Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Old Saint George Church in Cincinnati must have been an architectural marvel at its opening in 1873. The proud red brick church structure with its twin steeples and soaring spires was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by a noted Cincinnati architect, Samuel Hannaford. His other projects include the iconic Cincinnati Music Hall and a Gothic Revival- and Renaissance-inspired Town Hall that have become celebrated landmarks.
In sharp contrast, much of Hannaford’s work at Saint George Church had been locked away for years, hidden from public view. Having suffered serious damage from fire in 2008, Old Saint George Church had been marked for demolition several times before Crossroads Church acquired the property in 2015. “So many families have had some connection to the building, and feared that it would never be restored,” says Tina Stear of Cincinnati's Platte Architecture + Design, whose creative designs would rehabilitate the structure. “The church is an icon for the community and region, and I was honored to be part of the team that brought it back.”
Having suffered serious damage from fire in 2008, Old Saint George Church had been marked for demolition several times before Crossroads Church acquired the property in 2015.
Preserving History
Declining attendance in the 1970s and 1980s led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati to close Old Saint George Church in 1993, but the building remained a valuable asset to local families, operating as a community and arts center for the Clifton Heights neighborhood until 2004. Still closed and in disrepair in early 2008, the two iconic steeples that graced the Cincinnati skyline for so many years caught fire and partially collapsed, leaving the building void of its trademark spires and in need of serious structural repairs.
Even in the building’s deep state of disrepair, Crossroads Church leadership saw its potential as an attractive and important new uptown campus in a prime location near the University of Cincinnati. For a building plan that would both pay tribute to the history of the building, as well as adapt the space for Patrick Buescher, the church’s director of technical operations, and his production teams to create the unique Crossroads weekend experience, Crossroads reached out to Cincinnati's Platte Architecture + Design. Platte principal and Crossroads member Kurt Platte tapped architect Jeff Pearson and interior designer Tina Stear to work closely with Crossroads’ Sue Landgrebe, director of building and facilities, as well as the church’s technical and ministry teams, to put all options on the table and create a modern aesthetic, without covering up the enduring history of the church.
Interior Design
Working from the the original building plans, architectural renderings, and 3D software models, Stear’s interior design for the Uptown Campus established a clear datum in the form of a “wainscoting” throughout the sanctuary at the height of 19’6”. “The design of the six 7’x 31’ stained glass windows along each long wall,” she recalls, “helped us to establish the datum.” Everything below the plane would be contemporary and everything above would stay in a preserved state.
Jim Gormley Photography
Model Construction ofCincinnati provided the construction expertise to implement the plan to repair the interior, which included erecting complex scaffolding to provide access to all areas of the sanctuary's vaulted ceiling. Plaster was checked for stability up to its highest point in the church’s majestic 54’9” high center vault and patched only in unstable areas before the entire ceiling and upper areas of the interior were sealed in place. “The ceiling vaults were carefully preserved in the state they appeared,” Landgrebe says, “to display the history of what that space was, along with what had happened to it through the years.”
“Our biggest challenge with the church interior was knowing how much to intervene--knowing just how far to take it,” Stear recalls. The favored design for the lower interior included dark paneling, drywall and strategically placed Tectum acoustical panels. Stained glass windows that could not be repaired in place were removed and shipped to glass experts to be refurbished. With repaired windows in place, MechoSystems' custom-sized seamless roller shades were fitted to the openings to optimize stage lighting. To allow easy reconfiguring for banquets and other events, a combination of fixed seating and upholstered stacking conference chairs was employed on the main floor, in seating sections on risers, and in the balcony.
With repaired windows in place, MechoSystems' custom-sized seamless roller shades were fitted to the openings to optimize stage lighting.
Areas outside the Uptown auditorium presented Stears the freedom to design to meet Crossroads’ design philosophy of "rough, raw, and real." An adjoining friary was updated to provide modern office space and classrooms while an atrium/courtyard area acts as an open lobby for church gatherings. In harmony with exposed wood beams seen throughout, common areas feature Crossroads trademark material: rusted steel panels. Typical 4’x8’ rusted steel panels found at other campuses were scaled down to 6”x8’ and cover a wall in the main atrium in a shiplap formation. To bring the atrium space more inline with Crossroads’ typical 1:2 ratio of atrium to auditorium space, two 12’-wide folding glass doors provide passage from the atrium to the exterior. An original bell lifted from the damaged steeple, the largest bell from the original Verdin Bell Company tower, is hanging in the courtyard.
