3 Finalists Named for Designing of St. Vibiana’s

Jose Rafael Moneo, a prize-winning Spanish architect whose work combines contemporary and historical styles, is the front-runner in the competition to design a new St. Vibiana’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Los Angeles, sources close to the process said Tuesday.

Moneo was formally named one of three finalists Tuesday for the cathedral commission, along with two highly regarded Santa Monica-based architects, Frank O. Gehry and Thom Mayne.

The winner is expected to be announced next week after a contract is signed, according to Father Gregory Coiro, archdiocese spokesman. Coiro declined to discuss reports that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has already chosen Moneo as architect for the spiritual headquarters of the nation’s most populous Roman Catholic archdiocese.

“In actuality, there is no winner until the cardinal says there is,” Coiro said Tuesday.

Sources say Moneo is the likely choice because his work, such as the National Museum of Roman Art in Merida, Spain, blends present-day and historical elements in a manner that Mahony and financial donors for the $45-million cathedral seem to want. Moneo won this year’s the Pritzker Prize, the Nobel of architecture, as Gehry did in 1989. Moneo, who teaches part time at Harvard University, is the only Catholic among the finalists for a job requiring deep understanding of the faith’s sacred rituals.

In what church officials called “one of the most closely watched international architectural competitions of the decade,” the field was narrowed over the last few months from about 50 to 14, and then to the five who were asked to design a shrine for the statue of 18th century missionary Father Junipero Serra near Olvera Street.

Last weekend, a jury of architects, artists and church leaders eliminated Robert Venturi, the celebrated designer from Philadelphia, and Santiago Calatrava, a Spaniard who works in Switzerland and is known for his European bridges.

The three finalists met with the cardinal and another screening panel of church leaders and donors to discuss liturgy, budgets and schedules, Coiro said. The project faces many difficulties, such as how much a new cathedral complex should retain of the 120-year-old, quake-damaged St. Vibiana’s at the preferred construction site at 2nd and Main streets downtown. The cardinal said last week that he may move the project to another location, perhaps out of downtown, if prices of property next to the current cathedral remain inflated and if a legal battle develops to preserve the landmark cathedral.

The jury gave Gehry and Mayne high praise. But some sources suggested that their work might be too cutting-edge for conservative donors. Some observers noted the potential irony of having a Spaniard design the Los Angeles church while Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is under construction. Gehry is expected to give the king of Spain a tour of the museum next week. The Guggenheim resembles his swooping forms planned for the unbuilt Disney Concert Hall on Bunker Hill.

Moneo, 59, could not be reached for comment in Madrid. Mayne, 52, whose Morphosis firm designed the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center and Pomona’s Diamond Ranch High School, said he was “elated” to be on the short list. Gehry, 67, praised the jury and archdiocese, saying the competition has been “a great process for an exciting project.”

The jury’s co-chairman, Richard Weinstein, a UCLA professor of architecture and urban design, declined to comment on whether a final choice had been made. However, he stressed that all three finalists could create “a contemporary cathedral to heal the wounds between the past and the future.”

Moneo’s shrine drawings had both an urban and a peaceful look, and the jury focused on how his Roman museum in Spain “connects to a tradition while making a powerful statement for the present moment,” Weinstein said.