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Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Architect
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Associates
Year
1925
Style
Gothic Revival
City
Chicago, IL
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
Photo: Matthew Bisanz, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Rockefeller Memorial Chapel was designed by Bertram Goodhue between 1918 and 1924 and built from 1925 to 1928 on the University of Chicago campus, without the use of structural steel. John D. Rockefeller, the university's patron, intended it as the central and dominant feature of the campus, and by covenant its 200.7-foot carillon tower remains the tallest structure there. The chapel seats 1,700 and is a monumental example of Collegiate Gothic architecture.

the building

Built without steel. Goodhue's chapel went up between 1925 and 1928 without any structural steel, an unusual choice for a building of its scale that ties it to the stone-and-masonry building traditions its Gothic Revival design was meant to evoke.

Figural sculpture program. About 70 integrated figural sculptures throughout the chapel were carved by Lee Lawrie and Ulric Ellerhusen, while mosaicist Hildreth Meiere contributed interior work, a sustained sculptural and decorative program built directly into the architecture rather than applied afterward.

The woodcarving. The organ and south balcony woodcarvings were made by Alois Lang, a Master Woodcarver with the American Seating Company credited as one of the artists who revived the medieval European tradition of ecclesiastical wood carving in America.

the style

Rockefeller Chapel is a monumental example of Collegiate Gothic, the version of Gothic Revival adopted across American university campuses in the early 20th century; here the style is pushed to cathedral scale, with a 200.7-foot carillon tower that Rockefeller's covenant guarantees will remain the tallest structure on the University of Chicago campus.

More on Gothic Revival

the architect

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was a nationally significant architect closely associated with the Gothic Revival, and Rockefeller Chapel, designed between 1918 and 1924, stands as one of his major religious commissions, built at the direct request of the university's founding patron.

significance

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel is an individual Chicago Landmark (L-178), designated November 3, 2004.

nearby

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