Jim Gormley Photography
Lighting Design
Creative interior and exterior lighting designs were provided by lighting integrator Vincent Lighting Systems (VLS) of Erlanger, Ky., for stage and house lighting, as well as to highlight unique aspects of the architecture. VLS Project Manager Debra Rettich and Regional Lead of Systems Sales Adam Hayward worked with Crossroads' assistant lighting director, Kelly Pummell, to implement a design that includes a combination of Aquarii LED recessed downlights and strategically placed indirect lighting fixtures from GDS by ETC Pro Multicell LD wash lights. A combination of direct and indirect lighting techniques was used to create an inviting atmosphere for worship while accenting the three expansive ceiling vaults, stabilized walls, and unique interior details.
During reconstruction, every effort was made not to violate the interior’s original design and appearance, including carefully color-matching fixtures to blend into the ceiling. Electrical contractor King’s Electric Services of Cincinnati was directed to use only existing penetration to avoid disturbing the original structure. Rather than deploying typical emergency lighting fixtures and in lieu of an emergency generator, VLS designed a house lighting system that includes battery backup, inverters, and a bypass switch to provide power to lighting fixtures in the event of power interruption. An architectural lighting control network with wall-mounted control surfaces allows church staff to easily engage lighting presets or to simply dim lighting throughout the auditorium. For further flexibility, architectural fixtures also interface with the stage lighting console for control of house lighting during church services and musical performances.
For further flexibility, architectural fixtures also interface with the stage lighting console for control of house lighting during church services and musical performances.
An additional challenge facing the teams was that all technology provisions were required to be ground-supported, since the design of the original timber-supported roof would not allow for the additional weight load of overhead rigging. To solve the problem, the lighting team designed a creative solution using the sanctuary's eight marble columns. “The design was inspired by the lattice scaffolding used during the Washington Monument renovation,” Buescher says. “Scaffolding allowed people to enjoy the beauty of the structure while supporting the needed work.” Similarly, at Crossroads’ Uptown Campus, custom truss structures wrap the columns and provide new lighting positions without obscuring the columns’ original beauty. A 6 ft. circle of schedule 40 pipe atop the scaffolding provides ample positions for architectural lighting in addition to a combination of LED and conventional spotlights for the directional lighting of the stage, audio components, and projectors used to create Crossroads’ weekend experience.
Updating the Exterior
Significant work was needed to rehabilitate the exterior of the Uptown campus, including replaced missing or damaged bricks; re-tuckpointing the entire building; replacing roofs on both sanctuary and friary; repairing the copper gutters and downspouts; and removing and refinishing the sizable wooden doors of the sanctuary.
As a part of the purchase agreement, Landgrebe and the Crossroads team worked with Platte Design to produce a plan for replacing the church’s destroyed spires. “Most people expected that the steeples would be rebuilt in their original form,” observes Kurt Platte, “but we wanted the steeple design to embrace the full story of the church, including the history of the fire and how the steeples have acted as a beacon for the community here.” The plan called for brightly illuminated, perforated steel-clad spires, in the same shape and scale as the originals, to cap each steeple. Superior Structures of Harrison, Ohio, was contracted to complete the steel spires painted to emulate the original copper patina. To further highlight the spires, Pummell and VLS’s Adam Hayward experimented with tightly focused LED wash lighting fixtures to concentrate light within the new steeples. Four powerful LED fixtures were selected to be installed at the base, uplighting each spire with a warm white glow. Adding to the building’s afterdark charm, interior fixtures dramatically illuminate the church’s dramatic stained glass windows.
Jim Gormley Photography
The exterior architectural lighting with LED fixtures proved to be cost effective while adding curb appeal and architectural interest. In fact, an informal review of the average power cost per KWh revealed that running the dramatic lighting 12 hours per day would only cost about $500 annually. Buescher describes the 24-hour appeal of the building as “well worth the cost.”
New Life for an Old Space
The Crossroads Church Uptown Campus project brought together the skills of several expert teams to give a new look (and new life) to an old space, while preserving the character and history of an important Cincinnati landmark. Pummell and Buescher agree that despite the issues encountered with saving the historic structure, through the team’s hard work and careful planning, no compromises had to be made that would have negatively impacted their creative programming. “Our teams got everything we wanted,” notes Pummell.
The Crossroads Church Uptown Campus project brought together the skills of several expert teams to give a new look (and new life) to an old space, while preserving the character and history of an important Cincinnati landmark.
Throughout the renovation that included the church building, connected friary and courtyard, the teams showed great respect for the building’s original design, as well as all the changes from the different periods in the building’s history. “We quickly realized the many ties that this church building had to the community, and that we weren’t the first to make changes here,” says Landgrebe. She recalls an example of how a construction team found ornate gold filigree work that had been painted over. “We exposed it and then sealed it in place,” she says. “That’s just a small example of how this project allowed us to respect and preserve the history of this great building as it enters a new phase as Crossroads’ Uptown Campus.”
