Canterbury School
By: Frances Putman
From an architectural perspective, a school campus should have an anchor, a building that stands out prominently and reflects the values of the school community. On secular campuses, the anchor might be a library or a sports arena. At Canterbury School , an Episcopal day school in Greensboro , North Carolina , the center is Phillips Chapel, a 13,000-square-foot, Gothic-style chapel built in 2003.
Canterbury School , which has just over 350 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, was founded in 1990. Since that time, school leaders have followed a master plan, building new additions on the 42-acre campus in a deliberate fashion.
A chapel was not high on the list of priorities, as the thrice-weekly, mandatory chapel sessions were held in the school's gymnasium. But when a couple approached the school, offering to donate substantial funding for a chapel, school leaders reorganized the master plan.
"It seemed providential," says Florence Gatten, a member of the school's board of trustees and a Greensboro City Councilwoman.
Gatten, who had studied medieval chapels at Oxford , joined the building committee and, along with other members, visited numerous school chapels, studying the architecture and looking for just the right fit for Canterbury . With some ideas in mind, they contacted Ethan Anthony, AIA, president of HDB/Cram and Ferguson, Inc., an internationally known architectural firm, to design the new building.
"We wanted a chapel in a true Gothic tradition." Gatten says, "We were looking for someone who could interpret American Gothic design to a contemporary Gothic setting."
According to Anthony, this is the first neo-Gothic project in America since the 1960s.
"Since this project has been publicized, Princeton University has come out with a plan to design all its dorms in Gothic style, and the style is experiencing a resurgence as a Christian style," Anthony says, adding that the Gothic style is critical in reconnecting with the traditions of Christian architecture. "Religious architecture appealed directly to the emotions of the viewer who looked up at the building and saw depictions of people there that made him feel empathy with the building. He was looking up and seeing himself or a saint on the building."
Beginning with the French Enlightenment, he says, scientific explanations in many instances replaced understandings based on faith. Scientific thinkers like Voltaire ridiculed faith and the church. Architecture began to reflect this change in attitude.
"(Humanity) was replaced in modernist buildings with notions not about people but about the materials of the building and how they were scientifically produced or the structure and how it was held up," Anthony says. "The place of the human was gone. Since modernist architecture, because it is scientific, rejects faith at its core, it is unfit for religious uses."
From the beginning, Canterbury School 's building committee wanted a grand tower in Phillips Chapel, but some wondered if the cost of the project-which eventually topped $4 million-was too great. The tower, Gatten says, significantly increased the cost of the chapel building.
"The tower was considered essential to the design by everyone, but was threatened repeatedly during the bidding as we sought ways to reduce the cost of the project," recalls Anthony. "In the end, the tower was saved by general acclaim."
The primary donors increased their original gift, and other donors came forward to contribute to funds for stained glass windows or other specific components of the chapel.
The first step, Gatten says, was sharing the committee's vision with donors. Once sketches were drawn and a budget was determined, potential donors could see what they were being asked to support.
"We had to energize donors around a dream by helping them visualize the dream," Gatten says.
Potential donors were invited to tour the school and to hear about its mission "to develop the whole child by challenging the mind and nourishing the spirit in a diverse community guided by Judeo-Christian values."
"We just kept holding up the vision," Gatten says, recalling how school leaders and committee members succeeded by being intentional-by setting goals and following up with potential donors very deliberately, not just when they had the time.
The second step involved finding ways to reduce the cost of the chapel without compromising the vision.
"The design team worked non-stop to develop less expensive alternatives to many design solutions," Anthony says.
Instead of stone column surrounds, glass fiber reinforced gypsum was used. The ceiling wood is southern yellow pine, and the beams are micro-laminated products with a dark stain.
"Plywood was used for larger expanses and stained to match," Anthony says.
At first, the plan was to use pre-cast trimming stone, but a call to the local limestone quarry revealed natural stone would be less expensive. So, natural stone was used around windows and doors and on copings and buttress caps.
"This building has the authenticity of 2-foot thick walls, stone-trimmed leaded glass windows, tracery timber ceilings and many other features of the neo-Gothic style, coupled with the best values of modern construction, such as energy-efficiency," says Anthony.
While students attend three mandatory chapel sessions in the 600-seat structure each week, the chapel is used for other purposes as well. Sometimes, music and drama performances are held there, as well as other religious services, graduation ceremonies, weddings and even baptisms. Because it is a multi-purpose facility, moveable cathedral chairs were chosen for the seating. The altar is portable as well.
"The multi-purpose chapel is an assembly space that keeps the school's values present, (even) in secular assemblies," Anthony adds.
Although there were areas where saving money was important, school leaders did not skimp on sound equipment.
"I think we've all been in services where it was difficult to hear," Gatten says. "It was worth investing in a good, acoustical sound system."
Those contributing funds to the building project, she adds, could readily understand the need for investing in quality equipment. Donors also purchased stained-glass windows, which surround the chapel. Forty windows were drawn into the plans, and 36 of them have been purchased by individual donors.
To others considering a similar building project, Gatten suggests finding the right architect and taking the advice of the experts.
About the Architect
HDB/Cram and Ferguson , www.hdb.com , is an award-winning architecture and design firm, founded by noted architect Ralph Adams Cram 1889. Today, with Ethan Anthony as president, the Boston , Mass. , firm exists as a professional firm engaged in the general practice of architecture, historic preservation, interior design and construction.
