|
After many months of
searching for an Upper East Side concert venue with ideal acoustics,
we are proud to announce that The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony has
selected All Saints Episcopal Church, 230 East 60th Street, as its
home beginning in the Fall of 2005. All Saints has crystal
clear acoustics, an intimate atmosphere and a central location that
is easily reachable by public transportation.
We look forward
to seeing you at our concerts in our new home,
All Saints Episcopal Church.
For more
information about
All Saints Episcopal Church, please read the following article from
the New York Times.
THE NEW YORK TIMES REAL ESTATE DESK
POSTINGS: Renovation at All Saints Episcopal; 1894 Church Will
Receive New Facade, Its Third
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: July 29, 2001, Sunday
As
an architectural apple, All Saints Episcopal Church fell pretty far
from the tree.
It was built in 1894 at 230 East 60th Street as a mission chapel
of St. Thomas Church at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, which was
then, as it is now, a powerful Gothic sanctuary.
St. Thomas Chapel, on the other hand, was a modest melange by C.
E. Miller; a pinch of Gothic, a bit of Romanesque. What charms it
had were eradicated in a 1950's renovation. Lancet windows were
eliminated, the facade was smothered in stucco, a thin aluminum
cross was attached and the rose window was replaced by an abstract
composition.
''It became a truly forgettable presence,'' said the Rev. Steven
J. Yagerman, the rector of All Saints since 1993, whose 14-year-old
daughter, Sarah, asks, ''Why can't we have a pretty church?''
Father Yagerman said houses of worship must be attentive to the
face they present to the public. ''If it looks like they haven't
done anything to keep themselves up in the last 10 years,'' he said,
''you move on.''
Now, thanks to fund-raising within the parish and generous
bequests from two parishioners, All Saints can undertake a $1.3
million renovation, to be finished next year, that will include
air-conditioning the church, a specific request of one donor; making
it accessible for the disabled; and, finally, replacing that facade.
(The aluminum cross is already gone.)
Samuel G. White of Buttrick White & Burtis, who has been
working for several years with All Saints to develop a master plan
for its building, decided not to try replicating the original 1894
design.
''That was, at the time, referred to as Renaissance style, a name
attached to any collage of classical elements,'' Mr. White said. ''I
didn't feel as though the world would be a better place if I
recreated it.'' He also noted that the interior had been remodeled
in the 1920's, meaning the building had become a ''different church
inside and outside.'' It is different in another sense. St. Thomas
Chapel took the name All Saints in 1963 and became an independent
parish in 1965.
Mr. White turned for inspiration in part to the ''carpenter
Gothic'' of Alexander Jackson Davis, a leading 19th-century American
architect, and in part to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University,
which has a corduroylike facade of narrow strip pilasters.
It would not have been possible within the church's budget to
create such a facade in pure stonework. Instead, it will be made of
a cementlike substance combining powdered stone and mica aggregate
that can be tooled to resemble carved stone.
The abstract rose window will be replaced with a figurative
window, 10 feet in diameter, depicting the resurrection of Jesus. It
is by Sylvia Nicolas, an artist whose father, Joep Nicolas, was a
renowned stained-glass designer in the Netherlands and New York.
A wrought-iron fence, lampposts, plantings and new signboards
will also enhance its street presence. ''When you're walking past,''
Mr. White said, ''you're going to have to stop.'' DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: 07 - 29 - 2001 , Late Edition - Final , Section 11 ,
Column 1 , Page 1
|
