Click on an image below to view the exterior and interior art
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Saint Agnes Catholic Church in Naples, Florida Click on an image below to view the exterior and interior art |
Garden with Stations of the Cross and the Madonna Click on the image to view the individual Stations and the Madonna |
Interior of Saint Agnes Church Click on the image to view the sculptures inside |
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St. Agnes Catholic Church
Project Description The Client’s program for the site includes a central Sanctuary seating 1200, a secondary Chapel for 300, Memorial Gardens, Welcome plaza, a Shrine to the Madonna approached by a linear garden walk marked by sculptural stations of the Cross and future elements including Parish Life Center, elderly care center and educational facilities. The Master Plan was conceived using a strong biblical theme: baptism and water as the beginning and giver of life both in this world and as the threshold to eternity. Project Concept With a liturgical theme of birth, rebirth and resurrection, the project site and building components were organized around a circle: the configuration of which represents a halo or zone of “enlightenment. Site gardens and amenities contained within and along the circle are linked to metaphorical expressions of heaven and eternal life. At the center of the circle is the new Sanctuary’s Baptismal Font (water wall and basin) around which the entire theme of the complex is organized. Intersecting the site circle, and emanating from the original Baptismal Font is a linear water source, a symbol of cleansing, purifying and eternal life. The water zone, aligning with the primary entry walks becomes a threshold from the daily life of the parishioner to the eternal life of the soul. Along this water line lies also the Chapel Baptismal basin. The Sanctuary plan itself replicates the circular theme of the center; the center of the Sanctuary being shifted northward as if to fully reveal the original Center of the site as the place of Baptism. Formal themes relating to the primitive Spanish-style mission are faintly remembered in the Sanctuary, Chapel and Shrine wall massing, as modern abstractions of geometries found for example at the Mission Church at Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. Two towers, separated by the church’s narthex mark the main entrance and gateway access to the sacred center at the Baptismal Font. Unlike traditional formal church arrangements whose approach is axial, the Church achieves an entry sequence that draws celebrants in from all directions, analogous to the mission aspect of the church. The path leads in toward the Baptismal Font/threshold and onward into the soaring Sanctuary space. The oval chancel platform stands prominently in front of a 30-foot high hanging tapestry of sculptural stained glass “raining down” from the heavens, an additional symbol of water and life. Project Team Andrea Clark Brown Architects Andrea Clark Brown, AIA, principal in charge David Poorman, AIA, project architect Marcel Botha, Steve Seaton, Jani Venter, design team |
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