Grace Episcopal Church, Anderson, SC

The design problem facing the architects was to provide an accessible entrance to an historic 1850’s Gothic Revival style church sited on a prominent corner in an established residential neighborhood. This handsome brick church with elevated first floor was separated from its parking lot by an uninspired one story parish house that lacked any visual connection to the church. The design solution skillfully introduced a new brick clad arcade in a Gothic inspired cloister beginning at the church narthex, crossing in front of the parish house, and extending to the parking area, where it is visually anchored by a double height porte-cochere.

The detailing of both the arcade and porte-cochere echoes the brick work, colored mortar and granite detailing of the church to visually unite the new street façade and provide covered access. Along the cloister’s length, carefully detailed brick arches with intervening brick pilasters contain both glazed and unglazed openings in a repetitive horizontal rhythm. This pattern downplays the ramp within the cloister yet emphasizes the scale and character of the materials and workmanship. The height of the new copper gable roof was carefully determined to screen the non-descript parish house from view but visually respect the scale of the Church and porte-cochere. The addition of this cloister has impressively strengthened the church complex without diminishing the importance of the historic church building.

The Cloister was published in the English magazine "Church Building."