Pollen
Pollen

St. Edward’s University

Type
Institutional
Location
Austin, TX
Year
2014
Builder
Sabre Commercial Inc.
Photography
Whit Preston
Recognition
Texas Architect Nov/Dec 2015
St. Edward’s Magazine 2015

Pollen led a team to remodel the 100+ year old Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel at St. Edward’s University, adding new space for St. Edward’s Campus Ministry and a contemplative garden designed by TenEyck Landscape Architects.  Mark Macek designed the religious furnishings.  The primary concept in reinvigorating the chapel was to infuse it with light and natural materials, giving it a sense of serenity, simplicity and warmth. We returned the floor plan to a traditional layout and created a vestibule at the front door with the addition of a screened Narthex. In the new Sanctuary a clerestory window was added to wash light across a curved plaster wall behind the altar. The Nave was lined with pine boards, as it had been originally, and existing scissor-trusses were exposed, to draw the eye upward.

The site was reworked to give a view of the Chapel upon entering the campus, and to create a contemplative garden, set under the amazing historical trees on the site. A sweeping hedge encloses seating areas with concrete benches and a circular steel seep, creating a place for quiet reflection in the heart of the campus.

A new addition for Campus Ministry consists of a glazed multipurpose Community Room with views into the gardens and new offices for Campus Ministry interfaith programming and counseling.

Projects

St. Edward’s University

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