In an era of instant gratification, the creation of a single stained glass window can take up to 18 months. That's the central theme of Episode 2 of The Cavallini Legacy, a series on The Building Texas Show hosted by Justin McKenzie. Published May 27, 2026, the episode offers an inside look at the Cavallini & Co. studio, a Texas-based stained glass house that has been designing and installing handcrafted, architect-grade sacred art for congregations across Texas and beyond for more than 70 years.
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 takes so long, and why no AI template can replicate the result. McKenzie voices concern about modern impatience: "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 discussion covers themes developed in dialogue with parishioners, often tracing Old Testament to New Testament narratives from Creation and Moses to the Nativity, Resurrection, and Ascension. The hidden structural engineering inside every panel includes 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 in Houston. After a natural gas explosion destroyed the original 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 after they were salvaged from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Port Arthur following Hurricane Rita. Stored for nearly two decades, the windows 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. The episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard. For more on the studio's work, visit Cavallini & Co. and The Building Texas Show.
