HOLDING OUT HOPE

FOR CHAPEL RENOVATIONS

Northeastern's chapel-long, dark, and rectangular, with no outside source of light-is more reminiscent of a bowling alley than a place of worship. Once a Christian chapel with permanent pews and a westward-facing altar, the room has been converted for use by other faiths, especially Muslims, with chairs substituted for pews and an institutional-looking movable partition installed. But students from most religious groups using the chapel say they find it drab, depressing, and devoid of spiritual feeling.

For all these reasons, the Spiritual Life office commissioned two N.U. architecture professors in the fall of 1993 to design a renovation. The resulting plan, by Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani, might be said to have answered the chaplains' prayers. "This [design] expresses the transformation of our chapel from Christian to nondenominational to the rich interfaith, pluralistic condition we have today," says Colin Gracey, the Episcopal chaplain.

Others have taken notice: the Boston Society of Architects gave the design its Award for Unbuilt Architecture in November. That prize is rarely bestowed upon interior designs, says Ponce de Leon. What made the chapel design stand out for the judges, she suspects, is its multifaith approach to a public space-a hot issue in architecture today.

Ponce de Leon and Tehrani sought to refashion the chapel into a place that welcomes rather than merely accommodates people of different faiths. The nondenominational ideal of public religious spaces in recent decades often has resulted in sterility, as with the existing chapel. The architects (who themselves personify the chapel's congregation, she being a Roman Catholic from Venezuela, he a Muslim from Iran) viewed the renovation project as "the ideal testing ground for the study of design in a multicultural society, since in places of worship there is a clear relationship between architecture and cultural identity," according to their written project description.

In the chapel redesign, cherry wood floors and walls of multicolored glass separated by wooden columns are meant to evoke a traditional Christian church, a Muslim mosque, a Jewish synagogue, a meditation room, or even a tent, according to the users' perspectives. Three inverted domes drape from the ceiling to define multiple centers in the space, the architects say, allowing worshippers to face east, west, or the center with equal comfort. But the unifying theme is light-a symbol of the sacred and divine in all religions. The lighting, emanating from behind the multicolored glass panels, should create a luminous, ethereal effect.

The completed design was a product of long discussions between the architects and the Spiritual Life office's renovation committee, which comprised chaplains and students. "The Spiritual Life people were amazing to work with; they were very clear on what they wanted," says Ponce de Leon, who also teaches at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. "They developed the concept from nondenominational to interfaith and from chapel to hall of prayer-a place where people could drop in for an hour of meditation in the middle of the day. The best architecture is done with clients this way."

But the accolades will be hollow if the project is never built. The chaplains have been working with Senior Vice President for Development Richard Meyer to mount a fund-raising campaign for $500,000. Meyer currently is seeking a few "lead donors" to contribute half that amount before opening the campaign to smaller gifts. Although little money has come in so far, the chaplains remain hopeful that the renovation will be completed as part of the university's centennial celebration. For that to happen, "we would have to have a lead giver in the next five or six months," Meyer says. - C.T.O.

 

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