The following Article, "Labor of Love" by Stephen A. Kliment, appeared in the magazine Architectural Record in October, 1993.

Copyright © 1993 McGraw-Hill, Inc., used by permission

The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches has a ... history of compassionate service. This recent church brims with openness, light, and hope, extending the MCC's tradition into the context of the 1990s and serving its mostly gay and lesbian congregation that draws its members from all over the Washington, D.C., region.

This church is the brainchild of a progressive board, two pastors (Larry Uhrig and Candace Shultis), and a persevering architect, Suzane Reatig, a young practitioner trained in Israel. Without her four-year commitment to the project, innovative methods for getting the most building out of restrictive zoning, and rigorous marketing, the structure might never have been built.

The ostensible program called for a sanctuary to accommodate a congregation of 300, with overflow space in a walled yard also used for staff parking. The real, if unwritten, program demanded a sanctuary that was open, congenial, acoustically suited for a highly music-oriented service, one that encouraged fellowship and recognized the nature of its members, whose AIDS-occasioned mortality rate has hovered like a pall over all its work and worship.

Limited by a $ 1.2-million budget for 13,400 square feet of space, Reatig decided to eschew decoration and to use a spare vocabulary of steel, aluminum, and glass, with a counterpoint of light-red concrete block, to obtain an atmosphere of lightness, clarity, awareness of the passing sun (the main glass areas face west and south), and of the panorama of sky, clouds, trees, and flying birds in view from every seat. Four steel bowstring trusses 16 feet on center support a steel deck in the form of a shallow vault, which due to a clever use of glazing of different degrees of reflectivity, extends the appearance of the vault to twice its real length at certain times of the day. But as a focus, a stretch of clear glass behind the altar spells out a cross, a simple but highly creative way of using technology for symbolic use.

Since all other ornament had to be derived from the materials themselves, connecting details were worked out with great care, especially at the points where the turnbuckle bracing connects with the steel support columns ( Reatig had wanted costlier tube columns but had to settle for the cheaper flanged H-columns), and in the connections between steel structure and split-block masonry.

The plan itself (two stories and a basement, the maximum allowed by zoning) is a classic example of Louis Kahn's served-and-service spaces, with an L-shaped server-space of offices, library, and circulation functions embracing the nearly square sanctuary.

It is only in the heavy-set street-level entrance that Reatig's sure touch with materials stumbles. The shallow archway spanning the curved exterior elevator shaft is awkward, and the entrance is mean. In truth, on a warm sunny day, the side doors on the stone-block-paved parking side are thrown open as a grand welcoming gesture.

The building is a hit with the congregation, architects, and students. A group of visiting students told Reatig that this was the first modern building in Washington. "Because of the play of light, [one member says] that every time I come to the church, it's like I saw it for the first time. "And best of all, [a worshipper told Reatig on the day of dedication] "Thank you. This building is us."

Up Close From vision to occupancy. Architect Reatig, who arrived from Israel in 1975 and worked for several architects around Washington, was introduced to MCC's selection committee by an associate who was a member. As the committee already had four proposals, and Reatig had never done even a multiple assembly building let alone a place of worship, she was an unlikely choice. She did, however, have unconventional ideas, chemistry, and enthusiasm. Yet, even after her selection, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Pastor Uhrig had very traditional ideas of what a church should be a dark space that allowed control through lighting, stained glass to add atmosphere, and a formal seating arrangement with a nave leading to a raised altar. Reatig was able to overcome these preconceptions and carry out her vision. MCC received added value from Reatig's services. She spent over half her fee on daily field visits to make on-site decisions about such details as floor-tile patterns and placement of cabling to preserve the pristine design.