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THE PROFESSIONAL’S RESOURCE FOR PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
■
DECEMBER2013
[ RECENT PROJECT NEW CONSTRUCTION]
Complementary
Tradition
PROJECT
Our Savior Parish and USC Caruso
Catholic Center, Los Angeles, CA
DESIGN ARCHITECT
Our Savior Parish and USC (University of
Southern California) Caruso Catholic Center
in Los Angeles were designed by Elkus
Manfredi Architects and Perkowitz & Ruth to
create an enclave for the students and the
university community. All photos: Benny Chan
unless otherwise specified
Elkus Manfredi Architects, Boston, MA;
David Manfredi, FAIA, LEED AP,
principal; Warren Van Wees, LEED AP,
project architect
EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT
Perkowitz & Ruth Architects, Long Beach,
CA; Brad Williams, AIA,
associate principal/COO
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
MATT Construction Co., Santa Fe Springs,
CA; Sam Ragsdale, LEED AP, project
manager; Bart Shively,
VP/project executive
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
EPT Design, Pasadena, CA
LEED
Gold
2 CLEM LABINE’S TRADITIONAL BUILDING
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RIGHT: The two buildings are situated around
a porphry cobblestone 7,000-sq.ft. courtyard
with a fire pit and a meditation garden. Site
plan: courtesy of
Elkus Manfredi Architects
Below: The travertine for the exterior of the
chapel was carefully selected and quarried for
the project. The Italian Carrara marble tympanum above the door was hand-carved by Jason
Arkles, and the doors are
made of South African mahogany.
OPPOSITE: Behind the altar are nine
smaller stained-glass windows, which are
designed and fabricated by The Judson
Studios. They feature the Doctors (scholar
saints) of the church such as Thomas Aquinas.
A gilded dome is above the altar.
WHEN FATHER LAWRENCE SEYER
came to Our Savior Parish in Los Angeles
eight years ago, the church and offices
occupied a nondescript 10,000-sq.ft. 1958
building. “It didn’t even look like a church,”
he says. “I would have people call me from
the parking lot and say, ‘My GPS says I am
here, but I can’t see the church.’” At that
time, plans were on the drawing board for
a new facility.
Then along came Rick Caruso, a major
donor, and he felt that the church should
look like a church and that it should
be traditional in design. Elkus Manfredi
Architects of Boston, MA, was brought
in to work with Perkowitz & Ruth of
Long Beach, CA, the executive architects,
and the new Our Savior Parish and USC
(University of Southern California) Caruso
Catholic Center was born.
The end result is a new 6,000-sq.ft.
chapel that seats 300 and a 14,000-sq.ft.
two-story student center building, both
built in traditional styles around an 7,000sq.ft. open courtyard. The 10-year process
started in 2002 and was completed in 2012.
“The charge was to build not only the
church but also the Catholic Center and
to make a place with outdoor gathering space,” says David Manfredi, principal,
Elkus Manfredi. “We were commissioned
to design a place that was a destination
for students and also a significant place of
worship. While those are complementary
goals, they are not actually the same. So
we started to think about a campus plan
made up of separate buildings around a
common space. Originally, it had been one
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building, but we wanted the church and
the Catholic Center to be distinct,” says
Manfredi. “This helped us break down the
scale and create an enclave of buildings. The
church is Romanesque Revival style, and
the Catholic Center is Italian Renaissance.
“The goal was to create the opportunity
for all kinds of both personal and congregational worship in a building that is unabashedly traditional, timeless in its architecture,”
states Manfredi. He notes that during the
‘20s and ‘30s, a number of important buildings, including Mudd Hall with its bell
tower and colonnade, were built on campus
using a combination of limestone and brick.
“That Italian Renaissance and Romanesque
Revival style became the inspiration for our
design,” Manfredi explains, adding that the
brick at USC is a “rosy red that we don’t see
in New England, but it is so much a part of
the character of USC.”
He is quick to add that while the buildings are true to those traditions, certain
changes and improvements were made that
could have only been done in recent times.
