It has been awhile since we dropped in with some of our architects and William Heyer Architects recently update their site with some new projects that should be of interest to LAJ readers. One such project is that of St. Mary of the Assumption in Lancaster, Ohio.
From Heyer Architects:
St Mary of the Assumption is an 1864 Gothic Revival church in Lancaster, Ohio’s historic district and is one of the largest in the region of this type. It has undergone several renovations over the last century with Sanctuary and Nave remodelings. Among those alterations, the original Gothic reredos was removed and a newer Gothic reredos of similar aesthetic but poorer detailing was installed in the 1990’s to reestablish the church’s Gothic character lost in previous renovations.Here are some views of the project as it was conceived by the architects:
Our new work properly details the main reredos and installs the tabernacle, formerly moved to a side chapel, back in the center of the reredos. The central painting of the Assumption accomplished in a Raphael style by a local artist is now flanked with new paintings by renowned classical painter James Langley of Savannah, Georgia. Two new designs for side shrines complimentary to the Sanctuary Gothic reredos incorporate existing devotional statues and newly commissioned illuminated paintings by Jed Gibbons of Chicago. In addition, we replaced the mid-century terrazzo wainscot panels in the Nave side aisles with Gothic wood wainscoting and integrated confessional frontispieces in quarter-sawn white oak. The project also includes decorative painting with Marian floral embellishments in a German Gothic aesthetic particularly at the vaulting bosses and spandrels while the Apse vaulting receives traditional stars in a blue background.
Never one to miss an opportunity to detail some decorative stencilling, here is a detail from the vaulting:
Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery in Clear Creek is also coming along nicely since I last saw it. This particular monastery is, of course, Benedictine, coming from the Abbey of Fontgombault in France. It looks as though there is much promise here, and I am particularly fond of the use of the Romanesque within this context particularly.
