If brooding baroque opulence is what they want they can forget it

If brooding, baroque opulence is what they want, they can forget it. Moneo is the master of the cool, forward- looking structure that enhances its context without outflanking it. Needless to say, the design must be earthquake proof, with – this being Los Angeles – parking spaces for about 3,000 cars.. Rafael Moneo is a hero among Spanish architects. What won him the Los Angeles commission was apparently the city’s desire for a “Spanish spirit” to reflect its Hispanic roots.

The imitation gothic National Cathedral in Washington DC, completed in 1990, took 86 years to build. The similarly designed Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York is still technically under construction after 94 years.Beyond the cardinal’s hints that he would like something in California’s Spanish Mission style, and a building ready for use by 2000, Moneo has a free hand. He was chosen over two leading US architects including FrankGehry, listed in Time magazine this month as one of the 25 most influential people in the US.American cities have set huge store by the building of modern churches. At the ceremony announcing the choice of Moneo, a devout Catholic, he described his assignment in deeply spiritual terms and pressed his lips to the cardinal’s ring. Conservancy director, Linda Dishman, said: “What is being lost here is that the archdiocese tried to illegally demolish the church.”The court battle resumes on Monday when the archdiocese will try to have a temporary restraining order granted to the Conservancy lifted by a judge. He demanded “the freedom to worship in the manner and space that we desire and need as Roman Catholics”.But leaders of the 5,000-member Los Angeles Conservancy say they were all away at an environmental conference on 1 June when the cardinal ordered demolition workers onto the site without a permit.They voiced suspicion that the timing was no coincidence, and say that act destroyed 18 months of friendly talks. He has also threatened to take his new cathedral to a site outside the city if the delays continue.Donning a hard hat for a recent news conference against the backdrop of the old building, the cardinal said opponents would only succeed in creating one more empty and deteriorating urban eyesore, standing as “a shameful testament to a small group of obstructionists”.On Monday he and the mayor appeared at a rally of about 200 supporters, some of them nuns holding placards reading “Let the cardinal run his church”.

But his reputation for skillfully blending of the old and the new – such as the post-modernist Atocha railway station in Madrid – has so far failed to silence critics of the project, who are demanding an environmental review.At the centre of the row is the outspoken 60-year-old cardinal, a Los Angeles native who is no stranger to political battles, and is now accused of throwing his weight around like the owner of a football team.Drawing on the clout of 4 million mostly Hispanic parishioners, he has rallied formidable allies, including his friend, the Catholic mayor, Richard Riordan. With Los Angeles newly sensible of its own (short) architectural history, the demolition of the original St Vibiana’s was dramatically blocked by a court order after a crane pulled off the cupola.Moneo, one of Europe’s foremost architects, has spoken of integrating pieces of the old structure, including windows, porticoes and altars, into his new design. The cathedral, it is hoped, will serve as a spiritual centre for America’s largest archdiocese, and also as a magnet for the city’s notoriously grimy centre.If it happens. But for all its faults, St Vibiana, dedicated in 1876, is one of the oldest structures in Los Angeles and probably its second oldest church.
It was designed by one of the city’s first professional architects at a time when the city’s population was about 9,000. It has survived two earthquakes, though it was badly damaged in the 1994 shake.Now, it is slated for demolition, and it has sparked an unholy row between the church authorities and stubborn conservationists.The Spanish architect, Rafael Moneo, has been given the task of replacing it with “a wonderful sacred space in the midst of a modern city known for its ephemeral entertainment glitter”.Those were the words of Cardinal Roger Mahoney, who this week handed Moneo the $50m contract. No one claims that the soon-to-be demolished St Vibiana’s cathedral in Los Angeles is an architectural jewel.

It was slapped together in four years from cheap materials and is an “architecturally inferior, rather poor replica” of a 17th century Spanish baroque church in Barcelona, at least according to archdiocese spokesman, Father Gregory Coiro. Minutes of the meeting, which have been in Russian archives for 50 years, have been seen by Stephane Courtois, a French historian and specialist on Communism who prints a transcript in his journal, Communisme; excerpts are published today in the magazine l’Evenement du Jeudi.
On being told of the Red Army’s plans in 1944, Thorez responded: “The British and Americans disembarked in France less to destroy Germany than to take up positions in Western Europe.” He then told Stalin the French “would have received the Red Army with enthusiasm” and that de Gaulle would not have existed, to which Stalin added: “De Gaulle would have left.”. Paris – If Churchill had not opened the second front in Normandy when he did, the Soviet Union would have invaded France, Stalin told Maurice Thorez, leader of the French Communist Party, in 1947, during a secret meeting in Moscow, writes Mary Dejevsky. But they will not like the fact that their Peking counterparts have far less faith in them than they do in the Chinese, not least because they are trying to convince a highly sceptical outside world that they understand something about economics.Chinese officials share the assessment of many Western observers of the election, that Mr Zyuganov could win the first round but that Mr Yeltsin is the favourite for the run-off three weeks later.. Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said the decision was long overdue and would be supported by most teachers. But any attempt by the Government to impose particular teacher training methods will be resisted .”Some teachers gave the announcement a guarded welcome.

“The great majority of teachers are very different from the trendy Wendy woolly jumper people – they exist but they are in a small minority.”He blamed the Government for procrastinating over teaching methods and for listening to advisers, inspectors and administrators.Earlier, Chris Woodhead, the Chief Inspector for Schools, continued his crusade against progressive teaching methods at a Confederation for British Industry conference.Too many teachers believed the progressive “nonsense” that “we should encourage children to make decisions and choices before they have been taught something about that which they are deciding on choosing between”.Professors and pundits hailed such “thinking” as the pinnacle of good practice.”Let’s be crystal clear about what we want from our schools and implacable in our determination to root out those specious ideas which impede progress.”Mrs Shephard told the conference that a skills audit to be published in today’s Competitiveness White Paper shows that Britain scores well on higher education and IT skills but badly on literacy and numeracy and in some key work-related skills.The paper compares Britain with France, Germany, Singapore and the United States.. Earlier she denied on BBC Radio 4 that yesterday’s announcement had been prompted by complaints from right-wingers that she is not being tough enough on Labour.Headteachers warned the Government not to tell teachers how to teach. David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “We support the need to reform teacher training. Details of the framework and the new curriculum will be disclosed in September. The actual percentage of time teachers must spend teaching the whole class may be specified, Mrs Shephard said.She briefed journalists on a series of measures the Government was taking to improve standards. If we have a situation where 46 per cent of newly qualified teachers can say they don’t feel equipped to deal with the challenges of the classroom, then there needs to be more prescription.”A new framework would also be drawn up to train existing teachers. Mrs Shephard said these would include phonics, matching letters to sounds, to teach reading, mental arithmetic for maths and whole-class teaching.The new national curriculum for teacher training will apply at first only to primary teaching and to English and maths, and may be extended later to other subjects and to secondary training.She said the Government may not need legislation to make the regulations to impose the new measures “It is a whole step forward It is a different ball game.