The Scuptured Fused Glass Wall of the North Shore Unitarian Church

Once the architect has listened to the dreams of the client, the challenge of turning that cerebral vision into something tangible begins. In many cases the initial creative concept drawings become works of art in their own right and are recognized as such. As an example, recently the Museum of Natural Design in New York acquired a portfolio of 69 prints, drawings and photographs from the Dirsmith Group for its permanent collection.

Below are the initial sketches for the Sculptured Fused Glass Wall, the Sanctuary and Religious Education wing of the North Shore Unitarian Church.

You can click on each picture and expand it to observe the beautiful detail of these drawings. Then use your back button to return to this page.

1. Original Master Site Plan with a much larger building shown (which is what they wanted but could not afford) including a planned for future expansion of the Religious Education Wing to the Northwest. The mean path of the rising morning sun is shown sweeping across the Southeast sky, a critical orientation for the Sculptured Fused Glass Wall and Sanctuary space for morning services. Note the interior courtyard just South of the present Fellowship Hall and a large Administration Wing to the Southeast with a large Fellowship Terrace to the West. See the Main Floor Plan for these details. Note that the Covered Arcade was a major deign concept form the beginning to unify the various building elements and inter-connect them all.

2. Original Developed Floor Plan, Furnishings Plan, and Partial Site Plan illustrates how the proposed addition surrounds and embraces the existing original church building ... blending into the gentle landscape. An outdoor stone tiered Teaching Sculpture and Meditation Garden is shown to the North of the Religious Education Wing.

Most of these concepts were eventually retained, although the project was scaled back after our original estimates were factored into the reality of the membership being able to finance and borrow the funds necessary to build their dreams.

3. This was our first concept at what the character of a Sculptured Fused Glass all might look like from Half Day Road. The Administrative Wing including the Minister's Study, Director of Religious Education's office, and 2 other offices extend to the left (or Southwest) with the outdoor Fellowship Terrace beyond to the left. Over the next three years of meeting with all of the families in their homes, learning more and more about Unitarianism, we tweaked and twisted the plan and sculptural concepts to better reflect what we were absorbing about this remarkable group of people. The meetings took over 2 years alone and the production of the final construction documents consumed another 9 months. It took only 9 months thereafter to build the building and another 3 years for Bob White to finish his wondrous fusions.

4. This is our first long Section / Elevation Concept Drawing showing how the Sanctuary to the Southeast (on the left) could be integrated and inter-connected with the new Religious Education Wing on the North (on the right). The open covered arcade was a major design element created for the many gathering uses being programmed into the project. The sculptural character of the Sanctuary was already beginning to take shape ... although it would be studied and refined dozens of times over the design development period. The final project was pretty much built just like this. The actual drawing was about 5 feet long. All of the original drawings were given to the church for safe keeping and their archives. (Somehow today they are nowhere to be found).

5. This original design concept sketch illustrates the scale and character of how the proposed addition would blend into and be harmonious with the existing building while nestling gently into the land. The interior sky-lighted sloped ceiling character of the Religious Education Wing with its single loaded corridor facing the garden courtyard was a major design concept to nurture the children in their Search for Truth. Most of this was eventually built although some of the details were slightly modified along the way for economy purposes.

6. This early Section/Elevation drawing began to illustrate in graphic scale to the building committee the character and nature of what was being described to them as a ...flowing, rolling, sculptural ceiling form that would gently rise, fall, sweep up into the Sculptured Fused Glass Wall and flow back down behind the boulder stone pulpit. The multiple levels of the Sanctuary floor were also a major part of the original design concept. Most of what is shown here was actually built.

7. The character of the Sanctuary ceiling flowing up and into the Fused Glass Wall with the raised choir platform to the left of the "Boulder Stone Pulpit" was first conceived to have this very soft and highly sculptural quality. It was an early start of the creative process. Lush planter pockets, ledges, raised seating levels, organ pipes, color skylights, arches and soft, embracing lines, shapes and forms set the nurturing scale of this special place. In our minds' eyes, this reflected exactly what we had been told over and over by almost every member we met in terms of the spiritual quality of the environment they desired.

Their one over-riding requirement was whatever would be built for their church environment had to reflect, embrace and nurture the gentle human spirit, not dominate, dictate to, or suppress it. The individual should always remain more important than the institution. Dance, music, sculpture, poetry, painting, gardens, fountains and nature should blend harmoniously, as a melodious, seamless symphony, into one composition with any architectural, spiritual environment that could be created for this church community.

8. Early aerial perspective view of what NSUC might look like if everything the members asked for in terms of their "wish list" of spaces, pieces and places. Most of their dreams and visions as illustrated here were eventually realized although the floor plan was squeezed and squashed smaller to accommodate the realities of the financial capabilities available to them at the time. They were a VERY SMALL congregation of about 120 members that had extended their modest commitments to their church. Yet they believed their message to the community and world at large was important enough to attempt to grow and expand and warmly welcome others

to join them in their quest ...

We (and they) believed that there are, indeed, SACRED SPACES and SECRET PLACES in what we call, THE CREATIVE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT, and that they can truly nourish life, stimulate and fertilize the mind and body to grow, develop and expand upon that human potential that lies deep within each of us. The beauty and mystery of life dwells in all those little details that surround each and every one of us in our daily pursuits. No one wishes to be swept away with the broad-brush stroke and thinking of master planners and builders. We desperately need and require those soft, gentle, nurturing little details in our daily lives, that will also encourage us to grow, develop and open our cosmic minds to the entire world of sensory experience, heighten our sense of personal awareness, and enhance our search for peace, harmony, laughter and love.

Incipit, Vita Nova