SAINT JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH FARRAGUT, TENNESSEE

New 1,000-seat church

Completed 2008

CRAM and Ferguson Architects competed with seven other firms for the commision to design this new 1,000-seat church outside Knoxville, Tennessee. Designed in a rugged Romanesque style, its exterior is clad in split Texas limestone and roofed in American-made terra cotta. Cast-stone reliefs of Christ the Teacher embellish the main arch of the entry door.

Built on a traditional cruciform plan, the church’s interior maintains a sense of procession while still keeping a third of the seating close to the altar, in the transepts. The crossing is marked by a vast dome capped by a lantern, high above the marble-paved floor.

Due to a request by pastor Fr. John Dowling, St. John Neumann represented a first in the firm’s recent ecclesiastical work through its use of the Romanesque. We drew on our extensive archive of older heirloom projects and more recent travels by Ethan Anthony, the firm principal, to study and explore the ancient monastery churches of Burgundy in France. The result is a domed and vaulted evocation of God reaching down to earth and embracing His faithful within.

St. John Neumann was completed in 2008.