A NEW PARISH HALL
in HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
Sited across the street from a cemetery, this new parish hall — the first phase of a future church — joins a city with a deep tradition of expressive brick ecclesiastical architecture. Huntsville's downtown is anchored by two celebrated examples of the Romanesque Revival, St. Mary of the Visitation (1877) and the Central Presbyterian Church (1901), and the new hall draws from that same vocabulary: warm brick masonry, rounded arches, corbelled cornices, and stone base walls that root the building firmly in its place and tradition.
The hall's single-story massing is organized around a generous gathering room. A columned front porch elevates the entrance facade, while off to the side, a terrace opens quietly toward the cemetery, connecting the activity of parish gatherings to the enduring solemnity of the cemetery it overlooks.