Reflection Designing the Snyder Sanctuary at Lynn University
About Our Firm
Newman Architects PC is a collaborative design firm led by Joseph Schiffer, Richard Munday, Peter Newman, José A. Hernández, Steven Orlansky, and A. Brooks Fischer. Herb Newman, founder of the firm, continues to work with our clients on select projects as an active participant in all phases of design. Newman Architects is based in New Haven, Connecticut in the heart of the Yale University Campus. Newman’s Washington, DC branch office is located in Georgetown, and supports our ability to serve our clients in the Mid-Atlantic region. The quality of our work has been recognized through publication and awards. We have received more than 125 design excellence awards, including awards from the American Institute of Architects, the Boston Society of Architects, and the International Interior Design Association.
The Snyder Sanctuary
Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL
The Snyder Sanctuary at Lynn University results from Board Vice Chairman Stephen Snyder’s generosity and life-long conviction of the need for such places in the world. Snyder had long sought a way to help offset the divisive potential of traditional religion and its abuses. From his undergraduate days, when he first studied comparative religion, he began to imagine a retreat where people could find common ground through sharing the universal search for meaning and purpose that underlies religion. At Lynn University he found a community receptive to this vision, an opportunity to realize it in the service of today’s undergraduates preparing for life in a globalizing world. When he shared this idea with architect Herbert Newman, Snyder asked how architecture might represent these thoughts and feelings about religion by creating a place that inspires spiritual inquiry and community. Newman observed that architecture offers universal means for conveying enduring values and meeting unchanging human needs that become increasingly more urgent as change accelerates around us and heightens people’s anxieties. Out of their conversations, an idea formed of making a shelter without religious iconography or implied liturgy, and, with that idea, a challenge emerged: to attract, welcome, and inspire people of all (and no) faiths equally, stimulating them to explore their spirituality outside traditional religious belief systems without employing traditional religion-specific art and architectural means.
Inspiration The design team initially responded to the challenge by studying forms and themes that inspire awe and wonder without being associated solely with specific religions. Two forms showed great promise: the spiral and the prehistoric megalith circle. The spiral occurs in nature at all scales from the minute to the cosmic, visualizing the power and beauty of becoming. As a symbol, its form embodies the dynamic tension between creation and destruction, permanence and change, at the heart of existence. Megalith circles constitute some of the oldest surviving sacred structures from the dawn of religion itself, when early humans strove to memorialize their awe and wonder at the mysteries of existence. Their monumental frameworks, commanding landscapes and engaging the cosmos, have inspired profoundly centered sacred places ever since. The architects also immersed themselves in universal characteristics
of
sacred
buildings
throughout
architectural history, noting that light, circles and polygons, exposed structural geometry, natural materials, views of natural beauty, and assembled communities themselves resonate with all religious traditions and times. Labyrinth paving patterns suggested themselves as a meditation
Lynn University Boca Raton Florida 26°23’2.06”N Latitude 80° 7’20.59”W Longitude
device shared by many religions. 6
Exploration Inspired by their research findings, the design team explored variations on spiraling megaliths while seeking opportunities to introduce universal features of sacred spaces into the evolving composition. They engaged these forms meditatively, with an openness to surprise and discovery, seeking ways to shape and animate a welcoming, uplifting, inspiring gathering place. Along the way, realization that the evolving wall panels would structurally stabilize each other when standing inspired the expressive strategy of leaning them on each other at angles to suggest human interdependence as well, a metaphor that resonates powerfully with the Sanctuary’s mission. In the final version, the panels appear from alternate angles to prop each other up and to dance together. DANCE HENRI MATISSE 1910 OIL ON CANVAS 102.4 IN × 153.9 IN THE HERMITAGE, ST. PETERSBURG
Creation Bringing the Sanctuary to life in the material world involved elevating humble materials literally and figuratively, suggesting the raising of consciousness and giving the Sanctuary an elemental character. The “tilt-up� method of casting reinforced concrete slabs on the ground and then raising them into position enacted a clear demonstration of uplifting, and of joining together for mutual support, while facilitating quick and economical superstructure erection. A simple palette of finishes and specialties completes and unifies the resulting Sanctuary. White-painted concrete panel surfaces engage light and reflect its acquired colors. The polished concrete floor slab reveals natural mineral ingredients. Wood benches and lectern add warmth. Fabric-wrapped acoustic wall panels, tested and refined during field tuning of the space, scale down panel expanses and enrich their geometric tessellations. Diffusing glass in the gaps between panels allows light to pass in and out and softens ground-level views. The union of abstracted, unadorned, integral elements gives the Sanctuary coherence and directness with which to manipulate light to induce wonder.
