The Making of the Omega Window

Oakland, California

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

By Suzanne Stephens

The ethereal, 58-foot-high Christ figure for the Omega Window in Oakland California’s Cathedral of Christ the Light, designed by Craig Hartman, FAIA, and Skidmore Owing & Merrill’s San Francisco office, usually generates considerable wonderment. Rather than a stained-glass window or a carved stone sculpture, here is a large gray and white apparition. SOM used a digital image of a high-relief Romanesque sculpture to create an artwork of anodized aluminum with 154 panels, where laser-cut perforations allow daylight to seep through and luminously recreate the Christ figure. While the execution of such a work may have been (slightly) less time-consuming than carving one of marble, the complex process required is impressive, and the results dramatic.

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