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| St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church |
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| Oxford, Mississippi |
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The scope of this project included comprehensive programming, master planning and design of a new church to accommodate its growth from a sanctuary accommodating 200 people into one that ultimately will accommodate 400. The site occupies the very important ground next door to the Ford Performing Art Center on the campus of the University of Mississippi at the edge of the corporate limit of the City of Oxford, therefore the building had to mediate the institutional scale of the campus and the residential scale of the town. It had to be compatible with the campus’s neoclassical architecture, but make its own architectural statement. Finally, it had to accommodate and express the inwardly focused community of worship while affirmatively addressing the public street (University Avenue) with a welcoming presence, all the while articulating in building form the primary liturgical elements: the baptistry, the altar, and the tabernacle.Designed as the first phase of a multi-phased campus project, the structure is a 2-story building set on a steeply sloping site and accommodates grade-level access at both floor levels. The major public entrance is from an exterior plaza which is the terminus of several circulation paths that radiate out to adjacent parking and other existing church buildings conveniently located nearby.The lower level contains the parish hall with an adjacent preparation and serving kitchen and a generous table and chair storage room. The nursery is conveniently located on this level near the entrances and major circulation paths both horizontal and vertical for easy but secure access available to all church programs both on and off-site. Mechanical and electrical equipment are also on this level located in a separate room with convenient exterior access. The upper level houses the sanctuary and related liturgical spaces accessed from a large lobby/gathering space that has been planned to serve anticipated future additions as well. The sanctuary is a linear arrangement with a center aisle and side aisles leading to the altar platform all set within a stepped and sloped ceiling volume that admits natural light from all directions. St. John's Website |
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