My friend Matt Fish pointed out to me a church which shows the reform of the reform in architectural terms: Sacred Heart Church in Peoria, Illinois. The parish web site shows the renovation in great detail, though it does not list the architects or artists involved. The before and after pictures are quite striking. This re-renovation shows what can be done to restore color and iconography to a church that has been gutted. Admittedly, the church was pretty nice before renovation, but the results are quite spectacular. I believe the altars came from a closed church in Scranton. Click on the thumbnails for larger images. I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who might have more detailed information on the artists and architects.
October 23, 2007 at 2:33 am
The before pictures would be a huge improvement compared to a lot of what I’ve seen. The afer shots are stunning.
October 23, 2007 at 1:46 pm
It’s nice, but what happened to the organ? It seems they may have gotten rid of their pipe organ and replaced it with an electronic. Ugh…
October 23, 2007 at 3:39 pm
The photo of the choir loft shown here is during the renovation. They actually replaced the stained glass windows in the choir loft and inserted a new pipe organ which left the new windows visible. If you click on the link to the parish web site and choose the page of rededication photos you can see how it turned out.
October 24, 2007 at 1:35 am
Andy Hatterman did the renovation. He is an amazing artist to say the least. He also did the restoration at St Mark’s in Peoria and the Chapel at the Cathedral there.
muralsbyjericho.com