The First Christian Church originally known as the Tabernacle Church of Christ in Columbus, Indiana, United States is a well known piece of contemporary architecture. The building, designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen and built in 1942 was the first contemporary building in Columbus, which is now renowned for its contemporary architecture, and one of the first churches of contemporary architecture in the U.S.

The building consists of a glass-froned main hall, with a tower and a bridge section. Interior details such as light fixtures, screen, and furniture were designed by Saarinen's son Eero Saarinen (who would later design the North Christian Church in the same city) and Charles Eames. Eliel's wife Loja Saarinen designed Sermon on the Mount tapestry inside.

External links

• http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/colselsaar/elsaar.html

US govt text

The First Christian Church is a large building with irregular massing and an irregular plan (photo 1). The building is built of brick, with Indiana limestone and concrete details. It has steel sash windows (photos 2 and 3). Doors are either steel sash, where they are integrated with the window system, or wood where they are set in masonry walls (photo 4). Roofs are flat, with minimal overhangs. The brick is a blend that tends toward reddish brown and tan. Mortar joints are tooled, and mortar is ochre colored. A campanile (right in photo 1) stands west of the north facade of the sanctuary. A Youth Center (1957), designed by the Indianapolis firm of McGuire and Shook, stands across the street to the south. The Youth Center is not included in this nomination. First Christian Church is minimally altered, as noted below, and is generally in good condition, the exception being that some of the stone paving is weathered and has settled unevenly.

First Christian Church occupies a full city block. It is a transition property between downtown, on the west, and a residential neighborhood of nineteenth and early twentieth century houses on the east. North of the church, across Fifth Street, stands the Storey House/Visitor’s Center, an 1864 Italianate style house with a 1995 addition designed by Roche-Dinkeloo; and I.M. Pei’s Cleo Rogers Memorial Library (1969) with its large Henry Moore sculpture (1971) standing in the plaza. The First Christian Church property is landscaped with mature maple trees and lawns. The building is built around a large sunken courtyard (photos 2 and 3).

The church is made up of five principal masses: the sanctuary (left in photo 1), a high rectangular space running north and south; the chapel, a two-story section at the rear; the Sunday school, a two-story classroom building that also has a lower level facing onto the sunken courtyard; and the bridge (photo 3), a two-story linear structure of corridors and offices that links all three main elements of the building across the sunken courtyard. A freestanding 166 foot-high campanile (right in photo 1) is placed several feet west of the sanctuary. The campanile extends below street level to the courtyard level. The massing of First Christian Church is a composition of interlocking rectangular blocks of varying sizes and heights.

The sanctuary faces north (photo 1). Limestone steps the width of the facade lead up about three-and-a-half feet to the large (about 20 feet deep) plaza at floor level. Low stone benches at east and west are used in lieu of guardrails. The facade is made up of a large-scale grid of rectangular limestone panels that extend about three inches from the face of the wall. The wall plane itself is developed as a frame for the limestone panels, made of courses of rowlock brick. Most of the limestone panels are smooth, but four have linear patterns in slight relief. There is a Latin cross in relief to the right of center. East of the entrance, one of the panels is shaped into a sculptural form that was probably intended for one of the sculptures by Carl Milles that Saarinen expected would be commissioned for those locations.1 The concrete roof slab is about 12 inches thick. It overhangs the facade by about 12 inches. A copper coping in the form of a large bullnose runs around the roof edge, and at almost all roof edges on the building.

The entrance is punched into the ornamented plane of the façade (photo 1). It is off-center, sheltered by a deeply cantilevered concrete canopy the width of the corresponding opening below. The underside of the canopy is incised with a linear geometric pattern. Three pairs of doors are flanked by sidelights of fixed glass, all set in wood frames. The oak doors are faced with strips of oak screwed to the door in alternating horizontals and verticals.2 Door pulls are opposing “L”-shaped stainless steel.

On the west side of the sanctuary, a wide flight of limestone steps descends between the sanctuary and the campanile to a broad walkway of concrete pavers in the sunken courtyard (photo 2). The walls of the sanctuary and campanile are limestone along the steps, emphasizing the passage. The limestone facing on the sanctuary side extends from the entrance plaza. It steps down to become the cap of a group of windows for the auditorium, and then steps down again to become a long bench running along the face of the building. The bench is a place to sit and look across the courtyard, most of which contained, until about 1960, a reflecting pool. The limestone face at the base of the campanile is a mirror of the stonework across the stairs on the side face of the sanctuary.

