Client Goals

Church leadership recognized the need to update and restore certain facets of this is beautiful Ralph Adams Cram designed Gothic revival church.  Built in 1911 it was showing its age. Portions of the plaster walls in the apse were buckling, the pews were weakening and sections of the hardwood floor were significantly worn down. Perhaps more frustratingly, the acoustics were dismal and the lighting was insufficient for parishioners to read the hymnals.

Solutions

WMF led the restoration of the sanctuary as architects and construction manager. New work included new oak hardwood flooring placed over the original floors, slate tile installed in the nave aisles, walls re-plastered and painted, and a significant re-configuration of the rear balcony to receive a new organ. All the existing pews were removed, painstaking separated into parts, structurally enhanced, rebuilt and refinished. Replacement chandeliers from a 1950 renovation were abandoned in favor of new chandeliers based on the original Cram design and upgraded for better illumination and energy efficiency.

Recognition

• 2012 Faith & Form, Religious Art and Architecture Merit Award for Religious Architecture, Restoration
• 2012 Cleveland Restoration Society and AIA Cleveland Honor, The Interior Restoration Award
• 2012 National Victorian Society Preservation Award
• 2011 University Circle Inc. Building the Circle Award