Peetz Stained Glass

Recently, the Remodeling Committee has been looking at stained glass. We’re going to need some beautiful stained glass windows to make our new design work. On top of the artistic challenge, the windows also have a challenge of being close to the viewer (eye level) instead of some distance away.
According to an expert consulting with [...]

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Ideas: Remodeling Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa

The folks at Holy Family Cathedral, the mother church for the Diocese of Tulsa Oklahoma, are wrapping up a remodeling project that they starting in 2006. They’ve been tracking their progress on a blog too – theirs is called Haec Est Domus Domini. The current project includes rebuilding the cathedral spires (replacing wood with metal), [...]

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Time for a Novena to St. Joseph?

We had a great building committee meeting tonight. Our project is still alive, and the days until (planned) demolition are ticking down. Due to some critical work that needs to be done over the next 10 days, this would be a great time to start a Novena to St. Joseph the Carpenter.  St. Joseph’s feast [...]

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Reuse, Recycle, Reclaim

Stained Glass Window depicting St. Pius X.
Dimensions: 21 1/2 inches width, 29 1/4 inches height.
From a suppressed church in Philadelphia.
via King Richard’s Religious Artifacts
On his Catholic Sacred Arts blog, writer Hugh J. McNichol makes a point about reclaiming what is ours:

Building a Church…let’s buy back our Catholic heritage!
While the American Catholic Church is shifting in [...]

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Ideas: Renovating Sacred Heart, Peoria IL

One day in January of 1206 A.D. St. Francis paid a visit to San Damiano, a decrepit church on the outskirts of Assisi. There he knelt in prayer before an ancient icon depicting Christ Crucified, with Our Lady and St. John standing beneath His right arm. Suddenly a voice came forth from the icon and [...]

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Ideas: Renovating St. Aloysius, New Canaan CT

The first St. Aloysius Church was built in New Canaan Connecticut in 1862. The third St. Aloysius Church was built in 1967 as a modern, plain white-box space with the feel of an auditorium:

In 1995, the members of St. Aloysius asked Catholic architect Henry Hardinge Menzies to reorder the interior and exterior of the building. [...]

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Feedback: The Hot Buttons

Feedback from the Townhall Meeting is coming in, and last night at our Committee Meeting, we had a chance to look over the first suggestions submitted on the Pre-Design Questionnaires. If you haven’t had a chance to tell us your ideas, please do so quickly.
Many of the suggestions can be grouped into eight hot button [...]

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Pre-Design Summary Document

At our successful Townhall meeting on 8 April, architect Adam Hermanson walked us through a report summarizing the work the committee has done to date. Adam’s presentation covered the process, a preliminary budget, an overview of the schedule, the design principles and project goals, and a preliminary zoning summary. Reviewing the pre-design summary took half [...]

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Great Townhall Meeting!

Last night, Father Hilton and architect Adam Hermanson chaired a great Town Hall Meeting. Adam led us through the Pre-Design Summary Document, which detailed the schedule and budget for the project. He then reviewed the project goals, including the two design principles set by the committee. Adam and Father both explained that these design principles [...]

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Ideas: Renovating St. Aloysius, Olivia MN

Part of the Diocese of New Ulm, St. Aloysius Church in Olivia Minnesota has been recognized as an outstanding renovation. I came across it through a video on the web page for Station KSTP Channel 5 in the Twin Cities. The video, part of KSTP’s Pursuit of Excellence series, shows how and what the [...]

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