United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel – Colorado Springs, CO The Cadet Chapel was the culminating architectural element of SOM’s master plan and design of the enitre U.S. Air Force Academy campus. The striking building features a succession of 17 glass and aluminum spires – each composed of 100 tetrahedrons – enclosing the upper level. Continuous panels of brilliant stained glass clad the tubular tetrahedrons, enabling diffused light to enter the building. The 150-foot-tall chapel is situated on a podium adjacent to the Court of Honor. The program required three distinct chapels: a 900-seat Protestant chapel, a 500-seat Catholic chapel, and a 100-seat Jewish chapel. Each chapel has a separate entrance. The main floor Protestant chapel is enclosed by tetrahedron clad in extruded aluminum separated by continuous colored glass panels, with windows of special laminated glass. The terrace-level Catholic chapel is characterized by precast masonry forming the ceiling pattern, with side walls of amber glass and strip windows of faceted glass. The Jewish chapel is a circular room enclosed in cypress frames and stained-glass slabs, with a foyer of brown Jerusalem stone donated by the Israeli Air Force. In 1996, the Cadet Chapel won the Twenty-five Year Award Institute of Architects. SOM recently completed a comprehensive rehabilitation and modernization plan for the iconic landmark.
United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel – Colorado Springs, CO Rode The United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, completed in 1962, is the distinguishing feature of the Cadet Area at the United States Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs. It was designed by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. Construction was accomplished by Robert E. McKee, Inc., of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Originally controversial in its design, the Cadet Chapel has become a classic and highly regarded example of modernist architecture. The Cadet Chapel was awarded the American Institute of Architects’ National Twenty-five Year Award in 1996 and, as part of the Cadet Area, was named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2004.
Architecture & Construction The most striking aspect of the Chapel is its row of seventeen spires. The original design called for twentyone spires, but this number was reduced due to budget issues. The structure is tubular steel frame of 100 identical tetrahedrons, each 75 feet long, weighing five tons, and enclosed with aluminum panels. The panels were fabricated in Missouri and shipped by rail to the site. The tetrahedrons are spaced a foot apart, creating gaps in the framework that are filled with 1-inch-thick colored glass. The tetrahedrons comprising the spires are filled by triangular aluminum panels, while the tetrahedrons between the spires are filled with a mosaic of colored glass in aluminum frame. The Cadet Chapel itself is 150 feet high, 280 feet long, and 84 feet wide. The front façade, on the south, has a wide granite stairway with steel railings capped by aluminum handrails leading up one story to a landing. At the landing is a band of gold anodized aluminum doors, and gold anondized aluminum sheets apparently covering original windows. The shell of the Chapel and surrounding grounds cost $3.5 million to build. Various furnishings, pipe organs, liturgical fittings and adornments of the Chapel were presented as gifts from various individuals and organizations. In 1959, a designated Easter offering was also taken at Air Force bases around the world to help complete the interior.
The The Protestant Protestant Chapel Chapel is is located located on on the the main main floor, floor, and and is is designed designed to to seat seat 1,200 1,200 individuals. individuals. The The nave nave measures measures 64 64 by by 168 168 feet, feet, reaching reaching up up to to 94 94 feet feet at at the the highest highest peak. peak. The The center center aisle aisle terminates terminates at at the the chancel. chancel. The building's tetrahedrons form the walls and the pinnacled ceiling of the Protestant Chapel. Stained glass windows provide ribbons of color between the tetrahedrons, and progress from darker to lighter as The building's tetrahedrons form the walls and the pinnacled ceiling of the Protestant Chapel. Stained glass windows provide ribbons of color between the tetrahedrons, and progress from darker to lighter as they they reach reach the altar. The chancel is set off by a crescent-shaped, varicolored reredos with semi-precious stones from Colorado and pietra santa marble from Italy covering its 1,260-square-foot area. The focal point of the chancel the altar. The chancel is set off by a crescent-shaped, varicolored reredos with semi-precious stones from Colorado and pietra santa marble from Italy covering its 1,260-square-foot area. The focal point of the chancel is is a a 46-foot 46-foot high high aluminum aluminum cross cross suspended suspended above above it. it. The The pews pews are are made made of of American American walnut walnut and and African African mahogany, mahogany, the the ends ends being being sculpted sculpted to to resemble resemble World World War War II airplane airplane propellers. propellers. The The backs backs of of the the pews pews are are capped capped by by a a strip strip of of aluminum aluminum similar similar to to the the trailing trailing edge edge of of a a fighter fighter aircraft aircraft wing. wing. Above Above the the narthex, narthex, in in the the rear, rear, is is a a choir choir balcony balcony and and organ, organ, designed designed by by Walter Walter Holtkamp Holtkamp of of the the Holtkamp Holtkamp Organ Organ Company, Company, and and built built by M.P. Moller of Hagestown, Maryland. The organ has 83 ranks and 67 stops controlling 4,334 pipes. Harold E. Wagoner designed the liturgical furnishings for both the Protestant and Catholic chapels. by M.P. Moller of Hagestown, Maryland. The organ has 83 ranks and 67 stops controlling 4,334 pipes. Harold E. Wagoner designed the liturgical furnishings for both the Protestant and Catholic chapels.
