The Sisters of the Humility of Mary had attempted to renovate their chapel some 7 years prior to my involvement. Internal support did not exist so the work was abandoned.
The attempt began anew when the interior finishes had deteriorated to the point that something had to be done. So a team of 8 nuns embarked on interviewing architects and finally taking on the burden of a radical renovation for a community.
The chapel, designed and built following the revision from Vatican II, maintained a raised altar platform and fixed seating. Our design explorations emphasized expanded flexibility.
One visitor commented "I see that the chapel has been renovated but I cannot tell where the old ends and the new begins."
The ambo, a reading lectern, was designed as two pieces. The standing side is for common use. The "sitting side" allows for wheel-chair access. Interestingly a nun who stood only 4'6" was the first to use the lower side.
This processional cross contains a corpus from the original chapel's. Used as a basis for this new work, New York artist, Milarchi created a dynamic work that includes small bells at the bottom. 
No comments:
Post a Comment