Judge Rules Against Dan Kiley/Edward Barnes Masterwork
The legal attempt by ten citizens in Burlington, Vermont, to reverse a January 2023 decision by the city’s Development Review Board to permit the demolition of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, a modernist icon by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and landscape architect Dan Kiley, has been thwarted by Judge Thomas Durkin, a judge in the environmental division of the Vermont Superior Court. The decision hinges on an interpretation of a state statute that limits municipal jurisdiction over religious properties. Advocates for the Barnes/Kiley-designed property are weighing whether to appeal to the State Supreme Court.
According to a February 8, 2024, Burlington Free Press article, “Durkin rejected the residents' argument that because [the site] has been sold, and closed for four years, the cathedral is no longer a church and shouldn't be given the ‘preferential treatment’ a church is given.” Citing a lawyer for Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the article noted “The decision to deconsecrate a cathedral by demolishing it is a religious exercise.” Judge Durkin concluded, "The Court is without authority to question this ecclesiastical process or decision."
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) originally added the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception to its Landslide program as an at-risk landscape in June 2006, when the newly-proposed Downtown Transportation Center first posed a threat. The center’s eventual construction on St. Paul Street, abutting the property and effectively blocking a view of the veiled landscape of rows of locust trees, compromised a key feature of Kiley’s landscape oeuvre, which was influenced by André Le Nôtre’s order, geometry, and sweeping lines.
On May 8th, 2018, the Burlington Free Press reported the Cathedral property was to be sold for redevelopment (the city valued the property at $4.47 million). In December 2021 the Diocese of applied for demolition permit, though it was withdrawn. In October 2022, the Diocese again applied for a demolition permit and indicated they were not interested in an adaptive reuse of the building. At that time Monsignor Peter Routhier of the diocese announced that the site was under contract to be sold. According to the news outlet VTDigger, the property was listed for $8.5 million. An August 22, 2023, court filing stated the property was “under contract to be sold to CityPlace Partners once the former cathedral is demolished.” The recent Burlington Free Press coverage noted the property had been sold, though an attorney for the Diocese did not disclose the buyer or the purchase price.
