The last design decision for St. Jude
Church in Fredericksburg — to paint the walls behind the statues of saints a
deep maroon — was made just days before the church was dedicated by Bishop
Michael F. Burbidge July 14. Though the process to build the community its
first church began in 2005, those involved with the construction and design
were working up until the last minute to realize the concepts they had dreamt
about for years.
“There’s a tremendous feeling of
camaraderie amongst the team as we’re crossing the finish line,” said James
Henry O’Brien, president of the architecture firm O'Brien and Keane, which
designed St. Jude.
As O’Brien and hundreds of others attended
the Mass of dedication, he felt both relief and great joy. “Sometimes as
architects we’re self-critical — we tend to see things we wished we had done
differently. With St. Jude, I really didn’t feel that way. It's a very happy
thing.”
The diocese is going through a
construction boom, and several different architects are lending their skills
and expertise to various projects.
O’Brien has been involved in a good number of those. “At this point,
we’ve designed five new churches, 10 church renovations, six new schools, 12
school additions/renovations, and five new parish or school sites,” he said.
“Our firm was founded in 1993 and we started with two projects in hand —one of
them was St. Theresa School (in Ashburn). I think we’ve always had something
going with the diocese.”
Growing up as an “Army brat,” O’Brien lived
in many different places, but considers Arlington his home and St. Agnes his
home parish. Both he and his children attended the school. He graduated from
Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington and then attended the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville. He and Nancy Keane founded the firm, though she
left a few years later to be a full-time mom. “I’ve never been able to get her
back, try as I might,” he said.
Last year, O’Brien and Keane completed
their largest project: the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, which
Bishop Burbidge dedicated last July. “It’s noted to be the fourth largest
Catholic church in the country, with a capacity of over 2,000, an area of
43,000 square feet, and a dome reaching 174 feet above the ground,” he said.
But one of his favorite projects is the smallest — a 15-seat family chapel.
In the diocese, the firm completed Holy
Trinity Church in Gainesville and St. John the Baptist Church in Front Royal,
among others. They’ve renovated St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Lake Ridge
and St. Louis Church in Alexandria. They transitioned Dominican nuns from their
home in Washington to a monastery in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Linden, and
are now working to complete the second phase of that building project.
“(We’re working toward creating) a
proper choir for the nuns, a chapel for lay visitors, guest quarters, and
much-needed work spaces for the community,” he said. “It is a great blessing to
be able to work with such holy and kind women. We’ve come to appreciate and
begin to understand a totally different way of life.”
Building a church or any new structure
is a profoundly collaborative process, said O’Brien. “We go back and forth
until we get it just the way everybody likes it. That discussion continues
throughout,” he said. Because the projects take years to complete, relationships
form as the church takes shape.
“Certainly we are in the business of
designing buildings, but the motivating forces are the relationships: with our
clients, with our team members, and with God,” he said.
With the construction of St. Jude,
Father James C. Hudgins, pastor, had both aesthetic and practical requests,
such as a church basement and a bell tower. The church community was inspired
by the architecture of St. James Church in Falls Church, said O’Brien, and used
its design as a starting point for St. Jude.
“Father Hudgins is extremely thoughtful
and considerate, and has a great appreciation for architecture and art, so to
us he has been the perfect collaborator and client,” said O’Brien. “The parish has
been incredibly motivated to make the project happen.”
With each church building project, O’Brien
knows he is creating a house of worship where children will be baptized,
couples will be married and Mass will be celebrated. It’s a chance to create
something beautiful for God. “Churches seem to be the only project type where
being beautiful is enough reason to include a feature or element of design, so
that is exciting to an architect,” he said.
But it’s also exciting for all involved,
from the priest and parishioners to the contractors and craftsmen. “I’ve seen
that happen on every church project I ever worked on. Folks tend to bring their
best effort for it. We all get caught up in the meaning and what it’s all about,”
he said. “We’re instruments of God at that moment.”