The campanile is a 166-foot tall rectangular shaft of brick (right in photo 1). It is not ornamented, with the exception of a grid of large semi-translucent plastic panels near the top on the east and west sides. On the west side, one column of the panels is continued to within about 10 feet of grade. The original lattice-like brick infill was replaced with the plastic panels in 1976 because windblown rain was causing structural damage in the tower. The panels are molded to be reminiscent of the pattern of the brick infill. There is a wood door set off center in the north side. A clock of metal numerals and hands floats in front of the brick wall near the top on the north side. The north side of the campanile is on the same axis as the north face of the sanctuary.

The courtyard (photo 3) is sunken about 10 feet below the street, and is a very large space, faced on the east by the sanctuary, on the west by the Sunday school wing, and on the north and south by high stone-coped brick retaining walls. It is divided into two major sections by the bridge, a two-story portion of the building that links the sanctuary and chapel with the Sunday school. The bridge is supported on broad limestone-faced columns. As mentioned above, the court once had a reflecting pool in it. Maintenance problems led to the decision around 1960 to fill it with dirt, and the area is now a lawn. The pool filled most of the north part of the court. People were restricted to specific walkways along two edges. The south part of the sunken court is now a play area. It is a flat lawn with a few mature trees. The reception room and Sunday school classrooms open onto it.

The bridge (photo 3) consists of two stories of classrooms and offices off a wide single-loaded corridor. The corridor is on the south. The area under the bridge is a walkway between parts of the building, but it also functions as a two-sided loggia facing the different courtyards to north and south. In the north elevation of the bridge, the center portion, which corresponds to where the water of the reflecting pool was, has continuous horizontal ribbons of steel sash windows. Above the areas where the walkways intersect the bridge, the brick wall is ornamented with a grid of brick in slight relief, with windows set at intervals in the rectangles of the grid. The south elevation of the bridge is very similar to the north elevation, though the patterns on the walls are linear rather than gridded.

The twelve columns that support the bridge can be divided into two primary groups: on the north, against the former pool area, they are rectangular, in reference to the line of the water. On the south, where movement out of the loggia onto the lawn is encouraged, they are round or octagonal. Depending on its position, then, the column relates to the conditions within which it is placed. At the intersection of the walkway under the bridge and the walkway from the campanile stairs, the columns are paired. Those closest to the walkway are ornamented with linear patterns in relief. Low on the rectangular columns a small, ornamented sculpture base grows out toward the person walking toward it. A low stone bench is engaged with this column and the one it is paired with, marking a point from which to view the reflecting pool. Other columns are also modified from the established vocabulary in order to clarify aspects of their relationship with the space.

The Sunday school portion of the building (partially visible at far right of photo 1) is three stories high on the courtyard side. Viewed from the west, or Franklin Street side, this wing is two stories above ground level. A projecting, one-story section is integrated with the canopy for the entrance for this wing. The entrance is reached by a broad set of stone steps on Franklin Street. Windows on this section are horizontal bands of steel sash, as on the bridge.

The chapel sits directly behind the sanctuary. When viewed from the south, with the freestanding chimney that stands next to it, the chapel and chimney can be seen as small, mirror images of the sanctuary and campanile.

The interiors of First Christian are, with a few exceptions, minimally altered. In addition to having built-in elements, significant finishes, or other notable features, many spaces also have furnishings that were designed and made for the room. The design of many of these furnishings, such as the kidney-shaped tables in the kindergarten room, and the meeting table in the reception room, is ascribed to Charles Eames (1907-1978), who was a student at Cranbrook and an employee of Saarinen at the time. Many of the light fixtures were designed specifically for the building, and significant use is made of indirect light fixtures. The predominant materials inside are exposed brick, particularly in significant public spaces, and sanded plaster. Floors are carpeted, but most were originally vinyl asbestos tile, which remains in some areas. Some rooms have horizontal or vertical paneling of tongue in groove oak. In the first floor corridor, the paneling is vertical grain Douglas fir.

The vestibule is a large stone-floored room with a sloping ceiling and unpainted brick walls. It shares materials and details with the rest of the interior. The stone floor is a random pattern of rectangles of smooth waxed limestone. The brick of the walls is a lighter, pinker material than is used on the exterior (this is the case where brick is used throughout the interior).

The south wall, leading to the sanctuary, is a continuous screen of vertical round oak members, about three inches in diameter with five-inch spaces between. Obscure glass with horizontal leading is held between the wood members. These round wood pieces show up repeatedly throughout the interior, in the organ screen (left in photo 5), stair rails (photo 8), and elsewhere. The doors into the sanctuary are oak with long lozenge-shaped lights and leather-wrapped vertical pulls. A low oak screen near the west wall creates a cloak area and incorporates a tack surface for notices and guest register writing surface. The steps to the balcony are stone, with oak and stainless steel handrails. The ceiling slopes down toward the sanctuary, following the rake of the balcony above. Four stainless steel light fixtures are aimed at the ceiling.

