The old Cathedral Convent has been transformed into a center
for the Cathedral's outreach and pastoral care ministries

    In transforming the St. James Convent into a Pastoral Care Center for the parish, architect Stephen Lee, together with the design team, faced some unique challenges. How do you turn a residential building into a facility for events as wide-ranging as one-on-one tutoring or counseling, an overnight shelter for twelve to fourteen men, babysitting on Sunday mornings, and event receptions for up to 200 people? How do you unite the various buildings on the Cathedral campus, so that the Pastoral Care Center feels connected to the Italian Renaissance style architecture of the Rectory and Cathedral?

The design team for the Cathedral's centennial construction projects gathered weekly for more than a year, planning and discussing every detail of the various aspects of this complex project.  Discussion topics ranged from paint and carpet selections to issues of fire and earthquake safety, from kitchen appliances, signage, and the finish on door handles, to furnishings, landscaping, and how the new Pastoral Care Center will further the Cathedral's mission of service to the community.

    Stephen Lee, who was also the architect of the Cathedral’s acclaimed 1994 renovation, solved each of these challenges with imagination and a respect for the tradition and design of the building.

    A convent building—especially, one might say, a convent dating from 1964—poses some unique challenges. Where else would you find a chapel equipped with twelve white Naugahyde kneelers; and on the upper floors, twelve tiny cells with doors so narrow they no longer conform to Seattle’s building code?

    Lee re-envisioned the orientation of the building. Where formerly the main entrance was on Columbia Street, the nexus of the building has now been shifted to Ninth Avenue. The grade of the west yard has been lowered, turning the old basement into a handsome, sunny suite of meeting rooms as well as an office for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The yard itself is now an attractive, secure courtyard suitable for outdoor events. A large room on the south side of the building has been designed specifically for the St. James Winter Shelter. This warm, clean, carpeted and well-lighted space will be a welcome change from the linoleum of Cathedral Hall! This same room will serve on Sundays as a cheerful, safe place for babysitting.

    The second floor of the convent consisted of several small parlors and a large community room, ideal for convent life, but not for the much larger-scale community life of our downtown parish. Lee has opened up walls and dividers to create a large, beautiful reception space, with coffered ceiling, and sweeping views of the city and the Cathedral. A beautiful fireplace is the centerpiece of this large space. The convent kitchen has been completely refitted and will be ideal for the catering of receptions large and small.

In September 2005, the Pastoral Care Center begins to resemble architect Stephen Lee's original vision (sketched in the fall of 2003.  One of the architect's primary goals was to tie the building to the other buildings on the Cathedral campus.  The arch over the new Ninth Avenue entrance is a motif repeated at the entrance to the new Bookstore and Cathedral Place.

    Meanwhile the Convent chapel has been preserved with its original paneling and art glass windows. As the Mother Marie Rose Room (named for the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Names), it will serve as a place for Sunday RCIA dismissals, meetings, and small gatherings.

    The third floor now houses the Cathedral’s pastoral care ministries. Offices and meeting spaces for the ministry to the elderly and homebound, to grieving families, to couples preparing for marriage, have all found a new home here. In addition, there are offices and tutoring rooms for the Cathedral’s renowned English as a Second Language Program (see article, page 11).

    Other major improvements to the building include the installation of an elevator, wheelchair accessibility on the Columbia Street and Ninth Avenue levels, a completely new heating and ventilation system, a sprinkler system, new retrofitting for earthquake safety, and a sound system in the large second-floor reception area.

Another major challenge was how to make the Pastoral Care Center as a whole feel like part of the Cathedral ‘campus.’ Both the Rectory and Cathedral Place (built in 1907 and 1912, respectively) were designed to harmonize with the Cathedral building—their Renaissance lines and golden brickwork allude elegantly to the Cathedral’s architecture. The Convent—built by the firm of Gotteland and Koczarski in a distinctively northwest style reminiscent of Paul Thiry—is another matter.

    Lee decided to link the buildings through the visual language of architecture. Over the main entrance to the Pastoral Care Center on Ninth Avenue, he placed a copper archway, crowned by a brilliant gold cross (the work of noted Seattle sculptor Joe McDonnell). Similar archways will mark the entrance to the Cathedral bookstore, and the new wheelchair accessible entrance to Cathedral Place off Terry Avenue. The three archways make a visual connection between these otherwise very different spaces.

In the paved courtyard area outside the Ninth Avenue entrance of the Pastoral Care Center, a donor memorial records the names of many parishioners and friends of St. James Cathedral who have helped make the dream of a Pastoral Care Center for the parish a reality (see the complete list of givers beginning on page 15 of this journal). And every time we pass through the Pastoral Care Center courtyard, the words of St. Peter, engraved in stone, will challenge us and remind us of what we as Christians are called to: “Let your love for one another be intense, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Maria Laughlin is the Office Manager at St. James Cathedral.

The Pastoral Care Center Design Team

Stephen Lee, Principal, Stephen Lee Architects • Bill Lippens, Project Architect, Beth Carson, Interior Designer,
Michael Canatsey Architects • Randy Allworth, Landscape Architect, Natalie Dudek, Project Architect, Allworth-Nussbaum •Jeff Robbins, Lighting Design, Butler-Robbins Alliance • Rick Trocano, Electrical Engineer,
Sequoyah Electric, LLC • Jeff Winter, Kitchen Designer, Bargreen Ellingson • Ted Dimof, Civil Engineer, Bush Roed Hitchings • Todd Perbix, Structural Engineer • Nathan Byers, James Whigham, Sider-Byers Mechanical Engineers
FERGUSON CONSTRUCTION Gene J. Colin, CEO • Craig Schuck, Project Manager • J. R. Chambers, Site Manager
SAINT JAMES CATHEDRAL Father Michael G. Ryan • Larry Brouse • Patricia Bowman • James Savage
 

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