03/04/2025
🏆 Trumbauer Tuesdays 🏆 2022 WINNER - Interior Design, non-residential - St. Patrick’s Church Interior Renovation in Kennett Square, PA by Archer & Buchanan Architecture
Join us for our Fourth Biennial Trumbauer Awards on Thursday, March 6 at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia — get your tickets now at classicist-phila.org
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St. Patrick’s is a modest stone Roman Catholic church built in 1910 and located within the urban fabric of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to their Jubilee Year, the parish began planning for renovations to be completed in time for the celebration. Within the parish, it was recognized that previous renovations had not aged well, and the historic character of the church’s interior had been badly compromised. A goal of the renovations was to beautify the interior through a design remaining true to the original Gothic details of the building and enhancing the space through new materials and finishes.
For new wall and ceiling finishes, a rich color scheme was developed that incorporated custom stencil designs emphasizing existing plaster moldings while introducing additional layers of definition and detail. For the new floor design, existing carpet was replaced with marble tile. Floor patterns articulate the layout of the space, including mosaic borders in the nave, transition borders in the sanctuary/side chapels, and custom Celtic cross floor medallions along the main aisle. New liturgical furniture pieces—a front altar, high altar with tabernacle, pulpit, and baptismal font—were custom designed with consideration of the scale of the existing sanctuary, making efficient use of the modestly sized floor plan. The details of each piece are attentive to the proportion and motifs found both in St. Patrick Church and in Gothic architecture more broadly, incorporating unique profiles and a stained wood finish to complement the bold color palette selected for the walls and ceiling.
📸: Jeffrey Totaro Architectural Photographer
