Linbeck crew.
   “We designed a unique support system to stand (the statues) up and rotate them once they arrived in their crates,” says that company’s Gore. “After performing a dry run with a four-ton test weight, we found ways to improve our process. Still, the intricate mounting process took two weeks.”
   Lucia’s Bruce says in much the same way that company faced the task of placing the New Diaspro Rosso marble altar top. Measuring 5’ X 8’ and 12” thick, the top weighed more than three-and-a-half tons.
   “We built a gantry system on wheels to take it off the truck, roll it into the cathedral and set it on the pedestal,” Bruce says. “That was quite a challenge, although the guys move heavy pieces quite often.”
   As with other projects of this nature, the interior stonework ended up as the last to be completed, although Lucia had a crew numbering as many as 18 people at the cathedral for more than nine months.
   “Not only did we price some 200 change orders, but it turned out to be very rushed at the end,” Bruce says. “We had to have some materials flown in, rather than shipped, in order to make the schedule.”
   And, because the floor was literally wall-to-wall with 1/8” joints, the company did a fair amount of tweaking onsite.
Not surprisingly, Bruce was touched that church officials allowed the men who worked on the project to sign one of the inner walls.
   “It was a nice gesture, and it gave the guys a real sense of pride,” he says. “A lot of times these projects can get hectic, but with the coordination for the architect and the contractor and all the other trades, it was a fairly smooth-running operation. Everybody pulled their weight and it turned out to be a beautiful project.”
   Ziegler agrees.
   “It was one of the most challenging buildings we’ve ever done, but it was rewarding in all aspects,” he says. “Part of that was the opportunity to work with the quality of craftsmen and artisans. That quality made it really rewarding. It’s one of the most uplifting experiences I’ve had in my life as an architect.”
   Although some work remains to be done – for instance, the organ won’t be installed until 2009 or 2010 – Deschamps says the archdiocese couldn’t be more pleased with the co-cathedral.
   “The response to it has been overwhelming,” Deschamps concludes. “Not only have we had visits from faithful Catholics from around the archdiocese, but the site has become of interest to the thousands of tourists who visit downtown Houston.
   “We want this to stand the test of time and, God willing, the Co-cathedral of the Sacred Heart will last for the next 500 years.”

Client: The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Houston
Architect: Ziegler Cooper Architects, Houston
General Contractor: Linbeck Group LLC, Houston
Exterior Stone Contractor: Dee Brown Inc. (DBI), Garland, Texas
Interior Stone Contractor: Lucia Group, Houston
Exterior Stone Supplier: Evans Limestone Co., Bedford, Ind.