tour onward

from the center of the room
one can look up and outward
and learn that one is in a huge
tent
marcel breuer utilized the working motif
of the tent of meeting
described in the book of exodus
the elements stored in that tent
are evident
in the stations of ritual worship
presented within the area known
to all christians as
the sanctuary
and it is the custom of monks
and the rest of the faithful to bow
or genuflect in the direction of the central
table regarding christ already present

the abbots throne sits above the sanctuary
it is set off by a goldleaf backing
and is appointed with sideseats
for the acolytes and other servants
of the divine liturgy
it is the receded character of this throne which makes it
a logical and all important connection with the reality behind the throne
the monastic house and all that is represented there
it is a place of prominence but it would be a blindness
were one to ignore the primarily humble orientation
of the station itself
held together as a piece unto itself
with granite concrete and wood
a fine woven rug often lies before the throne itself
monks pass by on each side
entering and departing
their habits rubbing against the heavy granite slabs
sometimes their fingers gliding along the texture
of the stone
during the week and most of the year
the celebrant reserves a post
at the foot of the throne
or to the side of the altar
near the organ consul
(someone spoke inthe monastic coffee room
rather galantly of a performance of the complete
works for organ by franz liszt
this will be almost impossible to listen to
on the holtkamp organ
so i advise everyone to avoid that
recital if at all possible)

the whole of the sanctuary at the south third
of the building
is elevated by 4 steps
above the nave proper
all layed out in vertical horizontal
and diagonal patterns of red minnesota brick

light comes into the tent from below
at a human level we look out large side windows
that fill the space with the natural world and
the welltended gardens between long cloisterwalks
and the sides of the tent
one also observes the gridpattern established by
stacking sewer tiles on the garden side
to create a wall
a useful demarcation
perhaps one day this wall will become
the final settling place for urns of ashes
where monks are faint recalled
this sewertile grillwork happens to be
a pattern that repeats itself on the library
and the science building
serving as a fence between the windows
and the world

the rest of the required light for worship
shines down from fixtures set into the
long re-enforced ceiling spans
appearing like natural folds in the ceiling of a tent
held fast in formed concrete casts of
relatively lighweight concrete joists
offering strength and spaciousness

the overall aesthetic perhaps summed up in those two terms

more anon

tour redux

always we begin again where the granite slabs
yield to brick steps and the cool red brick floors throughout
the entry is a cast of wood and glass and concrete
tall heavy dark brown doors await the faithful and the curious
they entail a certain commitment

the portal to the church proper
the rear of the nave is a finely formed
let's say " oaken"conception
a formidable woodcast quadrangular
manifestation of geometric preoccupation
on the part of someone
with copper plated
heavy wooden doors
cabinets to the sides
which hold
the clock that times the bell banner
to ring
and various baskets and books
which accrue in churches

to walk through this portal
is to find oneself under the balconey
with a heavy steel and wood balustrade
a cantilevered formed and flying
winged mass which juts out into the
open space with the agility of a falcon
this concrete overhead seating arrangement
is supported by four arched concrete pillars
each with an oblong shaped distorted rounded
sort of square thing a hole as it were
for strength
to the far east and west sides are stairwells
laid with granite
to some extent the structure impedes upon the
massive stainglass window project of bronislaw bak
the immense hexagonal beehive grid
with kaleidescopic pattern abstract to a degree
which constitutes 85% of the north wall of the church

how big is the space how suddenly open
how necessary for the soul of man
like any good worship space
the human is humbled here

the appointments are subtle simple and severe
no ornamentation here
behold long simple lines
simple geometry
simple color
simple as we know
can be very complicated

the wood from the forest
the granite from the quarrys nearby
the brick of minnesota clay
the workforce mostly local men
monks cousins brothers fathers
ancient preferences shared by
the bauhaus

approaching the middle of the room
the question needs be asked:
in what are we standing ?


i must once again conduct a tour today
and i will scan again some of the details
that i tend to neglect

what's in a tour

some days my time is defined by
a walking explication of architecture
and its relationship to benedictine culture

this is something that only a few people
take interest in on any given day
i think it's safe to say

there is excitement for me in the fact that
the buildings and the dialogs and the thinking
which i describe all can be referred to in time
by my inauspicious entry to the global comedy

i was born in 1956
it was then that the monastic vote was cast
in concrete and the preparations for building the
new st john's abbey church were begun

insofar as this summer was meant to be the summer
of extreme discourses and i had chosen the theme
"RAGE AGAINST THE IMAGE"
where i bring iconoclasm to a new and terrific highpoint
where i literally announce war upon all the photography in the world
i will commit myself to describing in words
what others might flippantly try to possess
with the lense and a flash and a digital tooodle dee doo

behold
formed mud
steel re-inforced concrete
trumpets blast
the 20th century is all amarch with possibility
mud brought to a high level of constructive applicability
new shapes new possibilities new engineering

i could meet you under the bell banner
it is an odd design
someone once suggested
"cosmic flyswatter"

a large parallelogram sits itself into
the hyperbolic and parabolic arches
formed of steel re-inforced concrete

in the middle of the odd rectangle
a diversion enjoyed by the architect
marcel breuer
the sketching of odd rectangles
there sits 5 or six bells
tuned to a scale
of sharps and whole tones
but largely suffering from crackage these days
the bells are strangely quiet only ringing at
10 to 7 in morning
10 to noon
10 to five for mass
and
10 to seven in the evening
when bird song dies down
then monks chant psalms

i have heard that joachim watrin and
and a monk called "big red"]
did the geometry neccesary for this thing to stand
the pilings tend down in a deep fashion
to equal the heighth
of the impressive but calmly understated banner

the banner faces due north
the steps and plaza uderneathe the bellbanner
are made of local slabs of granite
everyday there is a dance under the bellbanner
people skip by and click their shoes
kids on skateboards
children delighting in the surprisng echo under the arche
the entry to the big mud tent
begins here

two sets of large wooden doors
greet the persons who enter here
these doorways enter into the
baptistery
a place of almost unspeakable symbolic resonance
one should heare big loud bass drums walking into
such a space

an hour a long paragraph a book even
seems a paltry amount of type
to provide adequate insight into the
shere architectural and liturgical weight of this room
it is crushingly simple
wellformed wellcured concrete abounds
even the ceiling is meticulously worked out
with an odd rectangular box like grid pattern
six skylights offer hope
the baptistery itself is sunken
not a pool so much as a font
a gleaming polished steel sculpture
sits atop a blue granite bath
all this sunken and accessible by
slight stairs at the north and south ends
behold all daring christians
the meaning is about your salvation
the room is large and echoey
the floor is the characteristic brick
pervasive all over the new complex
of monastery and church
heavy wood panelling and cabinetry
are there
and two stairwells like wings to the side
take one down to the basement
where the evidence of bunker architecture
is all too evident

in another post i will allude to the
principle of relative obsolescence
in describing the spaces below the
large mainroom of christian worship
in collegeville

as for today
i am off to something else

resist and fight against all photography
trust none of it
RAGE AGAINST THE IMAGE
fight for what's important

( i know i sound tyrannical but i do allow pictures
when i do my song and dance)

perhaps tomorrow i will address
the problem of sound in the abbey church