An intimate setting for small groups and a communal space for up to 500, the new 6,400-square-foot chapel at St. Croix Lutheran High School accommodates a variety of arrangements and meets the dynamic needs of its students. In addition to daily worship, the school uses the chapel for performances and music lessons, making acoustics an important aspect of the design.

Kodet Architectural Group provided planning and design services to St. Croix Lutheran’s leadership, helping to ensure that St. Croix Lutheran High School chapel would serve the school’s student body for the next 25 years.

Also important to the planning and design was confirming the school’s mission of “educating the total student--spiritually, intellectually, and physically--in a caring Christian family community.”

The chapel’s form reflects this mission and the beliefs of the St. Croix Lutheran High School community in several ways. One of its most prominent design features is a set of three curved walls placed one behind the other to represent the Trinity. The walls serve as symbolic, as well as practical, shields, protecting the space from the intense afternoon light. A T-shaped opening is set in each of these walls, framing a metal cross affixed to the exterior of the outermost wall. The result is a contrast of light and dark, solid and void against the openings and in the curved walls, creating both a central focal point and emphasizing the importance of the cross.

The connection of light and space continues throughout the chapel.

“The design gives meaning to the intangible qualities of light, and emphasizes passage through experience,” explains architect Ed Kodet, FAIA. “There are two light scoops--one at the entrance to the sanctuary and the other over the altar. The first announces one’s arrival into a space of importance through a change in height as well as a progression of light, and the second naturally highlights the central altar platform.”

On either side of the building, clerestory windows cap steel-and-glass curtain walls with copper fins that modulate the incoming light. Each window at the sidewalls is angled, as are the coffers above the space frame, to direct and control sound. To help absorb unnecessary reverberation, padding is placed behind the curved copper walls, which are symbolic in their own right.

“We chose copper for the chapel because of its symbolic representation of life,” notes Kodet. “When copper is first installed, it is bright and contains all the promises that life has to offer. But as it ages, it takes on a green and weathered appearance--a beautiful result earned from a productive and inspiring life.”

Each of the Trinity walls’ varying positions dynamically spreads light from the copper surfaces into the space, setting the interior aglow.

An exposed steel frame draws the eyes toward the altar and toward the heavens, capturing attention while also supporting the structure. The progression of light and materials concludes with a slot window that emphasizes the exterior cross. From the outside, the copper-clad exterior seems to outline the cross’s presence.

Kodet Architectural Group, Ltd.’s design for the St. Croix Lutheran High School Chapel in West St. Paul, Minn., will be presented with a national Design Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects’ Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA).

An award-winning Minnesota firm, Kodet Architectural Group, www.kodet.com, provides a complete range of services, such as architectural programming, site planning, referendum assistance, feasibility studies, accessibility, remodeling, historic preservation, lighting and acoustical design, and interior and exterior design.

Fast Facts

School: St. Croix Lutheran High School

Location: West St. Paul, Minnesota

Size of Project: 6,400-square-foot chapel

Consultant/Contractor: Kodet Architectural Group

Project Goal: To create a chapel that confirms the school’s mission of “educating the total student--spiritually, intellectually, and physically--in a caring Christian family community.”

Unique Feature: One of the chapel’s most prominent design features set of three curved walls placed one behind the other to represent the Trinity. The walls serve as symbolic, as well as practical, shields, protecting the space from the intense afternoon light.