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Church Church design often echoes the environment, parish personality
This story marks the third and final in a three-part series on church architecture. Click here to read Part 1. Click here to read Part 2.
By Julie Filby
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| Photos by James Baca/DCR Pictured above: Tall beams of red oak, to represent trees David and the elders spoke about in I Chronicles, is a dominant theme of Our Lady of Loreto Church, 18000 E. Arapahoe Road in Foxfield. |
“The liturgy is bigger than any given place, space or building,” said Adam Hermanson, a local architect and expert on sacred architect. “Mass can be beautifully celebrated on a mountaintop, on the hood of an Army Jeep in a battlefield, or in a family’s home.
“That said; if we’re to construct a building whose sole reason is to be a place to offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, then what we build in any age should strive to be commensurate with the depth of meaning found in the ritual of Mass itself.”
Hermanson, a parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Northglenn, founded Integration Design Group P.C. in 2006. The firm assisted with the 2010 renovation of Holy Trinity Church in Westminster, and is currently working with several parishes including Ascension in Denver, Guardian Angels in Mead, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center in Boulder and St. Augustine in Brighton.
“Because spaces for worship are so important to the sacramental and communal life of parishes,” he said, “our goal is to establish continuity between the design of contemporary church buildings and the tremendous heritage of Catholic sacred architecture that came before us.”
The architecture of a church has been known to reflect a community’s personality.
The church for Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Foxfield, founded in 1998, was completed at 18000 E. Arapahoe Road in 2003. Founding pastor Msgr. Edward Buelt oversaw the process.
“The design committee established a three-way conversation between the architect, the pastor and the people of the parish,” Msgr. Buelt told the Denver Catholic Register. “Many of whom had lived in the community longer than I had and represented the community’s needs and culture.”
The context in which they designed the church was “Columbine” according to Msgr. Buelt, referring to the April 20, 1999, massacre of 12 students and one teacher at Littleton’s Columbine High School by two students who later committed suicide.
“The terrible massacre affected our community locally, and the world,” he said. “Within that context, two things the committee really impressed on me and David (architect David Tryba of Tryba Architects in Denver) were … that people wanted a ‘real’ church, not a multipurpose facility … and they wanted a place that called out in them awe and reverence.”
A sense of permanence was achieved through an immovable altar of marble and limestone as the focal point; a sanctuary set in stone, and attached pews. Scripture and Church history dominate the church design.
“I felt it was very important that we engage the building, construction and design in a way that reflected how God had revealed he wanted to be worshipped,” said Msgr. Buelt. “That’s contained in Scriptures, documents of the Church, and in the historical experience of the Church.”
A dominant theme of the church—tall beams of red oak—represent the trees that David and the elders sang of in 1 Chronicles when they brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem (1 Chr 16:33).
“The magnificent beams are the trees of the woods shouting for joy at the presence of the Lord,” he said, “because he comes to dwell with his people.”
The renewed Romanesque style of the church, 83-feet-tall from the floor of the sanctuary to the top of the dome, has a distinct Colorado look and feel.
“The Colorado look is achieved through the use of natural elements, especially stone and wood,” said Msgr. Buelt. “Those elements are used in classic Colorado architecture.”
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| Pictured above: The colors and materials for St. Mary Church, 761 Birch Ave. in Rifle, were chosen to reflect the surrounding colors in the hills behind it. |
St. Mary Church at 761 Birch Ave. in Rifle on the Western Slope, was also influenced by the state’s environment. The church, completed in 2004, sits near the base of the Roan Plateau known as the Book Cliffs, named for lines of sediment and shale that resemble the pages of a book.
Father Robert Hehn, pastor since 1990, oversaw the project with Gifford Spurck Associates of Denver and Bruce Barth of Glenwood Springs. Previously Father Hehn led church construction at St. Vincent in Basalt and St. Mary of the Crown in Carbondale
St. Mary’s Church is separated into sections defined by design and materials: a large sanctuary built of precast concrete panels, a middle section or nave also of concrete, and a smaller educational space built of cinder block. Intentional simplicity allows the natural beauty of the material and design to stand out.
“Each section is purposefully distinct to differentiate between the function of the space,” said Father Hehn, a wood craftsmen by hobby who worked on tables and other projects at the church.
Colors and materials were chosen to tie to the surrounding colors in the hills behind the church.
“The architects wanted it to blend with the environment (the Book Cliffs), which I think it does,” said Father Hehn.
Overhead beams encased by birch soffits project from the ceiling at various heights to draw one’s eye to the altar, as do the sanctuary floor and steps, which are made of oak with maple inlays that look like rays of sunlight.
When designing a church, the parties involved must consider the nature of the liturgy and ways a building can facilitate worship.
“Church buildings must have a strong sense of unity and order,” said Hermanson. “They should show forth a natural hierarchy, a harmony among the parts which is evident within any well-ordered ‘body.’
“Church buildings should convey to us, and the surrounding culture, the unity and harmony of the Body of Christ.”
When developing the design plan for St. Mary, Father Hehn and the building committee studied the U.S. bishops’ guide document “Environment and Art in Catholic Worship.” Published in 1978, it preceded the current document “Built of Living Stones” released in 2000.
“It made so much sense,” he said. “The foundational principle was that ‘those present should be able to see and hear and be a part of what is happening.’”
The church’s contemporary semicircular design provides an intimate environment. With seating for 325 people, it allows everyone in the congregation to be within 10 rows of the altar.
“They (parishioners) can’t get all that far away,” said Father Hehn who heads the growing parish of 600-800 families. “The seating allows people to have awareness of each other. It’s a very functional space … people are able to see and hear and be involved in the prayers of praise and thanksgiving.”
This story marks the third and final in a three-part series on church architecture. Click here to read Part 1. Click here to read Part 2.
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