For example, because the stone is not load
bearing, the openings could be larger to
allow more daylight. “We were accepting
of all of the things that technology can do,
but the language is very much traditional,”
Manfredi points out.
“Our research was extensive and detailed
as we translated the historic precedents to
modern day contractors,” adds Warren Van
Wees, project architect, Elkus Manfredi.
“We focused on precedent, to get visually
inspiring material and make it expressive
for a large audience. This was true for the
Romanesque church and for the Catholic
Center as well.”
“We wanted a church that looked like
a church,” agrees Father Lawrence. “The
CLEM LABINE’S TRADITIONAL BUILDING 3
buildings that the students like most are the
historic buildings, like Mudd Hall.”
The general contractor, MATT
Construction, was heavily involved in the
project, notes Sam Ragsdale, project manager. He says that every decision was carefully weighed. For example, the selection
of Italian travertine for the exterior of the
chapel was quite a process. It involved the
creation of several sample mockups of various stone types (Texas limestone, Jerusalem
stone, Wisconsin limestone and Colorado
sandstone) made by the Carnevale &
Lohr Stonemasons of Bell Gardens, CA.
Ultimately, he explains, “we went with a
combination of split face travertine for
the field areas and a honed version for the
corners, for a smooth finish. A complementary precast trim at windows, doors,
the water-table areas, columns and dentils
made the ‘carved’ portions of the façade
more economical and were produced using
dozens of rubber and plaster molds.”
Brad Williams, associate principal/COO,
Perkowitz & Ruth, echoes that sentiment.
“Getting just the right travertine color on
the exterior of the church was a very interesting process. We considered many different types of stone. We went to the quarry
to select the color range that we wanted
and MATT Construction hired an onsite
inspector to ensure we got just the right
color from the fabricator in Italy.”
A group of donors went to Italy and
had an audience with Pope Benedict as he
blessed the cornerstone of the building. “It
is set in the façade, next to the door, on the
right,” says Ragsdale.
“Every firm, consultant, craftsman, artist…really every single person involved in
this project paid great attention to detail,”
Williams adds. “Because the project is traditional as well as ecclesiastical, every detail
was painstaking in its execution. This was
not a typical project for our firm and, once
we got involved, we really stepped up our
level of care and detail. The team went to
great pains to insure that people would
think twice about the age of the building.”
“Many people who have seen the completed building can’t believe it was newly
constructed,” says Ragsdale. “It looks
like it’s been there for a hundred years.
Especially in the context of the historic
USC buildings nearby.”
The chapel is a concrete block and steel
structure with an Italian travertine and precast veneer exterior. It features a 75-ft. bell
tower, reminiscent of Mudd Hall, topped
with a custom-designed rooftop cross with
4 CLEM LABINE’S TRADITIONAL BUILDING
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a gold-leaf finish. The cross was gold leafed
by Los Angeles artist Victor Raphael.
This tower houses cellphone equipment
at the second, third and fourth levels, with
antennas hidden inside the fifth-floor columns. An ornate dome in the tower incorporates a hidden trap door to provide access
to the cellular equipment.
The Redland Clay tile roof, installed by
Letner Roofing & Sheetmetal of Orange,
CA, features copper downspouts and gutters with custom decorative copper leader
boxes decorated with a Roman cross on the
church and a Trojan soldier’s helmet on the
student center.
Eight large (12 ft. x 24 ft. tall) stainedglass windows were designed and built by
The Judson Studios of Los Angeles, CA, to
bring beauty and daylight into the chapel.
Each represents one of the eight beatitudes
and was individually gifted. “The upper
half represents a New Testament story and
the lower half is from the Old Testament,”
Ragsdale explains. “The donor name is in
the corner.” In an interesting twist, it turns
out that the great, great, great grandfather
of the current owner of The Judson Studios
was the first dean of the School of Fine Art
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at USC.
Custom exterior aluminum window
frames manufactured by J. Sussman, Inc.,
of Jamaica, NY, provide two glazing channels. The exterior channel holds insulated
glass for weather and UV resistance, and a
second, smaller glazing channel holds the
stained-glass window on the interior.
