Ethnicity 1: Hearkening to the Homeland

Ethnicity and religious affiliation are not identical, although they are often interconnected.  It is possible to have Catholic, Shiite, and Sunni congregations, all comprised of, for example, Lebanese immigrants and their descendants.  Often, a group of people became more closely identified with their religion as a way of establishing identity and community in a new country.  Both the name and design of the Berkeley Chinese Congregational Church, done by Roger Lee in 1965, reflect this tendency.

Joseph Esherick's 1965 design drawings for the Church of Christ the Savior in San Francisco are fascinating: while the building itself is clearly inspired by traditional architecture of the Russian Orthodox Church, the drawings place the church firmly in the surrounding neighborhood through the scale of the building.  Esherick used the Cyrillic alphabet for the presentation drawings, this acknowledging the church leaders' connection to their Russian homeland.

Spanish missionaries brought a distinctive style to the Missions of California; even when a mission was later restored, the original style remained evident.  The style of the California Missions influenced decades of residential design in the west.  Above are some retablos from the Carmel Mission.  Bernard Maybeck consulted on the restoration of this Mission in 1920.