Designed as an iconic structure to greet students on their daily
arrival, The Chapel is meant to be a welcoming presence when
approached from the main campus. The strong yet simple geometry,
enduring materials, and soaring ceilings have been chosen to
provide a spiritual anchor for the Jesuit High School Campus and
to provide a symbolic progression from dynamic campus life to a
more contemplative sacred space.
About
Name
Jeffrey ’80 and Elizabeth Phelan Chapel of the North
American Martyrs
A simple, folded plane provides shelter. Braced by a tangled web
of steel that has been likened to a crown of thorns, the purity
of the surface is unbroken save for colorful embossed recesses to
capture natural light. A single aperture in the roof provides a
passage for the mount upon which the cross is held aloft, and
cascades light along its surface into the sanctuary, thus leading
the eye of the parishioner upwards and outwards to share the sky
with the simple, unaffected cross.
Portals to the sanctuary flow between curving walls from a
semicircular ambulatory which is contained by a collage of
translucent glass prisms. Colored to refer to the seasons of
Catholic liturgy, and illuminated by the course of the sun, the
prisms paint an ever-changing pattern on the walls of the
sanctuary.
The design is based on geometric principles which date to the
beginnings of sacred architecture. Arcs, axes, and alignments
have been carefully orchestrated to create a subtle yet
inevitable path towards the sanctuary, and from there, towards
the altar. Yet, in recognition of our multicultural society, and
the treasure of individuality, the plan gathers, rather than
focuses the paths of those who come to worship. Seating up to 350
people, the sanctuary will be large enough for school liturgical
services while a smaller devotional Lady Chapel will allow for
individual prayer, contemplation and small group devotion.
The outside of the Chapel is covered in a cement material now
becoming very popular among architects, but which has been
available for more than one hundred years, and was first used in
a church designed by Bay Area architect Bernard Maybeck in 1910.
The very deliberate pattern created by its regular module is
accented by brightly colored “pocket” windows and horizontal
bands of darker-hued panels which, together, create an impression
of strength and permanence, while attesting to the substantial
girth of the walls themselves.
As the enclosing walls rise to create a sharp peak over the entry
vestibule, then fold in a continuous line to create the roof, the
silhouette of the Chapel points towards the sky, and forms a
sheltered space for the curved white form of the Lady Chapel
below. On the side opposite, a vast window looks towards the
campus. Bordered by a reflecting pool, and guarded by a
monumental web of slanted steel beams, the window is emblazoned
with shards of colored glass, and reflections of the sky and the
trees which border the plaza. A portico of pure white plaster
abuts the window to form a quiet entrance.
Within, a series of freestanding, gently curved walls form a
nested space for the sanctuary. Open to the ambulatory, and
inlaid with natural wood, the walls help to shape an audible
resonance in the sanctuary and to provide a soft, modulated light
throughout its volume.
The irregular form of the sanctuary, which billows outwards from
a many-sided altar, is filled with the warm tones of wooden pews,
which float over the dark tile floor on custom-designed
sculptural steel supports. Sacred furniture is made of similar,
humble materials, with strong geometric forms, and robust wood
shapes.
