Locus Iste examines the theory, history, and practice of architecture in service of liturgy and worship through research and blogging, design consultancy, and photography.

Locus iste a Deo factus est,
inaestimabile sacramentum,
irreprehensibilis est.

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Featured Articles

Locus Iste

Feature Articles, Painted Churches of Texas

Painted Churches of Texas: St Peter, Lindsay

Feature Articles, Painted Churches of Texas

From a visit to one of the Painted Churches of Texas: a magnificently restored Romanesque Revival in the German Catholic town of Lindsay.

Feature Articles, Painted Churches of Texas

Events, Feature Articles

Churches in the Modern World

Events, Feature Articles

Robert Proctor of the Glasgow School of Art concludes an important and expansive research project examining the under-appreciated British Catholic churches of 1955-1975.

Events, Feature Articles

Feature Articles

Two Dallas Chapels

Feature Articles

Photographs and analysis from church-crawling two finely-crafted chapels in Dallas, Texas.

Feature Articles

Cathedrals of Burlington, Vermont

Feature Articles

The unique condition of two cathedrals built in the same city at the same time provides a rare opportunity to compare two built responses to similar criteria.

Feature Articles

Consecration Crosses

Feature Articles

Description and examples of an oft-overlooked feature of church architecture with profound liturgical, formal and symbolic meaning and great design potential.

Feature Articles

Feature Articles

Awards

Prairie Chapel, Minnesota

Feature Articles

Awards

Review of a Progressive Architecture award-winning small private chapel whose design features a highly successful adaptation of rural vernacular through the subtle manipulation of a re-used quonset structure.

Feature Articles

Awards

Events, Feature Articles

On Christ & Architecture

Events, Feature Articles

A brief examination of buildings and building imagery in the gospels as an investigation into Christ's views on architecture (if any).

Events, Feature Articles

Feature Articles, Liturgical Arts

Outraged Christ

Feature Articles, Liturgical Arts

A new crucifix by Charles Lutyens, currently placed in St Paul, Bow Common, illustrates not only a promising direction for contemporary liturgical art, but also the potential for artworks, buildings, and furnishings to work in concert.

Feature Articles, Liturgical Arts

Feature Articles, Taxonomy

Liturgical Arrangement Typology

Feature Articles, Taxonomy

A preliminary proposal for a very succinct method for adding a use-based typology of Liturgical Arrangements to existing stylistic descriptions.

Feature Articles, Taxonomy

Feature Articles

Grand Opening for the Poor Clares at Ronchamp

Feature Articles

A cause for celebration. The new convent at Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (sans its final landscaping) had its grand opening celebration in early September.

Feature Articles

Feature Articles, Images, Lost Buildings, Video

Christchurch Cardboard Cathedral

Feature Articles, Images, Lost Buildings, Video

Shigeru Ban designs another paper structure for the aid of natural disaster victims, this time a Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Feature Articles, Images, Lost Buildings, Video

Feature Articles

Finally, A Solution to the Avdat Problem?

Feature Articles

The avdat font at St Francis Basilica Cathedral, Santa Fe features a beautiful grate just below the surface of the water that allows the font to remain full without losing its profound imagery to the building code.

Feature Articles

Projects

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March 7, 2019

Praying the Stations of the Cross with Ellsworth Kelly

March 7, 2019

Download an Order for the Stations of the Cross for use in Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin and continue reading for more information.

March 7, 2019

April 22, 2018

Brutalism is Beautiful

April 22, 2018

April 21, 2018

St John Abbey: An Immensity of Intimacy (Part 1)

April 21, 2018

A few initial reflections on visiting St John Abbey, Collegeville and the Abbey Church designed by Marcel Breuer,

April 21, 2018

Goodhue's Tomb: Nihil Tetiget Quod Non Ornavit

October 8, 2015

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, Inscriptions

Goodhue's Tomb: Nihil Tetiget Quod Non Ornavit

October 8, 2015

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, Inscriptions

The tomb of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue—the greatest American architect of his generation—rests in the Episcopal Church of the Intercession in the far northwest of Manhattan. Here we explore the inscriptions and sculptural contents of this "token of the affection of his friends" and "his great architectural creations that beautify the land."

October 8, 2015

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, Inscriptions

October 3, 2015

Adoration

Pange Lingua Adoration Chapel Design

October 3, 2015

Adoration

A description of the liturgical, theological, and historical principles of an unrealized design for the conversion of an existing conference room into a new Blessed Sacrament Chapel for St Albert the Great, Austin, Texas.

October 3, 2015

Adoration

September 16, 2015

Marginalized Modernisms

September 16, 2015

I am excited to announce the publication of the article "Marginalized Modernisms: Progressive Architecture for Minority, Immigrant, and Rural Churches in Texas" in the Journal of History and Culture which is published by Prairie View A&M's Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture.

September 16, 2015

September 4, 2015

UTSOA Lecture on St Martin Lutheran, Austin

September 4, 2015

Information about a lecture given at the University of Texas as part of ongoing efforts to advocate for the preservation of Saint Martin's Evangelical Lutheran Church. This church is by far the best example of non-residential mid-century architecture and holds a special place among the finest modern American churches. The lecture addressed on the influence of the church and the people associated with it on the history of the architecture and building arts community of Austin in the middle of the twentieth century.

September 4, 2015

What is God? Length, Breadth, Height, and Depth

June 30, 2015

Cistercians, Theological Aesthetics

What is God? Length, Breadth, Height, and Depth

June 30, 2015

Cistercians, Theological Aesthetics

On the implications of the theologies of two prominent 12th-century abbots in the Benedictine tradition—Abbot Suger and St Bernard of Clairvaux—as they touch on themes relevant to architecture, especially simplicity, proportion, light, and the divine darkness.

June 30, 2015

Cistercians, Theological Aesthetics

June 27, 2015

Miriam's Book About Her Dad

June 27, 2015

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