Cadet Chapel, US Air Force Academy
Seen on a beautifully clear late summer afternoon, and soaring 150 feet toward the Colorado sky, the Air Force Academy Chapel is an all-faith house of worship designed to meet the spiritual needs of cadets. It contains a separate chapel for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist religious faiths, plus two all-faiths worship rooms. There are two main levels, with the Protestant nave on the upper level. The Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels are located beneath it. Beneath this level is located a large all-faiths room and two meeting rooms. Each chapel has its own entrance, and services may be held simultaneously without interfering with one another.
The Expressionist Modern aluminium, glass and steel structure features 17 spires. There is no significance to this number. Original designs were judged to be too expensive, so changes were made, among them a reduction in the number of spires. However, the changes did not alter the basic design or the interior square footage of the chapel.
The shell of the chapel and surrounding grounds cost $3.5 million to build in 1959-63. Furnishings, pipe organs, liturgical fittings and adornments of the chapel were presented as gifts from individuals and various organisations. A designated Easter offering was also taken at Air Force bases around the world in 1959 to help complete the interior.
The principal designer-architect of the chapel was Walter A Netsch Jr of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. Construction was by Robert E McKee, Inc, of Santa Fe, NM.
The tetrahedrons form the walls and the 99-foot-high pinnacled ceiling of the Protestant Chapel. Stained glass windows form ribbons of colour between the tetrahedrons. The church can seat 1,200. The Catholic chapel seats 500 and the synagogue 300.
Scanned from a negative, this is a reworked version of an earlier image on this stream.
Cadet Chapel, US Air Force Academy
Seen on a beautifully clear late summer afternoon, and soaring 150 feet toward the Colorado sky, the Air Force Academy Chapel is an all-faith house of worship designed to meet the spiritual needs of cadets. It contains a separate chapel for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist religious faiths, plus two all-faiths worship rooms. There are two main levels, with the Protestant nave on the upper level. The Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels are located beneath it. Beneath this level is located a large all-faiths room and two meeting rooms. Each chapel has its own entrance, and services may be held simultaneously without interfering with one another.
The Expressionist Modern aluminium, glass and steel structure features 17 spires. There is no significance to this number. Original designs were judged to be too expensive, so changes were made, among them a reduction in the number of spires. However, the changes did not alter the basic design or the interior square footage of the chapel.
The shell of the chapel and surrounding grounds cost $3.5 million to build in 1959-63. Furnishings, pipe organs, liturgical fittings and adornments of the chapel were presented as gifts from individuals and various organisations. A designated Easter offering was also taken at Air Force bases around the world in 1959 to help complete the interior.
The principal designer-architect of the chapel was Walter A Netsch Jr of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. Construction was by Robert E McKee, Inc, of Santa Fe, NM.
The tetrahedrons form the walls and the 99-foot-high pinnacled ceiling of the Protestant Chapel. Stained glass windows form ribbons of colour between the tetrahedrons. The church can seat 1,200. The Catholic chapel seats 500 and the synagogue 300.
Scanned from a negative, this is a reworked version of an earlier image on this stream.