{"id":246791,"date":"2026-07-18T18:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246791\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:39:08","slug":"a-historic-pa-seminarys-chapel-wins-international-architecture-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246791\/","title":{"rendered":"A historic PA seminary\u2019s chapel wins international architecture award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly\u2019s suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>A chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary\u2019s new Ambler campus in Montgomery County has earned an international architecture award for blending centuries of Catholic tradition with contemporary design.\n<\/p>\n<p>Immaculate Conception Chapel, designed by Voith &amp; Mactavish Architects LLP, incorporates historic elements salvaged from the seminary\u2019s former Lower Merion campus, including carved pews, statues and stained-glass windows. The adapted features preserve the legacy of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scs.edu\/about\/history\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in Pennsylvania and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The chapel was <a href=\"https:\/\/sacredplaces.org\/news\/2026-faith-form-press-release\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one of 12 winners<\/a> selected from 75 submissions worldwide in the 2026 Faith &amp; Form International Awards for Religious Architecture &amp; Art, presented by Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one of these projects that totally balances the contemporary needs of the client with this commitment to \u2026 liturgical tradition, institutional memory and preservation,\u201d said\n<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Block, the nonprofit\u2019s director of special initiatives.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that combination \u2026 balancing the old and the new, was, in the jury\u2019s opinion, really award worthy.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Chapel design holds \u2018universal appeal\u2019<\/p>\n<p>John Cluver, senior partner and director of historic preservation at Voith &amp; Mactavish, said he worked closely with the seminary to understand the physical and spiritual needs of the people who would be in the building every day.\n<\/p>\n<p>Incorporating historic elements at the old seminary was key for the institution, Cluver said.<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-747772\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Immaculate-Conception-Chapel-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\"  \/>Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places recognized Immaculate Conception Chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Ambler, Pennsylvania, with one of its 2026 international awards for excellence and innovation in architecture, design and art for religious places. (Photo credit: Jeffrey Totaro; Courtesy of Partners for Sacred Places)\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were very interested in having this new chapel relate back to these other chapels and to continue this sense of tradition and this historic continuity with their previous campus,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the basic form, configuration, individual elements all were based on elements from these two chapels that we could integrate into a single one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Cluver said the award from Partners for Sacred Places is recognition of achieving a \u201cuniversal appeal\u201d beyond the religious context.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s something that resonated with people who had no connection whatsoever with this community, but they still felt that it really spoke to them as well, so it was very rewarding in that regard,\u201d he said.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly\u2019s suburbs do you want WHYY&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[35994,10926,28,30,29,55030],"class_list":["post-246791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-ambler","tag-catholic-church","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-st-charles-borromeo-seminary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}