Saint Mary's Church
Alexandria, MinnesotaA growing Catholic community in Alexandria, Minnesota required a new worship space seating 1500 people - triple the capacity of their existing 1924 Gothic style Church. The new worship space shares the site with an existing parish house and school. A second phase is anticipated which will link the Church with the school and provide parish office space. Immediately surrounding the site are parking lots, commercial structures and frame houses. The existing Church was retained as a gathering space for the community. Its former apse became the baptistry and portal for the new worship space. Seating for the new space was placed in a community arrangement around the altar. A processional axis connects the baptistry with the chancel and with the chapel reserved for the sacraments and reconciliation. This axis was placed on an angle to allow the taller massing above the chancel to be positioned away from the site edges and the smaller scaled neighbors. The pitched roof form and dormers above the worship space recall the farm structures of the region and the houses in the neighborhood. The surrounding masonry wall relates in color and scale to the existing Church. The humble materials of the building - brick, wood and concrete block - contrast with the the more precious materials of the liturgical furnishings: granite for the font, altar and presiders chair; gold leaf for the reredos wall; and polished chrome for the jewels on the roof bourne Cross.