Spirit of Place

Spirit of Place Campus Ministry Center Lumen Chapel & Corpus Christi Chapel

Chandler Johnson M.Arch Prospectus, University of Houston

"...contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere." “... to contemplate and to give to others the fruits of contemplation.�

- St.Thomas Aquinas O.P. .

Summa Theologica, c.1274

Chandler Johnson Bachelor of Art in Art History, Southwestern Univeristy, 2014 Master of Architecture, University of Houston, current

FOREWARD In the fall of 2016 a mentor and former teacher of mine, Patrick Spedale, mentioned that St. Pius X had comissioned a redesign plan for the old library (which was originally part of a Dominican Convent) into a much needed prayer chapel for students and a campus ministry center which borders to a small garden.

It is important to understand the strongly held belief in the contemporary discourse of Catholic architecture that while the architect's role is to arrange spaces in a functional manner, it is more importantly to design forms which become the Image of the Holy—spaces which provide a sense of mystery, wonder, fascination and majesty.1 This is a tall order of any designer, especially with adaptive reuse space, but the scheme which the architect produced was totally unrecognizable as a sacred space.

As I began preparing my masters project, redesigning this space was of course at the top of my list of potential projects, but I came to realize that the scale was smaller than I needed.

1

The Liturgical Conference, comp. Church architecture: the shape of reform. Washington, DC: The Liturgical Conference, 1965.

Working with UH Professor Drexel Turner, I was able to define a project scope which both serves the school with a plan for their prayer chapel but also totally reimagines the the ability of sacred space to be trans transformative in the scholastic environment and to construct an identity for the campus.

My experience with sacred spaces is historically rooted. While perusing my bachelors in art history from Southwestern University, I took a "historical studio" which dealt heavily in authentically designing church forms of significant historical vocabularies—Classical, Baroque, Romanesque and High Gothic. This lead me to spend two summers doing archaeological recording at multiple ancient villas in the Vesuvian region of Italy. Discovering these villas first-hand gave me a different kind of awareness of spatial organization, an ancient one which blends order and organic growth tied directly to the landscape. While interning at Overland Partners Architects in San Antonio, I was briefly involved with the

Ellsworth Kelly Austin Project at the University of Texas. The building, similar to Houston's Rothko Chapel relies on sacred imagery and cruciform plan but remains secular, giving the art a spiritual focus. On this project I was charged with building a half-scale the mock-up of the stained glass windows, a defining feature of the project.

From these experiences and my connection to St. Pius X, I look forward creating a meaningful masters project with the potential to serves a whole community.

-Chandler Johnson

Forward ................................................................................ IV Case Statement .................................................................... 01 Client & Consultants ............................................................. 02 Site ....................................................................................... 05 Program ............................................................................... 12 Schematic Plan ..................................................................... 14 Plaza as the Nexus ................................................................ 21 Analogues & Precedents ....................................................... 22 Projected Costs .................................................................... 27 Bibliography ......................................................................... 28 The Next Step ...................................................................... 30 Criteria for Evaluation ........................................................... 31

CASE STATEMENT A jewel in Houston, St. Pius X High School is Houston's largest and most diverse co-ed Catholic high school. The school has been owned and conducted by the Dominican Sisters of Houston since 1956, and because of its perpetual growth, has gone without a dedicated chapel or religious space for many decades.

Over the years, piecemeal construction projects have resulted in a confusing and disorganized campus which lacks in distinctive identity.

SPIRIT OF PLACE is a plan which resolves these issues through the adaptive reuse of the school's 3000 square-foot library into a Campus Ministry Center and 30-60 person Corpus Christi Chapel, the design of a 700-person community Lumen Chapel, and a supporting comprehensive Campus Plan which fosters a more cohesive campus identity through greater connectedness between the schools religious, academic and athletic programs.

CLIENT Primary Client: St. Pius X High School Community Mrs. Diane Larsen Principal Department Head, Office of the Academic Dean larsend@stpiusx.org Mr. Patrick Spedale Director of Campus Ministry Department Head, Fine Arts, Office for Campus Ministry spedalep@stpiusx.org Mr. Jason Kimball Athletic Director Athletics Office kimballj@stpiusx.org

Secondary Client: Dominican Sisters of Houston Sister Donna Pollard O.P. Prioress Dominican Sisters of Houston dpollard@domhou.org

