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BY GRETCHEN KEISER
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--The Cathedral of Christ the King has broken ground for an $11.5
million building project that will nestle a new three-story parish center
between the church and school facing Peachtree Way and add a parking deck
across the street.
The parish center will be built of Indiana limestone to match the stone in
the cathedral, which was dedicated in 1939. The new structure will provide a
large gathering area, a parish hall and kitchen for conferences and social
events, a floor devoted to parish offices and a floor to serve Christ the King
School. The 350-car parking deck will replace the existing parking lot at the
corner of Peachtree Road and Peachtree Way.
Ground was broken by Archbishop John F. Donoghue and representatives of the
parish and school following Mass Nov. 22, the patronal feast of Christ the
King. Planning has been underway since 1995, according to Roger White, who
coordinated the parish building subcommittee.
Leaves were falling on the outdoor stage as the archbishop prayed for
God’s blessing on the project and for the safety of the builders. The
Cathedral Choir, accompanied by a brass ensemble, sang joyfully as children
from the school and the parish religious education program, people active in
Hispanic ministry, members of the parish council and the building subcommittee,
Msgr. Tom Kenny, cathedral rector, and the archbishop started the digging.
The top floor of the new parish center will be joined to the cathedral at
the level of the church interior. New double doors will be cut in the east wall
of the cathedral leading to and from a spacious gathering area and lobby which
will approximate the length of the cathedral aisle. The lobby will also provide
access into a new parish hall with double the capacity of the existing Hyland
Center and a new kitchen. There will also be a new doorway from the narthex of
the cathedral leading to the parish center via a covered walkway.
A grand staircase will descend from this level to the middle floor of the
new parish center, which will have offices for the parish staff and
administrators, many of whom currently work in the rectory of the cathedral.
This level will be connected to the existing office and meeting areas in the
lower level of the cathedral and to the rectory, which will be reclaimed as a
priests residence only. This level will also include three nurseries for
children and will have an entrance on Peachtree Way.
The lowest level of the new parish center, reflecting the topography of the
site, will connect with Christ the King School at the level of the current
school parking lot. This floor will provide a new school library/media center
and three new classrooms. The library will be relocated from its current
location in the D’Youville Building next to the main school building. In
addition there will be enhancements and improvements to Christ the King School.
Constructing the lowest level of the parish center will require 18 feet of
excavation, according to Brian Tellier, project manager for the contractor,
H.C. Beck.
The architectural firm is Surber, Barber, Choate & Hertlein of Atlanta,
which has extensive planning and design experience with churches in Atlanta,
including All Saints Episcopal Church, Central Presbyterian Church, St. Martin
in the Fields Church and School and St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church.
In total the new parish center will have approximately 29,000 square feet.
The hall on the top level will be 4,500 square feet and is designed to
accommodate 500 people for conferences or approximately 250 people in a formal
dinner setting.
A walkway across Peachtree Way will lead to the middle level of the parish
center from the new parking deck across the street.
The three-level parking deck of precast stone will be constructed on the
site of the existing paved lot. The hilly terrain and additional landscaping
will help buffer the parking deck from the view of Peachtree Road passersby and
from neighbors, who have been concerned about the impact of the building
project.
The main entrance and exit from the parking deck will be on Peachtree Way.
There will also be a single lane entrance into the parking deck and right-turn
only exit on Peachtree Road. The level of the deck meeting Peachtree Way will
provide parking spaces for the handicapped and the parish center will have an
elevator at that level to provide access to the church.
In addition to the new parking deck, a raised parking area for priests will
be built behind the rectory, level with the rectory and with the second story
of the new parish center. A playground area will be constructed beneath the
priests parking deck at the ground level, adjacent to the new school classrooms
and library.
A memorial garden will be established in an outdoor area between the new
parish center and the cathedral rectory.
The project is estimated to take one year and construction is scheduled to
begin immediately after the New Year’s holiday.
Peggy Warner, principal of Christ the King School, said the school community
will benefit from both the new parish center and the new parking deck.
“The school is benefiting by receiving a full third of the parish
center for a state of the art library/media center, three additional classrooms
and funding for additional school improvements and enhancements,” Warner
said. “The school’s car pool will also benefit from the new parking
deck,” which will be a safe, off-street location for parents to park.
Architects Rusty Barber and Tom Little said the design of the new parish
center had to incorporate solutions to many functional, aesthetic and space
challenges.
“Each floor of that building has its own character and its own
function,” said Barber. “Integrating those functions in a site that
is very constricted and adding on to the side of an historic Gothic building
has been a great challenge.”
The firm started working with cathedral parishioners on a master plan in
1996, Barber said. “The design process has been very lengthy” and has
responded to a variety of concerns about the site, the historic elements of the
cathedral, the needs of parish constituencies and the impact on the
neighborhood.
Some of the architectural details decided upon include matching as closely
as possible the limestone, the pattern and some of the carving details in the
cathedral. Although the new parish center will connect to the east wall of the
cathedral, a low roof angle has been planned so that the stained glass in the
cathedral will not be affected, the architects said.
The new gathering area and lobby will be a very welcoming transitional space
with some limestone, terrazzo and oak paneling. “We anticipate people will
linger in that space after Mass or other events,” Barber said. There will
also be two reconciliation rooms in the new space.
The cathedral building subcommittee included three architects who “were
very instrumental in helping us select the architect we did,” Roger White
said, noting that the firm chosen is preeminent in classical design in Atlanta.
Contractor H.C. Beck did the Lenox Square Mall renovation, White said.
Members of the building subcommittee were architects Bob Guinn, David
Roberts and Jimmy Smith, Butchie deGolian Neely, a real estate professional,
attorney Bob Tritt and White. The subcommittee received its task following a
long-range planning process at the cathedral that began in 1995, White said.
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