Elective
- 1. The Saint Louis Abbey An abbey of the Roman Catholic English Benedictine Congregation in St. Louis County, Missouri, the Saint Louis Abbey is recognized around the world because of both its unique design and its disciplined monks that live in the Abbey according to the Benedictine discipline of prayer and work. Founded in 1955 by three monks that were sent from the Benedictine Ample forth Abbey in North Yorkshire, England, the Saint Louis Abbey has a long history of success. On several occasions, the monks and others responsible for running the Abbey have been selected to oversee other projects that started with one of the founding monks leaving for missionary work in Africa. Fr. Timothy Horner served as the editor of the widely used Rule of Saint Benedict and Fr. Ralph Wright, the Abbey’s vocational director, is an accomplished poet, translator, and author. Construction of the Abbey took about seven years to complete, but the monastery was completely rebuilt and expanded in 2000. Designed by Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, the Abbey Church is an important architectural landmark. The facade consists of three tiers of thin-poured concrete parabolic arches, with the top tier forming a large bell tower. Inside, the church holds a 14th century sculpture of the Madonna and Christ child, a 17th century holy font in the Della Robbia style, and other pieces of more modern art by artists from Spain, France, the United States, and Great Britain. Life-size sculptures of Saint Benedict and the Virgin Mary decorate the church’s grounds. St. Louis summers can be brutal and this church was built without air conditioning. In the mid-1980s the congregation raised enough money to have air conditioning installed but voted instead to donate the money to charity. This half-century-old daylighting design, commemorated for character and effectiveness and the roll it has played, is more than a mere chapel on a school campus but is a spiritual beacon, which serves the mission of the monastic community and those who work with them. Kalkal was a fledgling company willing to take a risk with us. Kalkal’s unique translucent sandwich panel is a composite of two translucent fiberglass face sheets bonded to a structural grid core. The
- 2. system is highly insulating yet transmits controlled natural daylight. To quote the Saint Louis Abbey guide to the church, “The distinctive atmosphere of the interior is created by the quality of light admitted by the (Kalwall) windows and by the simplicity of the materials used. The chapel’s window-walls are formed of insulated fiberglass polyester material (Kalwall), which in daylight appears black from the outside but from the inside has the translucency of alabaster. This material excludes ninety-four percent of the outside light, but its area is so great that the total effect is one of serenity and brightness. The architect and the artists have strengthened this atmosphere of serenity by their self-restraint in limiting themselves to a few simple and strong materials for the church interior and appointments. The ceramic floor and white translucent walls blend with the Georgia granite of the altars and the red oak of the ambo and pews. The total effect is one of calmness and strength, suitable for a monastery church. The architectural form of the church is also its structural frame. This building was the first thin-shelled concrete structure of its type to have been built in North America. It consists of two sets of thin concrete parabolic shells on two levels, set in twenty identical bays tapering toward the center of the circular plan. The shells spring from V-shaped rib beams on radii which span upward through a clerestory ring beam and meet at the crown against a smaller ring. Above the shell is a 32-foot-high bell tower of concrete. The ribs together form a cage acting as a dome, 40-feet-high inside and 134 feet in diameter. The upper ring of the arches serves to define the inner worship area where the liturgy is celebrated. The central skylight under the bell tower gives light and emphasis to the At the culmination of the program, the Benedictine monks chanted to demonstrate The Chapel’s amazing acoustics created by the design and materials. Designed by Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK), with the Italian architect and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi serving as consultant, the Abbey Church was an important landmark and name-making project for HOK, who is one of the largest U.S. based architecture-engineering firms in the world.
- 3. Kalwall's unique translucent sandwich panel is a composite of two translucent fiberglass face sheets bonded to a structural grid core. The system is highly insulating yet transmits controlled natural daylight. The strength of the sunlight allows the interior to be soft white light. The Saint Louis Abbey guide to the church, The distinctive atmosphere of the interior is created by the quality of light admitted by the (Kalwall) windows and by the simplicity of the materials used. The chapel's window-walls are formed of insulated fiberglass polyester material (Kalwall), which in daylight appears black from the outside but from the inside has the translucency of alabaster. This material excludes ninety-four percent of the outside light, but its area is so great that the total effect is one of serenity and brightness. The architect and the artists have strengthened this atmosphere of serenity by their self-restraint in limiting themselves to a few simple and strong materials for the church interior and appointments. The ceramic floor and white translucent walls blend with the Georgia granite of the altars and the red oak of the ambo and pews. The total effect is one of calmness and strength, suitable for a monastery church. A roof detail The architectural form of the church is also its structural frame. This building was the first thin-shelled concrete structure of its type to have been built in North America It consists of two sets of thin concrete parabolic shells on two levels, set in twenty identical bays tapering toward the center of the circular plan. The shells spring from V-shaped rib beams on radii which span upward through a clerestory ring beam and meet at the crown against a smaller ring. Above the shell is a 32-foot-high bell tower of concrete. The ribs together form a cage acting as a dome, 40-feet-high inside and 134 feet in diameter. The upper ring of the arches serves to define the inner worship area where the liturgy is celebrated. The central skylight under the bell tower gives light and emphasis to the altar
- 4. A close-up of the spire An access ladder to the roof One monk commenting on the impact of the translucent Kalwall mentioned, "Very late in the day we almost get a red glow from the low sun. And when the geese fly by, we can see their silhouette through the panels." At the culmination of the program, the Benedictine monks chanted to demonstrate The Chapel's amazing acoustics created by the design and materials. Designed by Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK), with the Italian architect and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi serving as consultant, The Abbey Church was an important landmark and name-making project for HOK, who is one of the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering firms in the world. There are twenty parabolic arch sections in the first tiers of the circular church but only five adjacent sections were poured at once. Once the concrete set the forms could be re-used and repositioned with a crane, leapfrogging around the circle.
- 5. The inside of the chapel Architectural Forum waxed rhapsodic about the structure calling it “the most elaborate example yet on the North American continent of a circular building in a convoluted shell form. It’s three circling, pyramidal tiers of arches, which front the radiating vaults and a belfry, look like some artfully folded and stacked-up white napkin.” Completed in 1962, the Saint Louis Priory Chapel was a career-defining project for Gyo Obata and earned his firm, Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK) its first national recognition. The McCarthy Brothers made a profit of $33,000 on its low bid of $538,000. Willinger Associates added another completely unique shell structure to it’s list of engineering accomplishments. Key to the success of the project was the extraordinary cooperation between client, architect, engineer, and contractor. A crane was used to reposition the concrete forms FLOOR PLAN
- 6. FRONT ELEVATION The unusual choice of a circular floor plan was driven by the monk’s desire to keep the congregation as close to the altar as possible; as participants in the Catholic ritual rather than spectators. Another unusual characteristic was how the church was built. Several contractors bid on the job. The low bid was from McCarthy Brothers Construction Company, a St. Louis, Missouri firm. Francis “Paddy” McCarthy recalled that among the bidders there was a “considerable difference of opinion as to what would constitute the most economical method of construction… There is no reason to be critical of any of the estimators who prepared bids on this project since each was compelled to rely upon his imagination to a great extent, rather than upon past experience…” The high bidders all anticipated using hollow wooden forms into which wet concrete would be poured. Only McCarthy suggested using the gunite or shotcrete method in which a relatively stiff (dry mix) is shot out of a high-pressure gun and adheres to a single-surface form.