CONSULTANTS Drexel Turner Visiting Assistant Professor University of Houston Hines College of Architecture and Design drexel.turner@gmail.com John Tsai Adjunct Faculty University of Houston Hines College of Architecture and Design jtsai@jtarcstudio.com Shafik Rafaat Professor University of Houston Hines College of Architecture and Design srifaat@comcast.net Rafael Longoria Professor University of Houston Hines College of Architecture and Design lpstudio@swbell.net Dr. Thomas Noble Howe Coordinator General Fondazione Restoring Ancient Stabiae Professor of Art and Art History Chair, Dept. of Art and Art History, Southwestern University howet@southwestern.edu Sofia Y. Fonseca de Nino Strategic Accounts + Consulting HOK sofia.fonseca@hok.com

SITE The St. Pius X campus is as the southwest corner of North Shepherd Drive and West Donovan street, two miles north of the 610 loop. The area is residential to the north, west and south, and commercial to the east facing Shepherd Drive.

The site is most notable for it's very tall pine trees which have long trunks and full canopies. These trees shade much of the campus and create a partition around the campus boundary.

The majority of built structures are at the center of the campus.

These buildings tend to be either long double-loaded corridors or large open halls. There is little visible organisation to the placement of buildings except for a central underutilized quad.

The majority of Houstonians experience the school by driving past it heading north and south on Shepherd, or by attending Varsity football games. For this reason the portion of the campus visible from Shepherd Drive is especially important.

site

Site Context N

1 mile

5 miles

Even though students and faculty commute from all over the City of Houston, the majority make their final approch northbound on Shepherd Drive.

Site Boundary N

300 feet

Âź mile

In the school's plan for growth, residential lots which border to the south are most likely options for annexation. In the campus plan, the garage is placed over the two southeast appartments.

Primary Student Entrance (from the west)

Formal Entrance (from the north)

Orange brick and brown flagstone are the material palette which currently define the campus. Tall pines grow throughout.

pine trees retained along periphery

admin. parking

VIP parking

unpaved aux. parking

student drop-off access new science building (detached)

N

100 ft.

500 ft.

aux. parking

primary student parking

bleachers front Shepherd Drive

faculty parking

CURRENT SITE PLAN From the existing site plan, poorly planned expansion is visible.

STUDY | PREACHING CAMPUS MINISTRY CENTER OFFICE 3-4 office units (conference) glass/transparent offices reception desk storage room conversational seating WORK ROOM water access copy center work space

2,000ft2 - 2,500ft2

HOSPATALITY conversational lounge space projection area cafe/buffet space display space

COMUNITY | PREACHING SPX COMMUNITY CHAPEL free-standing on-campus sanctuary 650-700 person capacity flooded with daylight shrines, statues, icons sacristy

CAMPANILE four "legs" one bell light

~10,000ft2

PRAYER | PREACHING "LUMEN" CHAPEL/ORATORY 40-60+ person capacity daylight, stained glass+clerestory artifical light, amber/candle color movable chairs [no pews] shrines, statues, icons and paintings stations, by Sr. Mary Peter Sacristy

2,000ft2 - 2,500ft2

FURNISHINGS altar (small), ambo, priest chair, tabernacle, crucifix, piano

PRAYER | CONTEMPLATION REFLECTION GARDEN path plantings seating lighting water feature statuary

2,000ft2

LABRYNTH appropriately size and place with proximity to reflection garden brick landscaping seating lighting

~2,250ft2 PROGRAM The four key built programmatic components align with the Four Pillars of the Dominican Faith—prayer, study, community and preaching.

N

100 ft.

500 ft.

PROPOSED SITE PLAN In reorganization, existing structures are maintained.

"green belt" maintained

PRAYER GARDEN

CAMPUS MINISTRY

CORPUS CH CHAPEL

baseball stadium more efficiently placed

addition of tennis, natatorium and field house

N

100 ft.

500 ft.

100 spots

integral mixed-use plaza

HISTI

strengthened dominant axis

sacred program becomes backdrop for sporting events and is visible from Shepherd Drive LUMEN CHAPEL

end zone faces shepherd

bleachers screen garage from campus

450 spots

exit on to Shepherd Drive

access off Pinemont Drive

PROPOSED SITE PLAN DIAGRAMED Special thanks to Prof. Shafik Rifaat for guidance with this site plan.

LUMEN PLAZA, HOUSTON

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, MILAN The Piazza del Duomo’s of Milan, Florence, and Pisa are studied in dual terms of their ability to serve their communities through formal procession and event space, as well as informal community and gathering space.

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, FLORENCE

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, PISA FORMAL AND INFORMAL PROCESSION AND GATHERING SPACE

PLAZA AS THE NEXUS As with the Duomo Piazzas, central placement of the church allows the plaza to serve as a formal liturgical procession space from multiple directions before procession in to and out of the Lumen Chapel.

