RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE/RENOVATION
Honor Award
St. Peter’s Parish Multipurpose Space
Kansas City, Missouri
Architect
SFS Architecture
Kansas City, Missouri
St. Peter’s Parish needed a new multi-function gathering space to host students and parishioners. By reimaging a little-used passage between a school and the church, a new 2,900-square-foot multipurpose space emerged. The new design provides an interior connection between the two structures’ unaligned floor levels and allows daylight to pass through the church’s stained-glass windows. With its straightforward language of structural silicon-glazed curtain wall, unadorned concrete columns, and timber roof structure, the addition is intended to be as transparent as possible. The design also acknowledges the rich, hand-hewn textures of the existing native-stone structures. Lightness and verticality are emphasized with tall, slender columns, curtainwall framing, and long vertical pendant fixtures in contrast to the surrounding buildings’ weight and horizontal stone coursing. St. Peter’s Parish’s interior character is defined more by the existing limestone and the surrounding neighborhood’s tree cover.
Jury Comments
St. Peter’s Parish’s creative approach to expansion demonstrates their ability to respect the existing architecture but not sacrifice its own identity. By leveraging space and current materials, the church’s architecture was strengthened in the process.
