The Pope's chair in D.C., a build thread.

shoeless

shoeless

Riffin'
My buddy, who happens to be our drummer, is also a cabinet maker in Frederick, MD. He was given the task of building the Pope's chair, along with the benches for the bishops. Another guy built the alter, but it was done at his shop as well, Carriage Hill Cabinets.

Plenty of stories have been published in the local papers here about this. Here's links to the USA Today's & Washington Post's versions

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...-chairs-await-pope-francis-us-visit/71642614/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...d09f50-3c7d-11e5-9c2d-ed991d848c48_story.html

Here are some photos of the build.

The rough form:

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The papal seal, which is on the back of the chair. It was carved on a CNC machine and took about 12 hrs if I remember correctly. The original plan/design was to have it facing forward, but apparently that is against vatican policy (to sit on the seal), so it will face rear. He made it so that it's a reversible panel held on with a few screws. After the mass, it will reside in the Basilica in DC with the seal facing forward.

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Here's a wide view of his shop. You can see the Pope's chair off to the left. Those are a few of the bishop's benches up front on the right.

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Here's a shot of his CNC machine. We keep talking about knocking out guitar bodies, but he's so busy I hate to bother him with it. One day we'll get around to it. Anybody have dxf files of cool bodies? :wink:

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And finally, the finished product, which I never got to see, because my buddy is an 11th hour kind of guy, lol.

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Pretty cool honor to get to make the pope's furniture. I wonder what kind of odd regulations come with that kind of order. I'm sure an organization as big as the Catholic church has a lot of very specific requirements for all things, and especially specs for pope stuff for visits.
 
Tiltsta said:
Pretty cool honor to get to make the pope's furniture. I wonder what kind of odd regulations come with that kind of order. I'm sure an organization as big as the Catholic church has a lot of very specific requirements for all things, and especially specs for pope stuff for visits.
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Yes and no. The students at Catholic University, which is the campus where the National Basilica resides, did the design. It was a contest, and what you see is essentially the winning design. There were some tweaks that had to be approved by the church, such as the seal, and a few other minor things. I don't believe there were any regulations regarding woods, finishes, upholstery, etc. In keeping with Francis's ideals (he's a bit of a minimalist), they used reclaimed wood for quite a bit of it, and the design is simple and not flashy.

I agree with you about the honor of the assignment. My buddy that did it, Doug, gets asked about it a lot, but he is also very humble and doesn't go on too much about it. He acts like it was just "another job", but those of us that know him, know that it was more than that.
 
shoeless said:
Yes and no. The students at Catholic University, which is the campus where the National Basilica resides, did the design. It was a contest, and what you see is essentially the winning design. There were some tweaks that had to be approved by the church, such as the seal, and a few other minor things. I don't believe there were any regulations regarding woods, finishes, upholstery, etc. In keeping with Francis's ideals (he's a bit of a minimalist), they used reclaimed wood for quite a bit of it, and the design is simple and not flashy.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I figured the Church would provide a specific set of drawings so all the pope chairs are the same, or at least very similar. Kind of near that they let students design it.
 
Tiltsta said:
Pretty cool honor to get to make the pope's furniture. I wonder what kind of odd regulations come with that kind of order. I'm sure an organization as big as the Catholic church has a lot of very specific requirements for all things, and especially specs for pope stuff for visits.
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Depending upon the religious leanings of the artisans/builders it can mean a lot. When Pope JPII came to LA in 1987 my family's company was asked by the LA Archdiocese to fabricate the cross that dominated the altar at the Dodger Stadium mass.

pope-john-paul-dodger-stadium.jpg


Our family, especially my grandfather and grandmother, are/were devout catholics and it was considered one of the highest honors to make the cross. It is still a great point of pride for our company.

I don't think we made any money on it, as a matter of fact I do believe we donated the materials and labor. We shipped it to the stadium but before it rolled the truck, trailer and the driver, Louie, were blessed by a priest (My uncle)-holy water and all.

Louie was just about in tears.

I don't remember hearing much about strict protocols regarding what we could or could not do during construction and erection.
 
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