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About Our Architecture and
Appointments
The building was designed in the style of Frank
Lloyd Wright by architect Professor Wayland Bowser of The Ohio State
University. Its appointments are typical Wright’s style: narrow halls
opening into a large square sanctuary (reminiscent of Quaker meeting
rooms), high privacy walls with light streaming from the top, a feeling
of spaciousness and oneness with natural beauty out of doors, the flat
roof, and oak slats across the front.
Natural materials were used to keep costs down, to
remind worshipers of their connection with the natural world, and to
provide hard surfaces for the brilliant acoustics you find here. The
four corners of the world are represented by the doors on all four
compass points and the diagonal aisles leading to them. Worshipers
enter to worship and leave to serve.
(A note of interest: In 1963 the founding members of
St. Andrew paid approximately $95,000 for the first unit of the
building—the sanctuary, west hall offices, and Blue Room—and $34,000
for five acres of land.)
The building is constructed so that entrance is as
simple as possible and is handicapped accessible, a bold move in 1963.
All who enter the church must pass the sanctuary, regardless of where
they wish to go. The baptismal font in the narthex stands as a symbol
of the sacrament by which we enter the church. Another main feature of
the narthex is the logo of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): the wood
used for the great disk is the oak from the top of the original
Communion table; the symbol itself was carved from the legs of that
same table. A scar in the wood on the left-hand side is part of its
40-year history.
Constructed in the round with the six-foot square
Communion table at the center, the sanctuary is designed so we may
gather around the table as the family of God. There is no chancel. With
everything on one level, no one is elevated above another, thus all are
equal in Jesus Christ. The central pulpit/lectern signals the
centrality of the Word in the Reformed tradition. The choir pews are
part of the congregation and the singers do not wear robes; they are
worship leaders and participants, not performers.
The sanctuary with its full glass walls on east and
west sides reminds worshipers that the church lives in the world.
The glass walls and the skylight allow for natural light which is also
refracted through the hanging glass cross, the literal and symbolic
center of the sanctuary. There are 602 windows of various sizes in the
building, so no matter where you go, there is light and a window on the
world. On top of the spire is a St. Andrew cross, shaped like an X.
The Communionware is hand-thrown pottery designed
and crafted by local artist Jenny Floch and was commissioned to
commemorate St. Andrew’s 25th anniversary (1988).
The large silk banner was installed on Pentecost
2001, a commissioned piece created by Melissa Richeson-O’Neil of
Westerville.
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