Spanish Church Suburban Tampa, Flordia

This preliminary proposal for a new parish church construction in suburban Tampa, Florida was requested by the Diocese of Saint Petersburg as a component of their parish committee interview process.  Drawing inspiration from the Spanish origins of the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary and Spain’s missionary heritage in the Americas, this design provides a culturally contextual response for a new 1,500 seat church.

Seeking a traditional space inspired by Church history, the community explicitly requested a cruciform structure with full transepts and an apse with ambulatory spaces.  Submitting firms were also asked to pay particular attention to the accommodation of liturgical seasons, devotional practices, and sacramental liturgies in the planning of the facility.

Incorporating Spanish stylistic queues, the building presents itself as a stucco construction with red clay tile roof and stone detailing.  Our Lady of the Rosary stands atop the dome.  A layered tripartite portal flanked by twin belltowers serves as the primary church entrance, leading to a spacious community narthex with adjacent meeting rooms, restrooms, and devoted bride/mourning spaces.

The interior of the church recalls the Marian colors of blue, white, and gold.  The proportions on the interior have been selected to evoke a feminine slenderness and delicacy in honor of Our Lady, and the hierarchy of the applied orders on the interior elevates from a Doric perimeter to an Ionic frontispiece to a Corinthian baldachin.

A devoted baptistery area at the front of the church centers the nave on a full sanctuary organized underneath the dome by a terminating baldachin and high altar with devoted tabernacle tower.  The sanctuary design also calls for the full spectrum of liturgical appointments in their traditional positions, including the incorporation of the aforementioned baldachin, as well as a communion rail and high altar.  Four confessionals with a face-to-face option and dual sacristies have also been provided at the rear of the church in the apse area.  The nave and both transepts possess a colonnaded processional path around the entire church perimeter.

Extending beyond the church proper, the full project includes site improvements to the ad hoc campus, with rerouting of traffic and parking being a noted concern.  Additionally, an enclosed courtyard with exterior water features has been provided adjacent the church proper.  Various improvements to existing campus buildings have also been requested.  Church office space, a food pantry, expanded preschool facilities, and various community areas – alongside additional exterior athletic fields – have been modified and reconfigured to produce a more harmonious and unified campus.