Community of Christ (formerly Reorganized Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints)
Independence, Missouri, USA
Team
Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Architect; St. Louis, MO
Description
When the Community of Christ decided to create an ecumenical Peace Temple at their world headquarters in Independence, Missouri, they charged architect Gyo Obata with the task of creating a unique building with a shape inspired by nature. The resulting design drew its form from the chambered nautilus – a spiral that rose higher and higher to a central spire.
The exterior shape was expressed within the 1,600 seat sanctuary, with concave walls and a spiraling vaulted ceiling presenting considerable acoustic challenges. For intimacy in the frequent lightly attended services, the seating bowl was divided into a main floor and a balcony, with control rooms and translation booths tucked under the balcony. The control room windows were angled in section to direct sound into the congregation. The walls behind the balcony were shaped into long-radius convex bows and built of split-face stone for bass support and high frequency diffusion.
3-D computer modeling, innovative at the time, proved invaluable to the architects in exploring the width-to-height ratio of the overall shape, determining the panelization of the stone cladding, and designing the vertical “lightning bolt” trusses that allowed the central span of the room to be column-free. To determine how much diffusion was necessary to prevent focusing off the spiraling ceiling, Kirkegaard Associates (KA) took advantage of a large scale physical model that the architects had built of three bays of the spiral. Using a flashlight to simulate a sound source, reflective film was applied to various ceiling shapes until one was found that produced an even dappling of light on the main floor, free of concentrated stripes or hot spots. The resulting shape was a pair of convex curves, one with a long radius connecting to the wall, and the other with a tight radius that rose into a vertical parapet masking a spiral catwalk. Balancing cost against bass response, the ceiling was constructed of gypsum board – triple layer for the large surfaces lower in the room, double layer for the surfaces higher in the room, and single layer at the very top of the spiral. The massiveness of the walls behind the balconies helped balance the bass absorption of the ceiling.
A pair of tall spirals flank the platform, the elevated choral risers behind the platform, and the huge Casavant pipe organ behind the choral risers. These pylons provide supportive reflections to the congregation, interrupt reflections from the distant concave walls, and provide a more intimate visual scale for the platform.
Faced with a directive to avoid any visible loudspeakers, KA designed a distributed under pew loudspeaker system, supplemented by concealed line arrays in the platform steps for precedence and loudspeakers in the pylons serving the choir.
The room is dramatic and unique, an inspiring place for worship and contemplation alike. Organ, choir, orchestra, and congregational singing are all beautifully supported by the clean, reverberant acoustics.
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