Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Client: Roman Catholic Church
Market Sectors: Community
Architects Alaska worked with Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish for two years with programming and conceptual design services prior to starting design for this new sanctuary building. The existing worship space, designed by CCC Architects Alaska in 1977, is more of a multi-use space. Following services, the walls and dividers had to be rearranged for other uses. The new building provides a permanent worship space for approximately 600 persons, with overflow seating in the narthex and in the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine.
This building was designed to simulate early adobe churches of the Midwest. The original structures were designed with stucco and mission tile and were planned to form a courtyard with an arcade on three sides. The new church building completes the courtyard in accordance with the earlier master plan; however, the entrance has been refocused to orient to the new site entrance, drop-off, and parking areas to the west. Design for this building was completed with the assistance of Oscar Palacios, an architect from Taos, New Mexico whose work focuses primarily on the adobe/mission vernacular of this area.