CHAPEL OF ST. IGNATIUS
Seattle, WA. United States. 1997
Description +
PROGRAM: Jesuit chapel for Seattle University
CLIENT: Seattle University
SIZE: 6,100 sq ft
STATUS: complete
Seven bottles of light in a stone box; the metaphor of light is shaped in different volumes emerging from the roof whose irregularities aim at different qualities of light: East facing, South facing, West and North facing, all gathered together for one united ceremony. Each of the light volumes corresponds to a part of the program of Jesuit Catholic worship. The south-facing light corresponds to the procession, a fundamental part of the mass. The city-facing north light corresponds to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and to the mission of outreach to the community. The main worship space has a volume of east and west light. At night, which is the particular time of gatherings for mass in this university chapel, the light volumes are like beacons shining in all directions out across the campus.
Ecological Innovation +
− Natural light to all spaces
− Reflecting pond
− Integral tilt-up concrete slab provide direct and economical tectonic construction
Credits +
architect
- Steven Holl Architects
Steven Holl (design architect)
Tim Bade (project architect)
Janet Cross, Jan Kinsbergen, Justin Korhammer, Audra Tuskes (project team)
local architect
- Olson Sundberg Architects
structural engineer
- Monte Clark Engineering
- Datum Engineering
electrical engineer
- Abacus Engineered Systems
mechanical engineer
- Abacus Engineered Systems
liturgical consultant
- Bill Brown, AIA P.C.
lighting consultant
- L'Observatoire International
acoustical consultant
- Peter George and Associates
general contractor
- Baugh Construction
artist
- Linda Beaumont
- Dora Nikolova Bittau
-
Quotes +
- Kevin Keim, Placenotes, July 2011 "Steven Holl’s Chapel of St. Ignatius transformed the pleasant and respectable, but otherwise unremarkable Seattle University campus into one whose center of gravity is now a work of international architectural significance. Holl, whose architectural ideas begin with exquisite, abstract watercolor sketches, describes this church as a stone vessel holding seven liturgical ‘bottles of light.’ It is all that and more."
News +
Awards +
- 2022 American Institute of Architects 25 Year Award
- 1997 National AIA Design Award
- 1997 National AIA Religious Architecture Award
