Church of St. Peter Catholic Community

Renew and Revere

Miller Dunwiddie was retained to help the Church of St. Peter reimagine the home for its expanding congregation. The church had grown to add many new parishioners and its 450 seats could not serve its members. A nave seating 1,200 was desired.

The project’s design process began through a series of conversations with the parish community and realized that the larger church population would appreciate a basilica-style expansion to express its greater significance in the North Saint Paul community. The congregation placed a high valued sustainability and reuse. In response the design team incorporated numerours elements of sustainable design, such as pervious paving, and salvaged and reused many special artifacts that had been saved from other church buildings. Decorative elements from the original church, such as geometric stained glass motifs and carved medallions, are echoed in the expansion areas, connecting old with new. This creative design strategy brought a sense of forward-thinking energy to the project, while at the same time elevating a sense of tradition.