Before and After: St. Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington, Virginia

Most of our 'Before and After' series tend to focus on the interior of a church, with little or no mention of the exterior. (Generally, the interior is where the focus primarily is.) Well today, we are pleased to present a project executed by the architects, O'Brien and Keane, based out of Arlington, Virginia, at St. Thomas More Cathedral (likewise located in Arlington, Virginia) where our focus will be especially on the exterior, which is certainly not unimportant as any voyage to deeply Catholic cultures will attest.. 

O'Brien and Keane set the context and approach for us about this particular project:

When the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, was established in 1974, the parish church of St. Thomas More was designated as its cathedral. The 50th anniversary celebration of the founding provided the motivation to renew the aging structure. In conversations between the client and the architect, a challenge emerged: could the old church be transformed into one more fitting for its stature as the mother church of the Diocese, one drawn from the heritage of traditional sacred architecture? O’Brien & Keane responded with a design for the complete replacement of the principal facades and roof, enlarged windows, and the replacement of nearly all existing interior finishes. Additionally, the design called for the reorganization and renovation of the sanctuary, new liturgical furnishings, and the removal of non-contributing and distracting features. 

Built in 1960, the aging structure was truly of its time. Although cruciform in plan, this church was sparsely detailed and lacked the richness of architectural expression and artistic craft that is the institution’s inherited legacy. 

Informed by the architecture of the time of St. Thomas More, a man of Tudor England and martyred under the rule of Henry VIII, precedents from that era and later revivals guided the design. Notably, the stonework and mixed masonry, oriel windows, tracery, and buttresses found in the work of James Gamble Rogers in the early 20th Century served as inspiration for the new architectural language. 

The new vocabulary extends to the interior, as seen in the nave and transept end walls, the oriel windows, and the wood screen wall, inspired by rood screens of the Perpendicular Gothic period. This latter device serves as the backdrop for the sanctuary and relocated tabernacle and eliminates the visual distraction of the choir located in a loft above and behind the sanctuary without compromising acoustics.

As the firm mentions, the present cathedral was never built as a cathedral; instead its origins is that of a parish church -- challenge number one -- and architecturally speaking, its artistic and architectural origins is that of a fairly typical, minimalist, functionalist, mid-century modern church -- challenge number two. 

BEFORE

Above we see the former exterior and what O'Brien and Keane was able to accomplish in their renovation of the exterior is nothing short of wonderful, adopting, as they note, a Tudor gothic style; a style that actually meshes remarkably well with the less vertically driven, more 'low centre of gravity' style of mid-century modern -- a stylistic characteristic that the Tudor form of gothic also shares, thus opening the door to some natural abilities to synthesize the one into the other. 

So what did they do? Gone is the mediocre facade characterized by plain brick, unadorned concrete/stone and plain rectangular windows (excepting to the sides of the nave that is), and in their place we have ornamental stone, buttresses, gothic ornaments, some gothic windows, and also not to be missed are the crosses that has now been tastefully placed on top of the peak of the front and back of the cathedral.

AFTER

The project also involved renovations to to the interior of the cathedral church. Now the interior renovations weren't so dramatic as the exterior renovations, but they are nonetheless worth featuring.  Let's begin with the 'before.'

BEFORE

One can see here the sanctuary, which includes some fairly typically unappealing mid-century modern qualities -- such as the overly prominent of the organ pipes, a rather curious space located behind the altar (which rather takes away focus from the altar itself), and the minimalist altar and corresponding sanctuary furnishings.

For the after, all of this was changed.

AFTER

Especially pleasing in the new iteration of the cathedral's interior is the new marble altar, tabernacle, altar rail and ambo, as well as the gorgeous stained glass windows and wood panelled shrines that now sit along the length of the central nave. 

The font

Transept

Transept

Shrines located along the nave

Detail of one of the shrines

For more information on the project, we'd invite you to visit the website of O'Brien and Keane.

Photo Credits: Prakash Patel

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