During the week, the plaza functions in the same way, but as an interface with the campus, serving as a collection and hang-out space for students before and after school.

As a terminus, the plaza can be considered a stage for events, and performances, using the Lumen Chapel as the backdrop.

In possibly the most exciting way, the plaza is a place to establish new traditions, being the place for pep-rallies and the path by which the band, drill team, cheerleaders and football team make their entrance in to the stadium on Friday nights.

Musée Unterlinden Extension, Colmar, France Herzog & de Meuron

Église Saint-François-de-Molitor, Paris, France Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Corinne Callies

ANALOGUES & PRECEDENTS The main worship spaces will be inward facing, in the manner of the monastic Dominican liturgy. This arrangement fosters a sense of intimacy and community during worship.

Main Chapel fo the Dominican House of Studies, Washington D.C.

Chapel of St. Basil, University of St. Thomas, Houston

MagniďŹ cat Chapel, Villa Maria Pennsylvania

C

Tlalpan Chapel, Mexico City

rystalline Church, Monterrey, Mexico

PROJECTED COSTS FT2 FACTOR X 200$/FT2

PHASE 1

PROGRAM Prayer Garden

2000 0.2

.08

Campus Ministry Center

2500 1.0

.50

Corpus Christi Chapel

2500 1.0

.50

15,000 1.5

4.50

Camponelle

200 1.5

.06

Labrynth

500 0.3

.03

Plaza and Wall

30,000 0.1

.06

Parking Garage

130,000 0.4

10.40

Athletic Fields

250,000 0.1

5

14,000 1.5

4.2

Lumen Chapel

PHASE 2

(IN MILLIONS)

Athletic Adition

Master Planning

300 hrs. @ 100$/HR TOTAL PROJECTED COST

.03 25.36

BIBLEOGRAPHY On Contemporary Catholic Architecture: Archdiocese of Chicago. Environment & art in Catholic worship. Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1993.

Crosbie, Michael J. Houses of God: religious architecture for a new millennium. Mulgrave, Vic.: Images Pub., 2006.

DeSanctis, Michael E. Building from belief: advance, retreat, and compromise in the remaking of Catholic church architecture. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Giles, Richard. Re-pitching the tent: re-ordering the church building for worship and mission. Revised and Expanded ed.

Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004.

Mannion, Msgr. M. Francis. Toward a new era in church architecture. Salt Lake City, UT: Southwest Liturgical Conference Study Week, 19, January. 1996.

Mauck, Marchita B. Shaping a house for the church. Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1990.

Sovik, Edward Anders. Architecture for worship. Minneapolis: Augsburg publ. House, 1973.

The Liturgical Conference, comp. Church architecture: the shape of reform. Washington, DC: The Liturgical Conference, 1965.

Vosko, Richard S. God's house is our house: re-imagining the environment for worship. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2006.

On Critical Theory: Curtis, William J. R. Modern architecture since 1900. London: Phaidon Press, 2013.

Fazio, Michael W., Marian Moffett, and Lawrence Wodehouse.

Buildings across time: an introduction to world architecture: Boston: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.

Fletcher, Banister, Dan Cruickshank, Andrew Saint, Peter Blundell Jones, Kenneth Frampton, and Fleur Richards. Sir Banister Fletcher's a history of architecture. 20th ed. Amsterdam: Architectural Press/Elsevier, 2011.

Lynch, Kevin. Site planning. The MIT Press, 1971.

Mallgrave, Harry Francis. Modern architectural theory: a historical survey, 1673-1968. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

McHarg, Ian L. Design with nature. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1992.

THE NEXT STEP Masters Project Preparation Deliverables (completed): + Program Video + Prospectus

Masters Project Deliverables (to be completed): first quarter + Campus Plan midterm + Campus Ministry Center Design + Corpus Christi Chapel Design + Preliminary Lumen Chapel Design third quarter: + Lumen Chapel Design final: + Display Model + Comprehensive Video

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION The final project should meet all of the folowing criteria: 1V

The final video makes a strong case for programmatic needs at St. Pius X High School.

2V

From the final video, the project can be fully understood in terms of decisions made and forms designed.

3V

The final video expresses a uniquely recognizable campus experience which functions well spatially.

4M

The model is of professional quality and could be used for capitol campaigning.

5D

Plans and drawings are clear and developed enough to lead to a completed project.

6D

Plans and drawings clearly respond to the architectural past as well as context.

7P

The project is interesting and accessible to people with all levels of experience with architecture.

8P

The project is thought provoking and engaging.

9P

The project adds to the greater architectural discourse of Catholic architecture, campus architecture, sacred architecture and site planning.