Cavallini & Co.'s Stained Glass Legacy: Patience and Craftsmanship in an AI World

The second episode of The Building Texas Show series, The Cavallini Legacy, provides an in-depth look at the painstaking process behind Cavallini & Co.'s stained glass windows, a craft that resists the modern push for speed and automation. Hosted by Justin McKenzie, the episode, published May 27, 2026, arrives as houses of worship increasingly seek artisan craftsmanship for restoration and new construction. It underscores why a single commission can take up to 18 months to complete and why no AI template can replicate the result.

The podcast delves into the studio's approach, from developing themes in dialogue with parishioners—often tracing narratives from the Old Testament to the New Testament—to the hidden structural engineering within each panel. The discussion emphasizes the rebars that transfer weight to the frame, preventing the glass and lead from bowing under its own weight. A prominent example is 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.

McKenzie reflects on the modern pace of design, stating, "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's centerpiece is the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary commission. 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.

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.