Behind the altar are nine smaller windows, featuring the Doctors (scholar saints)
of the church such as Thomas Aquinas.
These were also designed and fabricated
by The Judson Studios. Another window
behind the baptismal font represents the
first four days of creation and was designed
and created by artist and former Dean of
the Roski School of Fine Arts at USC,
Ruth Weisberg.
Also highlighting the sanctuary is a
gold-leaf dome altar, ambo and reredos by
Carnevale & Lohr, made of Carrara marble.
The altar and ambo are inlaid with bookmatch honey-gold onyx. Carnevale & Lohr
also created the stone steps, elevated predella, tabernacle platform, baptismal font
and floor.
Eleven different artists contributed to
the church, including Jason Arkles who
hand-carved the Italian Carrara marble
tympanum installed above the entry doors
of the church. He also designed wood statues of Mary and Joseph for the chapel. The
doors themselves are milled from South
African mahogany. The cast bronze door
pull was custom designed for the chapel.
The interior of the chapel is lined with
10-ft.-tall South African mahogany custom
wood wainscot, and features niches for
the 14 Stations of the Cross done as oil
paintings by Pasadena artist, Peter Adams.
Decorative laminated wood Douglas fir
trusses, arches and hammer beams and
steel tension rods support the roof and
upper exterior walls. Milled in northern
California, these beams weigh approximately 12 tons each. They were assembled inside
the church on saw horses due to the tight
site conditions and were hoisted onto the
walls with a crane over a two-week period.
The wood plank ceilings coordinate with
the wood paneling throughout and conceal
acoustical insulation.
While a stone church of this style would
normally also be stone on the interior, the
designers wanted a warm feeling. “Typically,
Romanesque churches were stone on the
CLEM LABINE’S TRADITIONAL BUILDING 5
A statue of
Father Junipero
Serra, the
founder of
the church
in California,
stands in the
courtyard.
ABOVE: A raised altar and curved beech wood pews
bring the congregation closer together and closer to
the altar, creating a more contemporary liturgy. The
altar, ambo
and reredos are fabricated of white Carrara marble.
OPPOSITE: Wood paneling on the interior of the
chapel is South African mahogany. Douglas fir arched
trusses and hammer beams and steel tension rods
support the roof. Milled in northern California, each
beam weighs approximately 12 tons. The 7-ft. tall
bronze crucifix weighs approximately 700 lbs. The
ceiling reaches a height of 50 ft. at the peak. Statues
of Mary and Joseph have been added to the niches on
either side of the altar.
inside and they could be cold places,” says
Manfredi. “We wanted a very warm place
with warm materials. There is a lot of wood
and the stained-glass windows bring in a lot
of color and light. The openings are very
big so there is a lot of light and it changes
during the day. We designed it to be a warm
and inviting place, truly a refuge.” WavellHuber Custom Wood Products of North
Salt Lake, UT, provided the millwork for
the project.
Father Lawrence notes that while the
structure is traditional, the students wanted
a more contemporary American liturgy, so
curved pews were installed to bring people
closer to the altar. Also, the stained-glass
windows are lower than they would have
been in a traditional church. They are about
5 ft. from the floor, to bring in more light.
“Los Angeles is known as the city of light,
so we wanted to take advantage of that,”
he adds.
One of the most outstanding features
of the interior of the church is the 700-lb.,
7-ft. tall bronze crucifix, sculpted by Los
Angeles artist, Christopher Slatoff. “This
was one of the biggest challenges from a
schedule and structural design point of
6 CLEM LABINE’S TRADITIONAL BUILDING
TYPES OF STONE IN THE CHAPEL
Breccia Capraia Marble, from Italy: White,
colorfully veined marble.
Carrera Marble, from Italy:
White stone with black veins.
Classico Marble, from the Philippines:
Neutral beige, subtly veined stone.
Onyx: Honey-gold stone.
