As an alumnus of St. John’s University, the central-Minnesota institution run by Benedictine monks, I am perpetually in awe of the school’s Abbey Church.
Marcel Breuer’s sculptural-concrete masterpiece is the focus of a recent book published by University of Minnesota Press:
In the 1950s the brethren at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint John the Baptist in Collegeville, Minnesota — the largest Benedictine abbey in the world — decided to expand their campus, including building a new church. From a who’s who of architectural stars — such as Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, Pietro Belluschi, Barry Byrne, and Eero Saarinen — the Benedictines chose a former member of the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer. In collaboration with the monks, this untested religious designer produced a work of modern sculptural concrete architecture that reenvisioned what a church could be and set a worldwide standard for midcentury religious design.
The St. John’s site describes the church as follows:
Incorporating massive use of cast, steel-reinforced concrete, it was fundamentally constructed by local carpenters who made the forms into which the concrete was cast. The large bell banner at the north side, the main entrance to the church, houses a cross made of oak harvested from the woods at Saint John’s Arboretum, and the five bells that call people to worship. It is 112 feet high, stands on thin parabolic arches, and announces that this is indeed a special place.
Yep, the Abbey Church is so amazing I went a bit insane with a fish-eye lens today during a brief campus visit.
Browse through the album below for an unusual view of my favorite building (and work of architecture). For the full effect, click the full-screen button on the lower-right corner of the album widget.
Here are a few bonus images.
The inside of the university’s Alcuin Library (also designed by Breuer) has these wonderful tree-like columns.
And here’s yours truly on an alumni mural in the Sexton Commons student center:
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