Why Your Church's Stained Glass Takes 1.5 Years to Build

Episode 2 of The Cavallini Legacy, hosted by Justin McKenzie on The Building Texas Show, takes listeners deeper inside the Cavallini & Co. studio, the Texas-based stained glass house that has designed and installed handcrafted, architect-grade sacred art for congregations across Texas and beyond for more than 70 years. Published May 27, 2026, the conversation arrives as houses of worship rebuild and restore amid rising interest in artisan craftsmanship. The episode unpacks why an authentic stained glass commission can take up to 18 months to complete, and why no AI template can replicate the result. The discussion covers a wide range of subjects pulled directly from inside the studio, including how themes are developed in dialogue with parishioners, often tracing Old Testament to New Testament narratives from Creation and Moses to the Nativity, Resurrection, and Ascension. It also delves into the hidden structural engineering inside every panel, including the rebars that transfer weight to the frame and prevent the glass and lead from bowing under its own weight.

The episode's centerpiece is the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary commission, which tells the 18-year story of Munich-style windows salvaged from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Port Arthur after Hurricane Rita, now finding a new home at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Houston. After a natural gas explosion destroyed the original Houston church and claimed a parishioner's life, the congregation began building anew. Cavallini had purchased the Mysteries of the Rosary windows from the Diocese of Beaumont 18 years earlier, stored them, and recognized their fit for the new sacred space. Adrian Cavallini sent photographs to a committee member who, in the elder Cavallini's words, 'just fell in love with them.' The studio is now creating the Luminous Mysteries to blend with the existing set, completing a cycle that began with Hurricane Rita and now spans generations of Texas congregations.

Throughout the episode, Mr. Cavallini and his son Adrian make the case that patience and craft are inseparable from sacred art. Reflecting on the modern pace of design, McKenzie observes: 'Employees coming in here working on a project that might take a year and a half to complete because it is detail-oriented or it's 50,000 square feet of mosaic that takes detail and time. It's not AI is going to create it in 30 seconds and here it is. And I worry for our economy and our workforce on how do we bring that patience back to something as meaningful as the work you're doing.' About The Building Texas Show, The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, profiles the founders, families, and craftspeople shaping Texas industry. The Cavallini Legacy series spotlights one of the state's longest-running sacred art studios, founded in 1953, and the multigenerational work behind its windows. Episode 2 is available now wherever podcasts are heard.