In a rural valley north of La Jolla, our client’s vision was to found, like the early California missionaries, a parish around which a Catholic community would develop. The buildings form a walled compound, set back from the road to create a sense of a place apart yet open to the community.
Within the walls, the church, parish hall, rectory, chapels and columbarium orient inward in the Spanish-Mexican tradition. Their placement creates a series of cloisters and gardens, layered to establish a sequence of spaces that culminates in the place of worship.
The church, a longitudinal nave with a single transept, offers semi-circular seating for 550. The altar wall intersects the crossing; large openings at its two ends wash the walls with indirect sunlight. Ambulatories, aisles, shrines and choir evoke ecclesiastical architectural tradition, separated from the nave by columns and screens.
Over a 15 year period the Parish School, sited behind the church compound, has been built in a series of classrooms, laboratory and library, linked by porches, gardens and courts.
