Christ Church Lutheran (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Christ Church Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( ELCA ) at 34th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was in 1911 as a parish of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod founded. From this it has but dissolved because of a dispute that led to the founding of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in the 1970s. The congregation is especially known by the church building, which is entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Building

The church building was designed by architecture firm Saarinen and Saarinen, a partnership between Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950) and Eero Saarinen ( 1910-1961 ). The carved stone panels were created by William M. McVey ( 1922-1976 ). The church was consecrated in 1949 and recognized from the outset as an architectural masterpiece. It is regarded as an early example of modern church architecture.

The congregation chose the design, as it turned out, that a traditional neo-Gothic building would be too costly. The new Pastor William A. Buege contacted in 1946 Saarinen father, who was then chairman of the Cranbrook Academy of Art was and convinced him to accept the job. Saarinen in 1941, the First Christian Church designed in Columbus, which he used as a model here. It was Eliel Saarinen last building, he died in the year after the inauguration. At the opening Saarinen noted, " when a building is honest, then the architecture is religious."

An extension to a school building was designed under the supervision of the son Eero Saarinen by its former employee Glen Paulsen and completed in 1962 - that is, the cultivation was the last project of the Son, who died in 1961. He is joined by an archway to the church building is set around a courtyard. The design of the cultivation was so made ​​that it harmonises with the previous construction and complements this.

The building was in 1977 by the American Institute of Architects awarded the Twenty -five Year Award, which was so far (2008) only given for two church buildings. It was registered in 2001 in the National Register of Historic Places and declared on 16 January 2009 on a National Historic Landmark.