A final piece of Candela’s that I have researched is Los Manantiales Restaurant. This building portrays the same shell-like features as many of his other hyperbolic paraboloid works, and there are no edge stiffeners on the outside of this building to conceal how truly thin the building structure is. Although this structure does not rise quite as high as the Hills of Cuernavaca, it juts out over water daring the forces of gravity to attempt to make it tip over. The interior is similar to his other works, and Candela attached beams into the Mexican soil so that the building did not slide and was fully stable. This restaurant is famous for its beautiful architecture, and this stems from Candela’s creative mind and ideas. 

Felix Candela also created a building called The Hills of Cuernavaca. This was built in 1958, and is another perfect example of his hyperbolic paraboloid masterpieces. This building arches high into the sky and taking on a saddle shape, and although it has dramatic curvature it is self-supporting and has visible thinness. Candela was extremely intrigued by geometry as he studied the potential physics of shapes and pushing limits, but still he managed to stretch the imagination. This building rises 70 feet at the taller end, and looks like it is slightly leaning forward and should not be able to balance itself. Finally, the curved edges of the building give it an appearance that looks like an open end of a trumpet, so that the world to see the imagination of Candela. 

Another Felix Candela creation is Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, made in the 1950’s. This structure is located in Narvarte, Mexico City, and is surrounded primarily by low residential buildings. He started by making an asymmetrical umbrella, and then tilted it so that the short side of the building rested on the ground. The interior is sky high and almost takes on a Gothic appearance, and almost gives the rest of the building the appearance that the church is being pulled up like a tent. He loved to minimize material over a large space and this is a wonderful representation and structure of him doing so. 

The architect that I was given is Felix Candela, and he is acknowledged as a master builder and structural artist of the 20th century. One of his most popular creations is called the Cosmic Rays Laboratory, and it contained his famous style of concrete shells around and on top of buildings. The term “hyperbolic paraboloids” was coined, and he became one of its masters. This laboratory is the thinnest major structure ever built, and is also famous because it poses as a solution to the problem of creating a structure with an interior that permits the measurement of cosmic radiation. This building is located on the UNAM campus, where cosmic radiation beams were first studied and investigated. The shape is almost that of a farmhouse on stilts, but the walls are incredibly thin and sleek.

I believe St. Fidelis was built by the orders of Queen Victoria. It is amazing that each stone was placed one by one. I still have no idea how they were able to build the church so tall with no modern machinery. The church is unbelievable and I highly recommend attending mass there. It is something that you will never forget.

When you first enter the church its truly incredible. It has these big silver doors and it is very welcoming. It is hard to describe the feeling of actually being able to sit through a mass there. I feel like it is very different for everyone that goes there. For me it is just something that I have grown up around and its hard to explain the type of feeling it gives me. If anything it is just home for me.

St. Fidelis is a lot like the other churches that we learned about in class in the fact that it is shaped like a cross when it was built. However, like most of the old churches it does not let a whole lot of light into the church. The biggest window it has is right at the front and even then it does not let a lot of light through. This church is something that brings back a lot of childhood memories spent going to church every morning with my grandma as a young boy.

St. Fidelis is a Catholic church in Victoria, Kansas that a grew up going to. St. Fidelis is one of the 8 wonders of Kansas and was built by German Mennonites. They built the whole church by hand and is something that is just incredible. My grandparents live their now and its really neat because you can go to the church and see the people from all around the world that come to visit the church. It is truly remarkable.