St. Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church
05/04/2012.
By Marlon Blackwell Architect. [Springdale, Arkansas] USA
metalocus, PEDRO NAVARRO
metalocus, PEDRO NAVARRO
In Spain we are in the Catholic Easter and although the next project is Orthodox we believe that clearly reflects the spirit that runs through these days, with good architecture. After a lengthy search for property, the congregation of Saint Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church found a three acre site in Springdale, Arkansas, bordered to the east by a large public park and exposed to a major highway to the west. After a lengthy debate about the merits of the existing house and steel-framed shop building, the decision was made to repurpose the shop building into a new worship space. The existing shop building had three high lift garage doors, a small mezzanine for storage, and an office. The mezzanine and the office were completely removed, as was the western facade to allow for a larger mezzanine and a ten foot wide addition across the entire length of the west elevation. The steel frame was in only one location to allow for the introduction of a tower element that highlights the entry to the sanctuary. The building is enveloped by a new skin of box-ribbed metal panels and colored glass openings: the original gabled form is obscured and refined. Although a small structure, its bold form, surface and symbols make it recognizable both day and night from the nearby interstate.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
Architect: Marlon Blackwell Architect
Project Location: Springdale, Arkansas, USA
Owner/Client: Saint Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church
Project Team: Marlon Blackwell, FAIA [principal] Jon Boelkins Bradford Payne Gail Shepherd Meryati Johari Blackwell Stephen Reyenga
Photographs: Timothy Hursley, Don Lourie, Marlon Blackwell Architect
While traditional Eastern Orthodox Churches are axial and face east, the rectangular shop building was oriented north-south. Although there are liturgical provisions for “reorienting” a worship space that is unable to face east, the program was simply folded to allow for the proper orientation. Rather that adhering to the traditional axial progression, the narthex is folded 90 degrees to the axis of the sanctuary space so that parishioners are delivered to the east-west axis once they arrive in the sanctuary. This subtle compromise allows for a very minimal addition in order to accommodate the program, dignified by a long suspended piece of millwork made of local white oak that embraces the ritual of lighting prayer candles and paying respect to saints en route to worship. As one passes through the candle-lit narthex, the ceiling gradually descends above a floor of oak, compressing the visitor before passing under the sky- lit tower that marks the entry into the sanctuary oriented to the east. The tower is lit by a skylight and houses a cross facing west filled with red glass, backlit by the eastern sun each morning and artificially illuminated at night to be visible from the adjacent highway.
Interior view. Photography courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
At the east end of the sanctuary, the ceiling is carved away to allow for a 30 foot wide transom of translucent glass that bathes the sanctuary in soft light for morning services. The iconostasis, the screen wall between the sanctuary and the altar area representing the separation between heaven and earth, is the one vertical surface that is articulated in great detail. It features hand- painted and gilded icons representative of the separation of heaven and earth. Two hidden operable panels in the iconostasis allow for the priest to pass through while performing rituals according to the church’s liturgy. The sanctuary also features a dome, fashioned from arepurposed satellite dish, inverted and plastered, then inscribed with the image of the ‘pantocrator,’ the image of Christ rising as the sun in the east.
Exterior view. Photography courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architect.
The oak floor and the dome of the sanctuary reflect a strategy in which the interior vertical surfaces of the church are bathed in light with color accents with limited articulation. In contrast, the horizontal surfaces are expressive, revealing priorities and hierarchies. In the fellowship hall, the original concrete slab and the roof structure of the metal shop building are exposed, revealing the origins of the building. The exposed insulation and steel structure were simply painted black while the original shop lights were relocated to illuminate the fellowship hall. Adjacent to the fellowship hall are new services, including restrooms and a kitchen, while the mezzanine above houses a large multi-purpose space and Father John’s office, which overlooks the narthex.
Site plan.
Although regular services draw approximately 80 visitors, holiday services draw twice as many. Rather than design the sanctuary for the greater number, one wall of the sanctuary has two large sections that swing open to the fellowship hall. These operable walls stow completely allowing for the fellowship hall to be used for overflow seating during holiday services. This flexibility allows reflects the modest budget and resourcefulness required of the design.
Ground floor plan.
The congregation has grown by 30% since the new worship space has opened, fostering the dream of a larger sanctuary to be located on the same site to house 200 worshipers. The site plan was developed with the future phase in mind, employing a sensitive parking strategy, one that kept parking to the side and rear of the church, contrary to the typical practice of wide bands of parking between the street and the building. Instead, a large ‘plaza’ is formed which will eventually be framed to the south by the new sanctuary space. For now, the graphic white elevation serves as a billboard for the church, its profile easily seen and identified from the highway. It is a small church with a large presence despite being surrounded by numerous larger churches.
Cross section.
Awards:
2011
World Architecture Festival winner in Civic and Community Buildings
American Architecture Award
Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award
Gulf States Regional AIA Design Merit Award
2010
Architect Magazine Design review [Citation]
Arkansas State AIA Honor Award
Longitudinal section.
More information
Marlon Blackwell
Marlon Blackwell, FAIA practices architecture in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and serves as Distinguished Professor and Department Head in the School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. Working outside the architectural mainstream, his architecture is based in design strategies that celebrate vernaculars, that draw upon them, and that seek to transgress conventional boundaries for architecture. Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architect, has received national and international recognition, numerous AIA design awards and significant publication in books, architectural journals and magazines including Architectural Record (with the honor of having the Keenan TowerHouse featured on the cover of the February 2001 issue), Architect, Arquine, A+U, Detail, Dwell, Metropolitan Home, Contract, Residential Architect, the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary Architecture (2004 & 2008) and Architectural Review (2002 ar + d prize winner for the Moore HoneyHouse and a 2010 Housing Citation for the PorchDog House).
"For Blackwell, buildings are generators of and frames for experience. Profound and touching architectural experiences arise from the tectonic realities of construction, truthful materiality, and the existential charge of the imagery, not from fictitious pictorial fabrications."
Juhani Pallasmaa
The significance of his contributions to design is evidenced by the publication of a monograph of his work entitled “An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Works of Marlon Blackwell” published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2005. Marlon was selected by The International Design Magazine, in 2006, as one of the ID Forty: Undersung Heroes and as an “Emerging Voice” in 1998 by the Architectural League of New York.
At the University of Arkansas he has co-taught design studios with Peter Eisenman (1997 & 1998), Christopher Risher (2000) and Julie Snow (2003). He has been a visiting professor teaching graduate design at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts in Spring 2001 and 2002. Most recently, he was the Elliel Saarinen Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. He also has served as the Ivan Smith Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida (Spring 2009) and the Paul Rudolph Visiting Professor at Auburn University (Spring 2008) and the Cameron Visiting Professor at Middlebury College (Fall 2007). In the Spring of 2003, he was the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and has also been a visiting professor at Syracuse University (1991-92).
In 1994, he co-founded the University of Arkansas Mexico Summer Urban Studio, and has coordinated and taught in the program at the Casa Luis Barragan in Mexico City since 1996.
He received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University in 1980 and a M. Arch II degree from Syracuse University in Florence in 1991.
