Bridging between two buildings of different vintage and architectural styles, the new parish hall for St. Francis of Assissi needed to remain understated and subtly detailed. With boundaries defined by the adjoining buildings’ exterior walls, the new parish hall creates an interstitial space where the entire parish can gather. One sees stone buttresses of the 1895 sanctuary recalled in the rhythmic glass and steel of the “gothic” trellis. These buildings define a new courtyard piazza as the centerpiece of extensive landscape and facility improvements throughout the church’s urban campus, unifying the campus, relegating the cars to the periphery and reinforcing the ‘civic’ place where the church gathers.
2004 Honor Award for Design Excellence, Virginia Society AIA
2004 Certificate of Honor for Excellence in Architecture, AIA Central Virginia
