Thorncrown Chapel Selected to Receive AIA 2006 25

Washington, D.C., December 21, 2005--The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Ark., has been selected to receive the 2006 AIA Twenty-five Year Award for architectural design that has stood the test of time for 25 years. The small but soaring glass and cross-braced pine chapel, designed by the late E. Fay Jones, FAIA, the 1990 AIA Gold Medalist, nestles into an eight-acre woodland setting on a sloping hillside in the Ozark Mountains. Dell Reed, the chapel’s owner, will accept the honor on behalf of her architect and her husband at the Accent on Architecture Gala in Washington, D.C., on February 11, 2006. The chapel stands 48 feet with 24-foot-wide by 60-foot-long dimensions for a total of 1,440 square feet. Its 425 windows, made of 6,000 square feet of glass, filter woodland light across its upward diamond-shaped pine trusses to form ever-changing patterns of light and shadow throughout the day and night. "Visiting there gives you a sacred connection between the chapel and its environment, a very centering experience. This is a magnificent object that has received wide acclaim and will continue to be loved and cherished by all who visit,” said Jury Chair Robert Hull, FAIA. “Architects strive to be timeless and with this building, you take the procession to a timeless piece of architecture. Visiting it is a spiritual, nearly holy experience. The name doesn't diminish the symbolism of the crown of thorns. It's iconic in a very special way. Connected to something truly spiritual, communal and nondenominational. A truly inspiring work of art and architecture!" Five million people have visited Thorncrown Chapel since it opened in 1980. The nondenominational Christian chapel serves as the site for an average of 300 weddings each year. Thorncrown, which received a national AIA Honor Award in 1981, is fourth on the AIA’s Top 10 list of 20th-century structures. Robert Ivy, FAIA, architecture scholar, critic, and Jones’ biographer, described Thorncrown as “arguably among the 20th century’s great works of art.” The vertical and diagonal cross-tension trusses support a folded roof and are made from local pine but are no larger than what could be carried through the woods (larger trusses were assembled on the floor and raised into place). All of the wood was hand-rubbed with a grayish stain to blend with the bark of the surrounding trees and stone. Hollow steel joints link the cross-braces to form diamond-shaped lighting. The walls are just clear glass. The floor is made of flagstone and surrounded with a rock wall to give the feeling that the chapel is part of its Ozark mountainside. Looking upward inside the chapel a visitor will see the complex of trusses to perceive a crown of thorns. Openings at each end focus attention on the altar and the Ozarks. Visitors enter through an angular Gothic doorway. The only steel is in the diamond-shaped patterns in the trusses. “Let the outside in” was a principle of Jones’ chief mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the most important element of Jones’ design at Thorncrown. Thus, Thorncrown never looks quite the same. Its appearance changes during each hour of the day and during the different seasons of the year. Jones stated he “saw the potential for light play on the structure.” So he enlarged the roof-ridge skylight to increase “the sense of drama.” At night, the 12 wall lanterns, each attached to a column and illuminating a cross, form infinite reflections in the glass to give the perception of infinite crosses throughout the forest. The chapel’s skylights also reflect the pine beams at night through the glass to form crosses that appear to surround the entire building.

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