Building Structure, St. Edward Catholic Church

摘要

In Keizer, Ore., the prayers of St. Edward Catholic Church's parishioners were answered when Portland, Ore.-based DiLoreto Architecture employed a series of structural glulam arches to help meet their $4 million budget for a 12,000-square-foot contemporary Gothic-style church. Six pointed arches made of locally sourced Douglas fir rise 38 feet atop concrete plinths, spanning the 65-foot-wide nave. Two additional pointed arches cap the ends of the nave at the sanctuary entrance and altar. "When ... you're surrounded by these arches, [it harks to the idea] that structure makes space," says lead designer Brian Melton. As symbols of radiating energy, 14 to 16 angled glulam struts act like flying buttresses to transfer the building's dead loads-the sanctuary roof, the soaring clerestories, and the lower roof-to each main arch. As many as three struts and three knife blades converge at points along the arches.