The sanctuary (photo 5) is a high, rectangular volume running north and south. It is noted for its fine acoustics. There is a balcony at the rear over the vestibule. Floor-to-ceiling windows are set in deep brick embrasures on the west side (right in photo 5). The east side is open at the first floor level to a side aisle that leads to the rest of the church (see floor plan). Above the aisle opening runs a linear air diffuser, and above that, the wall is an interlocking stepped pattern of brick and acoustic plaster. On the rear (north) wall, at balcony level, a linear pattern of brick relief, similar to that used on the exterior, is infilled with square acoustic tiles. The acoustic tile infill appears to have been added. In the chancel, the walls are brick. The ceiling is made up of areas of two colors of acoustic plaster, also in interlocking stepped patterns. Large concentric stainless steel air diffusers are arranged in the ceiling. Ceiling-level lights are round recessed incandescent fixtures. The brick and plaster have all been painted. Information conflicts as to whether the brick was originally left unpainted.

The floor of the sanctuary aisles and chancel is the same random pattern of waxed limestone used in the vestibule. Beneath the pews, the floor is waxed cork.

Pews are arranged with the aisle off center. They are oak, with brown leather cushions.

The windows of the west wall are leaded in a random pattern of rectangles using an obscure glass. About four feet off the wall, in line with each masonry pier, is an asymmetric bowl-shaped indirect light fixture suspended on long stems about 16 feet above the floor and made of brushed stainless steel.

The chancel is an area of the sanctuary reached by several stone steps the width of the sanctuary. The floor level of this area is about four feet above the level of the rest of the sanctuary. In this area are the choir seating, pulpit, full-immersion baptismal font, and organ. The rear wall of the chancel is brick. Off center and high on the wall is a large Latin cross of stone in low relief. Below this, running the width of the chancel, is a screen of rounded oak rods that hide the baptismal font. Gates in the screen open when the font is in use. This wall is dramatically washed with light in the mornings by a high narrow window on the east side, which is hidden from view by the organ screen. In addition, a large skylight the width of the room is located immediately above.

On the west side of the chancel is the choir area: pews in a wood enclosure, facing east rather than toward the congregation. Above the choir hangs a large tapestry, “The Sermon on the Mount” (photo 6), designed by Eliel and Loja Saarinen and woven in Loja’s workshop at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

The east wall of the chancel is the organ pipe screen (left in photo 5) made up of bullnosed pieces of wood about three inches across, held about one-and-a-half inches apart by wood spacers. The spacers do not always run continuously but form intermittent bands behind the more continuous surface created by the vertical members. The screen runs from about six feet above the floor to the ceiling.

In plan, the face of the organ screen continues into the piano-shape of the pulpit (photos 5 and 6), a wood piece made of vertically veneered oak that is cantilevered over the steps. A high blank panel of wood is set as a foil behind the speaker’s position. Immediately behind the pulpit is the organ console.

The chapel (photo 7) is a much smaller space than the sanctuary, and where the sanctuary is high and bright, the chapel is warmer and more intimate. This is partly due to the smaller windows, and the unpainted brick interior. The room is entered through the rear (north) wall, on the west side, under the side aisle; the columns are wrapped in leather. The floor throughout, including the podium, is waxed cork. The front (south) wall serves as a screen for the organ pipes and the baptismal font. This screen is made up of one-inch thick wood members of varying width, with radiused corners with interlinking blocks.

The auditorium is a room under the sanctuary and the same size in plan, but with lower ceiling. The floor level is several steps below the main floor level of the basement. It has a stage at the north end. The ceiling undulates, presumably for acoustic reasons. A platform near the rear is formed with an undulating wall. The stage extends beyond the proscenium to become a deeper platform at the west end. It transforms into a flight of steps to the floor level, and also wraps the corner to become a wide window ledge. The floor of the room is vinyl tile; the walls are mostly brick.

In the stairwells, Saarinen manipulated the round wood members seen in the vestibule and sanctuary as the vertical members of the beautifully sculptural guardrail system (photo 8). The guardrails are made up of vertical wood members that support a delicate handrail, and extend up or down past the floor slab to support wing-shaped wood troughs for indirect lighting. Stainless steel rods connect the members horizontally, and stainless steel is used for all the little machined connectors and spacers that the system requires.

The church building and its site were created as a composite ground lane pattern on two levels. The lower level consists of a congregational courtyard and reflecting pool. Walkways on the lower level consist of paved panels spaced with turf, creating a pattern similar to the brick and glass detailing of the building.

The upper level consists primarily of sidewalk accesses to the church and planted setbacks. The brick retaining wall of the courtyard extends above street level and creates an overlook. A rectilinear yet informal bosque of sugar maples extends beyond this wall along Fifth Street. A sitting area on the northwest corner of the site has original benches bounded by winged euonymus.

• the previous text was based on the work of the US govt and therefore public domain