Cathedral Demolition Foes, Mahony Confer

A peace conference of sorts was held Friday between church officials and architectural preservationists on the fate of St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, the downtown Los Angeles landmark that the Roman Catholic archdiocese wants to demolish and replace.

The conference produced no decision about the fate of the 120-year-old cathedral and participants said they did not expect a breakthrough at a final session today. Still, the fact that the two sides were talking encouraged speculation that at least some sections of the quake-damaged cathedral might be saved.

Held in the archdiocese’s administrative building, next to the church at 2nd and Main streets, the meeting was closed to the public and the news media. UCLA architecture professor Richard Weinstein presided as a moderator and said the Friday talks stressed engineering issues.

“We are rolling up our sleeves and trying to see how big a piece of common ground we can all occupy,” Weinstein said.

Among the participants were Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a preservation group that maintains that the old cathedral can be incorporated in a new complex. Seismic expert Nabih Youssef, whose archdiocese-commissioned study last fall warned that the church needed $20 million in repairs, was there too.

Archdiocese spokesman Father Gregory Coiro said the workshop would examine the conservancy’s proposal as well as ideas for memorializing the current cathedral by saving artifacts such as windows and altars.

St. Vibiana’s has been closed since May, after a preliminary seismic report concluded that another earthquake would topple the 83-foot-high bell tower into the sanctuary. Donors have offered $45 million for a new cathedral, also to named after the 3rd century martyr.