Here's the church, here's the steeple

HGA finds a place for all the people

By Janine Anderson

St. Anthony Catholic Parish's problem was a mix of good and bad.

It was good because the parish was growing but bad because the parish's historic church couldn't house all the new people.

And starting over with a new, bigger church just wasn't an option. The church was a part of parishioners' lives and a part of their greater community. Its iconic steeple even graces the Menomonee Falls village logo.

But the parish had to find a way to turn the intimate, Civil War-era church into one that could hold about 1,000 people. For that job, it turned to HGA Architects and Engineers.

"One thing I showed them was a couple projects where I had taken an unconventional attitude toward working on a historic building," said Jim Shields, HGA's project designer. "It was a bolder attitude on historic buildings - and old and new together."

	Project Name: St. Anthony Catholic Parish Location: Menomonee Falls Submitting Company: HGA Architects and Engineers Inc., Milwaukee Construction Manager: CMA of Milwaukee Inc., a division of The Jansen Group, Milwaukee Project Leaders: Dave Noelck, HGA's project architect; Jim Shields, HGA's designer; Lora Strigens Wiegman, HGA's project manager; Jim Vander Heiden, HGA's principal Architect: HGA Architects and Engineers Inc. Engineers: EMCS Inc., Milwaukee, civil engineer; Harwood Engineering Consultants, Milwaukee, structural engineer; HGA Architects and Engineers Inc., plumbing, fire protection, HVAC, electrical engineer Owner: St. Anthony Catholic Parish Project Cost: $4.37 million Project Size: 17,800 square feet Start Date: November 2005 Completion Date: October 2006

When the job got started, HGA's project team carefully preserved the steeple and some of the original stone walls. Other walls were knocked down and rebuilt with stone from a nearby quarry that matched the older materials exactly.

The combination of old and new lets St. Anthony parish grow while retaining its connection to the past. Preserving that history was a welcome challenge for HGA, Shields said, though it presented some difficulties during the building process.

"We were really surprised at how imperfect it is," he said. "The walls and buttresses are curving, like it was built by hand. [It was] 'Bob, go a little left,' rather than with surveying equipment."

To compensate, HGA surveyed all the irregularities precisely so construction manager CMA of Milwaukee Inc. could build new walls that would connect with the old.

HGA's finished project preserves some of the most important architectural pieces to give parishioners an elegant and open space with a familiar feel. People enter the church through the old tower and move into the new worship space, where they see the same octagonal apse and altar that have been there for more than a century.

Above is a barrel-vaulted ceiling, though the new one is made of wood lattice suspended beneath the gabled roof. The space between the lattice and roof is lit, showing the architecture of the new space.