THE CHAPEL OF ST. IGNATIOUS

We visited Vancouver and Seattle last week. We absolutely love to hit a city and then immediately start exploring it. And many times we don’t have a specific itinerary of places to visit and things to see. I can be very happy just walking thru new streets with new views and objects to look at.

When we were thinking about Seattle, the buildings we wanted to see were the Boeing plant, the Seattle Public Library, Pike Market, etc. But somehow we were not aware that Steven Holl’s St. Ignatious Chapel was in Seattle. I did a couple of “famous buildings in Seattle” search before we left. And for whatever reason, this building never was listed.

So thanks to our friend Steve who, once he knew we were in Seattle, said something the effect that you no doubt have already made the pilgrimage to St Ignatious, and isn’t it wonderful? Embarrassing pause. Er, well, gee, we did not realize that it was a mile away. So immediately that next morning, we were there.

And indeed it is wonderful. This building was built over 20 years ago. I remember when it was published soon after I got out of architecture school. And it has always stayed with me over these years.

In typical Transparent Drawing recommended travel mode, I snapped away with my phone. The building was always sort of a mystery to me. Although I never really spent much time working on understanding the basic form, I was always rather mystified about how the form resolved with the interior. How could the wonderful organically carved interior derive from the peculiar elevational forms? I never understood it.

But now I do. The revelation for me was the subtle latitudinal arch form in the roof. So although at an uneducated glance there is a lower rectangular box from which the organic shapes spring. Actually that box has an arched roof. And it is the intersection of this simple arch and the expressive roof forms that fundamentally creates the fascinating interior curves and cuts.

As a demonstration of my understanding, I have attached the above two transparent drawings. Also as Transparent Drawing approved, I utilized images from the web to heighten my understanding on how it works. While in and walking around the building, I took 23 photos. And I guess for a 45 minute visit, that is about on par. Still, to be sure that you understand what is happening, there is nothing like an aerial photograph to confirm that understanding.

VISITOR’S GUIDE

And as a last observation, it is amazing to see how ubiquitous this watercolor of Holl’s is in the description of the building. The glass bottles in a stone box, which he has titled “Seven Bottles of Light” is everywhere. It is even on the visitor’s guide, shown directly above,  that is available when you enter the building. It is as if they want to be sure that you understand the genesis of the design. And Holl’s drawing is basically transparent.

I scanned this page directly above of the visitor’s guide, which was free for the taking. While I don’t think that this violates any copyright laws, as I have intimated in these pages before, I am not exactly sure. Nevertheless, it seems to me that if you give proper credit, this should be allowed.  The visitor’s guide was published by Seattle University.

And then please, please be sure when visiting a new location to know the buildings you want to see. I still feel dumb that I did not know that St. Ignatious was in Seattle. And I probably would not have forgiven myself if I would not have seen it. That would have been dumb and dumber.