St. Juame Marble, from Spain:
Red stone veined in gold.
view,” says Ragsdale. “We needed to go
ahead and build the interior and plan for
the crucifix, so we had a place-holder for
it. Ultimately, we came up with a bolted
structure that hangs from the rafters. It is 20
ft. above the altar.”
“It took quite a while to figure out how
to hang the crucifix,” adds Williams. “It
looks simple, but the man hours that went
into figuring that out were enormous.”
The altar and the ambo are made of
white Carrara marble with honey-gold
onyx inlays. Just added to the chapel are tapestries of the four apostles, designed by artist
John Nava and woven in Belgium.
While the interior has a lot of woodwork, the floor is stone, with under-floor
radiant heating. “This keeps the stone floor
comfortable,” says Ragsdale.
Meanwhile, the builders were working
on the student center at the same time.
The exterior is made of brick (the rosy
red USC brick, supplied by Pacific Clay,
Lake Elsinore, CA) and precast concrete
(supplied by Victorian Designs, Burbank,
CA) with blended terra-cotta roofing (from
Redland Clay). Other features include two
Juliet balconies and a columned loggia that
The eight 24-ft. tall stained-glass windows represent the eight beatitudes and were designed and
fabricated by The Judson Studios.
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connects to the church and creates a large
second-floor balcony.
The first floor has a large hall lined with
pairs of French doors that open to the loggia and a full-service kitchen, offices and a
student lounge. On the second floor, the
library and classroom spaces feature mahogany millwork similar to the church.
All of the mechanical equipment for
both the church and the student center
is located in the student center. Ragsdale
notes that it was a challenge to coordinate
the installation of the ductwork, which
moves the air from the air handlers on the
roof of the student center down through
the student center, then underground and
across to the church and branching out to
diffusers located below the stained-glass
windows in the church. The air enters
through sheet aluminum decorative grilles
that are water-jet cut in a traditional pattern and coated to match the bronze in the
church.
The HVAC system in the chapel was
adjusted for the traditional building style,
notes Williams. “Normally one would simply place diffusers in the ceiling for distribution of cold air,” he says. “But that would
be completely out of place in an historic
church. So we created a system of displace-
ment ventilation whereby air pours into the
space through the grilles below the stainedglass windows. The displacement grilles in
the millwork paneling actually became a
very interesting design feature.”
The designers worked to achieve a
LEED Gold rating and to build structures
that use 24% less energy than state code
requirements. Plumbing fixtures save more
than 38% of the annual water consumption, and low-emitting materials were used
throughout. Water consumption was also
reduced in the courtyard by 65% because
of the landscape and irrigation design. Lowmercury lamps and Energy Star appliances
and equipment also contributed to the
LEED rating.
“This is the first LEED Gold church in
the Los Angeles archdiocese,” says Ragsdale.
The sustainability consultant was Green
Dinosaur, Culver City, CA, and the landscape architect was EPT Design, Pasadena,
CA.
While Rick Caruso was the lead donor,
fund raising continued throughout construction and was supported by dozens of
Catholic USC alumni, foundations and
local philanthropists. “The parish knew that
money would come in once people saw
construction underway,” Ragsdale explains.
“We established a series of scope deferrals
that could be added back into the project as
money was raised.”
All in all, the $36-million project, including a $6 million endowment, ($17.5-million construction cost) has been a tremendous success. It was completed in August
of 2012 and consecrated on December 9,
2012. Manfredi notes that all of the artists
who worked on the project came for the
dedication, where they met each other for
the first time.
“This project was a true labor of love
for everyone involved,” Williams states.
“Everyone put their heart and soul into it,
and it really shows.”
“This a very special place,” says Manfredi,
“with a benefactor in Rick Caruso who
was committed to doing it absolutely right,
and in a memorable way.”
The new buildings and courtyard serve
a large Catholic community from both the
university and the city. “About one-third of
the 30,000 graduate and undergraduate students at USC are Catholic,” says Ragsdale,
who is also a member of the parish. “And
it also draws people from outside the university.”
– Martha McDonald
Published in Traditional Building, December 2013. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved. This file is for web posting only; may not be e-mailed or used for commercial reprints.
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