Repairing Ice Damage

Remember that ice storm last winter? The storm deposited two or three inches of ice over every house, tree, sidewalk - and Cathedral - in Tulsa. After several long and cold days, the weather finally changed.

The sun eventually warmed the ice on our tall Gothic church's roof. A large sheet slid off the roof and crashed onto our air conditioning equipment. The ice would have done considerable damage to the relatively delicate equipment. However, there is a large metal "roof" over the air conditioners that lets water through, but blocks ice and other falling objects. It's good to know that the metal structure does its job well. The bad news is that the metal roof was nearly destroyed in the process.

Men used a small crane to remove debris from the mechanical yard where the air conditioners are. They are currently working to rebuild the protective framework.

A little cleanup here, a lot of planning there...

This is a photo of the interior of one of the small Cathedral towers. This room is to the side of the choir loft. You can see similar areas in a video from last year. It was quite cluttered at the time. Now, most of the debris is gone and the floor has been patched.

Monsignor Gier is busy planning the next phase of the renovation. If you want to know what the next phase includes look up. Look way up.

"Hit The Lights!"

Did you notice anything different about the lighting in the Cathedral last weekend? No? I didn't either.

That's a good thing. It means that our new lighting controllers and our new wiring for the lights are working fine. Our lighting is now safer and more convenient.

Safety is always good. The new wiring will help to ensure the safety for all of us who pray here. It also reduces the risk of fire to our beautiful cathedral.

The new lighting controllers are more convenient. We will first see the real benefit on Palm Sunday during the reading of the Passion. Many churches around the world dim their lights and the parishioners kneel as we recall the moment when Christ died on the cross. At Holy Family, three servers used to rush to an electrical panel (see photo on the right) to turn off and on twenty-eight individual switches. The new controllers allow a priest to dim the lights by touching a single button.


Here's a photo of the new controllers. Note: this machinery is not the "on/off" button.

This week, workers are rewiring the flourescent lights below the choir loft. (see photo below)

Nice Pipes

Usually when we think of pipes in the Cathedral, we imagine the nearly 3000 pipes in our 54-rank Austin Pipe Organ.

Today, we have some new pipes. No, they're not musical, but they are an important addition to keep our Cathedral safe.

This photo shows the space in the Cathedral basement where the water supply from the city of Tulsa meets our fire suppression system. This equipment pushes water into the hundreds or thousands of feet of pipe leading to the sprinkler heads in the Cathedral, the Sacristy, and the many rooms in the basement.

Video Tour of the Cathedral

This isn't so much a "Renovation Update" as a view of what Holy Family looks like today. As the renovation proceeds, I might have to reshoot much of the video.

Later on, I will make another video so we can "take a tour" of the outside of the Cathedral.