The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is honoring the Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, designed by Steven Holl Architects, with its Twenty-five Year Award.
AIA’s Twenty-five Year Award is conferred on a building that has set a precedent for the last 25-35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance.
The impetus for the chapel began in 1994 when Father William Sullivan implemented his plan to construct a new center for spiritual life at Seattle University. During the interview process, Steven Holl and his design team presented a lecture on the phenomenology of architecture, which the campus ministry embraced and connected to related writings by St. Ignatius. After receiving the commission, the saint’s teachings became a primary source of inspiration. The design team worked closely with the ministry and students to define the program throughout the design process and visited several important Ignatian sites in Barcelona and Rome.
In designing the chapel, the team settled on the metaphor of light as the divine spirit, featured in a quote by St. Ignatius, to serve as the guiding design concept. Within, light is sculpted through several volumes that protrude from the chapel roof, each of which aims to harness different qualities of light for one united ceremony. Its site formed a new quadrangle for the university’s campus, with green space to the north, west, and, in the future, east. Its rectangular plan was carefully tailored to define the campus space as well as the processional and gathering space within.
Each of the chapel’s light volumes supports fundamental elements of the Jesuit worship program. For instance, south-facing light corresponds with the procession, an essential component of mass, while city-facing northern light, corresponds with the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the Jesuit tradition of community outreach. The different lights concept is further enhanced by the combination of pure colored lenses and fields of reflected color within each light volume.
The chapel’s overarching design concept of seven bottles of light contained within a stone box is also expressed through its tilt-up construction method. Its integral color tilt-up concrete slab offers a more direct and economical tectonic than stone veneer. At night, the key time for the university community to celebrate mass, the volumes all glow like-colored beacons that can be seen across the campus. On some occasions, for those constantly praying, the lights shine throughout the night. While the gathering of different lights concept framed the design, it is also emblematic of the university’s mission and the many nationalities of students who attend and gather under one roof. The contributions of those students were central to the design process, which delivered a design for the chapel that is simultaneously forward-looking and firmly rooted in the past.
![Chapel of St. Ignatius ext](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Chapel%20of%20St.%20Ignatius%20ext%20copy.jpg)
![Chapel of St. Ignatius int](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Chapel%20of%20St.%20Ignatius%20int%20copy.jpg)
![Chapel of St. Ignatius int 2](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Chapel%20of%20St.%20Ignatius%20int%202%20copy.jpg)
![Chapel of St. Ignatius int 3](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Chapel%20of%20St.%20Ignatius%20int%203%20copy.jpg)
Related Stories
| Jan 13, 2014
Custom exterior fabricator A. Zahner unveils free façade design software for architects
The web-based tool uses the company's factory floor like "a massive rapid prototype machine,” allowing designers to manipulate designs on the fly based on cost and other factors, according to CEO/President Bill Zahner.
| Jan 10, 2014
Resiliency, material health among top AEC focuses for 2014: Perkins+Will survey
Architectural giant Perkins+Will recently surveyed its staff of 1,500 design pros to forcast hot trends in the AEC field for 2014. The resulting Design + Insights Survey reflects a global perspective.
| Jan 9, 2014
How security in schools applies to other building types
Many of the principles and concepts described in our Special Report on K-12 security also apply to other building types and markets.
| Jan 9, 2014
16 recommendations on security technology to take to your K-12 clients
From facial recognition cameras to IP-based door hardware, here are key technology-related considerations you should discuss with your school district clients.
| Dec 29, 2013
7 ways to make your firm more efficient
In a CEO.com post, Andrew Miller, president of ACM Consulting, shares the seven organizational efficiency strategies he encounters most frequently as he works with corporate executives to boost their performance.
| Dec 19, 2013
NRDC report relates green infrastructure investments to commercial property value [Infographic]
The Natural Resources Defense Council has released The Green Edge: How Commercial Property Investment in Green Infrastructure Creates Value -- a first-ever illustrative and well-documented report that helps demonstrate the value of green infrastructure. It draws from available published material to capture the multitude of tangible, monetizable non-water quality and water quality benefits that green infrastructure investments (trees, rain gardens, and porous pavement, rainwater harvesting cisterns, bioswales, etc.) can unlock for the commercial real estate sector, including commercial property owners and their tenants.
| Dec 17, 2013
'Silver tsunami,' restaurant boom, mid-rise mania among predicted Midwestern construction trends
According to some of the Chicago-area’s top commercial real estate firms, informally polled by area real estate PR firm Taylor Johnson, much of 2013 was spent preparing for an even busier 2014. Given the relocation of many top companies to downtownChicago, demand for new apartments, office, retail and restaurant projects in 2014 should all be up as workers look to achieve a live, work and play lifestyle.
| Nov 27, 2013
Wonder walls: 13 choices for the building envelope
BD+C editors present a roundup of the latest technologies and applications in exterior wall systems, from a tapered metal wall installation in Oklahoma to a textured precast concrete solution in North Carolina.
| Nov 26, 2013
First Look: World's tallest Ferris wheel and surrounding N.Y. development
The New York office of Perkins Eastman has announced that the New York Wheel, located on the north shore of Staten Island’s St. George neighborhood, was approved by City Council on October 30 and construction is scheduled to begin in 2014. The approval process has been over a year in the making since the project was first announced by the office of Mayor Bloomberg last September.
| Nov 25, 2013
Insider tips on how to get picked a BD+C 40 Under 40 winner
We just posted the Entry Form for our 9th Annual BD+C "40 Under 40" competition. Frankly, the Entry Form is just the basic data. The real meat of your entry is your Personal Statement.