Matthew Alderman

Matthew Alderman is an architect who lives and works in Concord, MA.

Articles by Matthew Alderman

Pinnacles and Onion Domes of New York: Manhattan's Houses of Worship

David W. Dunlap’s From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan’s Houses of Worship taps into a very elemental part of my New York—its oft-neglected churches, synagogues, and temples

The Lonely God: Oakland Cathedral in the Light of Tradition

The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland fuses Christian symbolism and modernist architecture in a luminous yet vacant church for the Diocese of Oakland.

Lost Between Sea and Sky: Looking for Padre Pio in Renzo Piano's Pilgrimage Church

It is a perilous thing to ask the saints for design advice. The apostle Thomas earned his patronage of the architectural profession by giving away most of his construction budget to the poor and was nearly martyred for his trouble…

David Mayernik’s San Cresci Cycle

While new construction is a significant aspect of the present revival of ecclesiastical architecture and design, the enrichment of existing churches is equally important. 

A Faceless Santo Volto: Mario Botta's Conference Room Tomb

That churches are still being built in Italy, a nation where regular mass-goers make up less than 30 percent of the population and that possesses a birthrate that would make your Sicilian grandmother weep, is news not unlike Dr. Johnson’s comment about a dog walking on its hind legs: one is surprised it is being done at all, never mind questions about quality.