For the majority of my priesthood, I was stationed at neo-gothic/Romanesque, French Revival churches in Savannah, Augusta and Macon (Cathedral, Most Holy Trinity and St. Joseph).
I was the instigator of the renovation and restoration of both Most Holy Trinity and St. Joseph Churches.
For the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, we used Conrad Schmidt and Company like this Florida church did for its enchantment.
As for my personal tastes, I prefer something a bit more simple, although I appreciate more ornate churches of a traditional style, although that is not me or my style.
Thus keep that in mind of my critique:
Before and After: St. Helen's Catholic Church in Vero Beach, Florida
This is after the above. I don’t like what was done to the old altar, the new curtain and cornice board are horrible:
This is the after the Conrad Schmidt redecoration. I think it is a bit like putting too much lipstick on a cute pig. It’s too much for my tastes, although I know many will like this and I am sure the pastor and laity of the Church absolutely love this compared to the old. It strikes me, though, as a bit too much and trying too hard to recover a more traditional ornate look. I would have liked less which would have still been more:
The new baldacchino brings more attention to the enhanced old attached altar that has the tabernacle upon it. The new freestanding altar remains in front of it but not under the baldacchino, thus two altars back to back which should not be the case unless it is absolutely necessary for the Mass to be celebrated facing the nave. The free standing altar should have been placed under the new baldacchino and on the same level as the tabernacle altar. This was a missed opportunity:
6 comments:
Top isn't bad.
Middle is horrid.
I shouldn't talk given what we Byzantines can do to a church, but this seems overly busy at the expense of elegance. More restraint with the stenciling and mural art would have been preferable at least to me. There's no break in this space, the beams, the stenciling, the varied murals I do not like the trees at all. Seems like overkill.
The "after" looks just fine to me.
The Conrad Schmidt philosophy is: "Leave No Surface Un-Stenciled."
While others prefer bland and boring to match the Liturgy!
If you look at this parish's FB page, the ceiling, both upper and lower is now filled in with blue and stars.
I like this design, just too many stencil theorem variations and dots, stars, or otherwise.
True, in the East we'll paint every surface, perhaps to an excess depending upon who you ask. Thematically, it is cohesive, however.
Off-white with gold accents with some mural art in the apse would have been more elegant, at least to my eye. Nonetheless, this is a marked improvement over photo 2. Honestly, I don't feel the original iteration was bad, or faulty. It likely complimented the style of the building.
Interesting there has been no discussion regarding the merits of the original fixtures, still present during its bland middle iteration.
This parish went from stone to wood, altar rail included.
They can spend their money as they see fit, but, one has to wonder why they would start over when there was nothing overtly wrong with what they had. It was somewhat geometric in appearance which was in vogue at the time this church was built.
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