While I'm not a fan of Western church architecture, the new styles are even worse than the old:
http://www.amarillodiocese.org/index.cf ... 213&page=5

Being from NYC, I believe it really spoils us, we have old archetecture and grand marble and gold throughout most of our Churches here (but not all, look up St Andrew's Catholic Church, Brooklyn, for example). Most new churches in this country look like this one you linked. I believe cost is a factor, and even the funding parishoners preferences.
But we must remember what matters most, that no matter the style Mass is reverently celebrated!

I know what you mean, Francisca; it is hard to accept a church like that as a "cathedral" when one is used to seeing something like this in a parish church:

(That, by the way, is St. Jean Baptiste, on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.)

Custos, that is beautiful. The church of my childhood, St. Francis of Assisi, Brooklyn has a very similar layout.

Have you ever been to Our Lady of Victory near Wall St? It is a plain brick building on the outside. The inside is a little more traditional than the Amarillo church that was linked, but it's rather modern (:), I always say protestant-ish) but the is stained glass and a proper large crucifix. People are surprised to see this in NYC.

Francisca, I have been in OL Victory. It is a modern parish, created in the 1940s out of what (of course) had been Old St. Peter's.

I don't agree it is "Protestantish"; I think the architect was going for pseudo-Georgian Revival. Perhaps other might comment:

Reminds me of the restored old cathedral in Baltimore.

It does scream "Texas," though, doesn't it?

Sanctuary is a bit barren -- that is what makes it look rather Protestant.

Barren? With a polychromed Rood under a canopy, a tabernacle at the center of the sanctuary, and a marble altar with gilt bronze adornments? I've seen 'barren' - and that is not it.

Here is the Basilica in Baltimore, mentioned by Fr. Obi; this is even more restrained -- but again, not barren:


Getting back to the Amarillo church, I have suddenly realized that one of the main driving forces in the design of the whole place was air conditioning -- as in how to make the building easy and inexpensive to cool. This explains the relatively low ceiling, and the blank, windowless walls.

Hence my use of the term "a bit barren" as opposed to "very barren."

[quote="Custos"]something like this in a parish church:
quote]

WOW! Why did we give it all up? And for what....