Catholic Chapel
The Catholic Chapel is located below the Protestant Chapel, and seats approximately 500 people. The nave is 56 feet wide, 113 feet long and 19 feet high. The focal point of the Catholic Chapel is the reredos, an abstract glass mosaic mural designed by Lumen Martin Winter and composed of varying shades of blue, turquoise, rose and gray tessera to form a portrayal of the firmament. Superimposed on the mural and depicting the Annunciation are two 10-foot tall marble figures, the Virgin Mary on the left, and the Archangel Gabriel on the right. Above and between these two figures is a marble dove. In front of the reredos is the altar, a gift from Cardinal Francis Spellman, who dedicated the Catholic Chapel on September 22, 1963. The altar is Italian white marble mounted on a marble cone-shaped pedestal above which is a six-foot sculptured nickel-silver crucifix. Along the side walls of the chapel are the 14 Stations of the Cross, also designed by Lumen Martin Winter, and carved from four-inch thick slabs of marble. The figures are done in Carrara marble, from the same quarries where Michelangelo drew his stone. The classical pipe organ, in the 100-seat choir loft, was designed by Walter Holtkamp and built by M.P. Moller Co. It features 36 ranks and 29 stops controlling its 1,950 pipes.
Jewish Chapel The Jewish Chapel is also on the lower level. Seating 100, it is circular, with a diameter of 42 feet (13 m) and a height of 19 feet (5.8 m). It is enclosed by a vertical grill with inserts of clear glass opening to the foyer. The circular form and transparent walls were used to suggest a tent-like structure. The floor is paved with Jerusalem brownstone, donated by the Israeli Defense Forces. The walls of the foyer are purple stained glass panels alternating with green and blue stained accent windows. The circular walls of the synagogue are panels of translucent glass separated by stanchions of Israeli cypress. The paintings, done by Shlomo Katz in 1985 and 1986, depict a Biblical story. They are divided into three groups; brotherhood, flight (in honor of the Air Force) and justice. The focal point of the Jewish Chapel is the Aron Kodesh, which shelters the Scrolls of the Torah, to the right of which hangs the Ner Tamid. In the foyer of the chapel is a display cabinet with a Torah Scroll that was saved from the Nazis during World War II. It was found in Poland in 1989 in an abandoned warehouse and donated to the Jewish Chapel in April 1990. This "Holocaust Torah" is dedicated to the memory of all of those who fought against the Nazis.
Year after year, excessive amounts of caulking have been applied to the many joints on the chapel to prevent water from leaking inside. The caulking has damaged the aluminum exterior. The Cadet Chapel at the United States Air Force Academy has a spectacular presence both up close and from a distance. Seventeen gleaming aluminum spires reflect the sun and the sky, shining panels of stained glass cast a purple glow on the tile floor. Sound fills the space, creating a soul-stirring acoustic experience. The chapel is in desperate need of renovation, though. Work was supposed to start the summer of 2018 to restore the decades-old structure. The project was cancelled after $68 million in funds were diverted to projects at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael in October of last year. Walking down the center aisle of the chapel, Academy Architect Duane Boyle points out damage. He says the building has endured band-aid fixes from the very beginning. “So, as you walk along here you can see some staining in the acoustic plaster. When it rains here and starts leaking we have to use buckets to collect the water. It leaks that bad,” he says. Many of the issues aren’t obvious at first glance. But in a building of this notoriety and importance, Boyle’s disappointment at the damage is unmistakable. “It's meant to be the centerpiece of the Academy and was always intended to be that way,” he says. The chronic leaking is a huge problem. Boyle says it happens because of a cost-saving change in the initial design because the project was over budget.
“Well, basically the aluminum skin on the outside the building was supposed to be a rain screen,” he says. “So, the majority of the water would flow off the outside aluminum skin, but there's a lot of joints on this building—32 miles of joints—and so it was anticipated the water was going to get in through those joints.” To prevent that, the original design included something called internal flashing—basically large sheets of aluminum that would function like a rain gutter. “They were supposed to intercept any of the water that got through the joints and carry that out. And so, all of that was value-engineered out in favor doing the sealants and the sealants have never really worked very well for us,” he says. Those 32 miles of joints Boyle mentioned have been repeatedly covered with caulking, damaging the aluminum exterior and still allowing water in. But that’s not the only problem. During the more than a dozen years spent evaluating the building for renovation, Boyle says they noticed how the structure tends to move due to different environmental factors. “The building moves much differently at the south end [and] the north end than it does in the middle. It moves differently from the floor level to the top,” he says. That was also set to be remedied in the renovation process. Boyle says damage at the chapel will only get worse if the repairs are not made. The cadet area was named a National Historic
Water damage to a panel inside a portion of the chapel’s iconic tetrahedron truss.
Landmark in 2004. That makes finding someone to do the repairs complicated on a structure that can only be described as geometrically-complex. “The chapel structure that we have here is pretty interesting. It's basically a series of tetrahedrons which is a three-dimensional truss,” Boyle explains. The building is made up of 100 of those identical tetrahedrons or triangular pyramids. Architect Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago is credited with the design of the Academy campus. Netsch planned the chapel with his signature aesthetic— field theory, which uses rotated shapes to create patterns based on mathematical equations. If you Google it, you’ll find lots of kaleidoscope-esque sketches. “So, each spire is four tetrahedrons on each side- one tetrahedron stacked up on top of another and then two on the other side. And the space in between the spires is basically that same tetrahedron turned 180 degrees and put in place,” he says. The chapel is one of the best examples of modern architecture in the world, according to Boyle. “When Walter Netsch had the design of pretty much everything on the Academy fairly well in hand, he decided to go to Europe and see which cathedrals in Europe could inspire him in the design of the chapel.”