The second episode of The Cavallini Legacy, a series on The Building Texas Show hosted by Justin McKenzie, takes listeners inside the Cavallini & Co. studio in Texas, a stained glass house serving congregations for over 70 years. Published May 27, 2026, the episode explains why a single stained glass commission can take up to 18 months and why no AI can replicate the result.
The discussion covers how themes are developed in dialogue with parishioners, often tracing narratives from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from Creation and Moses to the Nativity, Resurrection, and Ascension. The hidden structural engineering inside every panel is also detailed, including the rebars that transfer weight to the frame and prevent the glass and lead from bowing under its own weight.
A central story involves the 18-year journey 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 church and claimed a parishioner's life, the congregation began rebuilding. 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 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.
Throughout the episode, Mr. Cavallini and his son Adrian argue that patience and craft are inseparable from sacred art. McKenzie reflects on the modern pace: "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."
The episode is part of The Cavallini Legacy series, which spotlights the multigenerational work behind the studio founded in 1953. Episode 2 is available now wherever podcasts are heard. For more about Cavallini & Co., visit their website.
