Vermont Supreme Court deliverers blow to Dan Kiley/Edward Barnes Collaboration
On December 6 the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that Burlington's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, a modernist icon by landscape architect Dan Kiley and architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, can be demolished. The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) originally enrolled 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.
In January 2023 the city’s Development Review Board voted four to two in favor of a permit to demolish the Cathedral. Ten citizens challenged the decision in court and earlier this year Judge Thomas Durkin of the environmental division of the Vermont Superior Court rejected the arguments opposing demolition. Durkin’s decision hinged on an interpretation of a state statute that limits municipal jurisdiction over religious properties. The citizens appealed the ruling, and the case appeared in front of the State Supreme Court in late September.
On December 9, 2024 Burlington Free Press reported that the State Supreme Court ruled “in favor of the demolition, stating that a lower court properly interpreted state law that prohibits local zoning rules from interfering with the use of religious buildings.” The article continues: “The ruling states that it is within the trust's rights to demolish the property to deconsecrate it, as long as they are not demolishing on behalf of future buyers.”
Despite the decision, Preservation Burlington board member Devin Colman is optimistic. In a December 10 email to TCLF Colman writes, “this ruling does not automatically green-light the building’s demolition as it only applies to the municipal permit issued by the City of Burlington. The property owner must still satisfy other relevant city and state requirements, such as Act 250 (Vermont's land use & development law).”
Colman shard a preliminary plan illustrating a “new, mixed-use construction in the existing parking lot, with conversion of the former cathedral into auxiliary space.” The proposal calls for the protection of the Modernist landscape, which features a bosque of honey locust trees laid on a grid. He encourages people to “share and discuss [the plan] with anyone who may be interested in pursuing this idea.”
To support the prelimarly plan, write to the property owner, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, and to the city’s mayor, Emma Mulvaney Stanek.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington
Bishop John J. McDermott
Mayor Emma Mulvaney Stanek