Realization The finished Sanctuary responds to the original vision of a special place to gather and inspire people to explore spirituality beyond traditional religion. Without resorting to religion-specific architecture or art, it can attract, welcome, and offer an inspiring place for interaction, meditation, performance, and celebration. The realized Sanctuary constitutes an new campus destination and a working prototype for a new kind of place, in which to rediscover spirituality and its usefulness for people preparing to thrive amid the new normal of perpetual change in a multi-cultural world.
The Sanctuary forms a new landmark on campus. Its labyrinth-pattern forecourt invites meditation walks, while its grassy embankment provides an edge for the surrounding pond and campus. The main Sanctuary space shelters a tranquil retreat from the outside world designed to elicit feelings of awe, wonder, excitement, intimacy, and tranquility, welcoming active use without predisposing or prejudicing.
Illumination From the moment the first panel rose up into Florida sunlight, the Sanctuary’s affinity for light began to reveal itself. While the design process had explored interplays of light and shadow, inspired by south Florida’s intense sunlight, dramatic weather events, and sublime moonlight, it envisioned but could not fully predict the Sanctuary’s dramatic, dynamic responsiveness. The finished Sanctuary comes alive in light, an ever-changing celebration of the wonder of light as physical phenomenon, sensory experience, and spiritual metaphor from sunrise to moonset.
Sanctification The realized Sanctuary now inspires a growing variety of traditional and untraditional activities, both scheduled and spontaneous, dignifying, elevating, and enriching them. Response in the first year of use proved gratifying for the university and the Sanctuary’s visionary benefactors. Activities included musical and dramatic performances, readings, dialogue sessions, yoga, and religious services including a deeply moving, candlelit evening Festival of Light, as well as countless individual visits for meditation and simple solitude. Attendees have represented both campus and surrounding communities. The university hopes to increase programs in the future, having appointed a coordinator to encourage use by academic departments and cultural initiatives across campus. All project participants hope that bringing people together in this sheltering, inspiring place will help them find common ground in sharing the universal search for meaning and purpose.
Building Snyder Sanctuary The scope of this project involved programming, designing, and constructing a new 3,700 GSF multi-faith pavilion on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Its goal was to create a place that engenders tolerance, understanding, and cooperation through a shared spiritual experience and learning environment. Program components include: a main sanctuary pavilion to seat up to 150; a support wing with entrance lobby, lounge, and multi-use seminar room; an arrival courtyard with a meditation labyrinth; and informal outdoor gathering spaces. Sustainable-design strategies include: use of local materials, labor, and construction methods; highly insulated thermal-mass walls and Low E glass with deep overhangs to shelter the interior from Florida sun; and native plantings and site selection for access to campus pathways. Construction included casting seven large concrete wall panels directly on the earth and tilting them up into place to create the Sanctuary’s characteristic form. The largest panel stands 50 feet tall and weighs a quarter of a million pounds. After 2 1/2 years of planning, design, and construction, the Snyder Sanctuary was dedicated in November, 2015
Lynn University Team
Kevin Ross - President Greg Malfitano - Sr VP for Admin and Student Services Tom Heffernan - Director of Construction and Sustainability Alex Keller - Assistant Project Manager of Construction and Sustainability
Architectural Design Team Herbert Newman Peter Newman James Elmasry Georg Lorenz Michelle Newman Lauren Williams
Client: Lynn University Donors: Jamie S. and Stephen F. Snyder
Consultant Team
Structural: Reliance Engineering MEPFP/IT: Johnson, Levinson, Ragan, Davila (JLRD) Civil: Thomas Engineering Group (formerly Bohler Engineering) Geotechnical: Nutting Engineers of Florida Lighting: Ron Eichorn Acoustics: Acentech Landscape: Grant Thornbrough Associates Surveying: Avirom & Associates Traffic and Parking: Traf Tech Engineering Estimating: Professional Construction Services LEED Certification: Johnson, Levinson, Ragan, Davila (JLRD) Regulatory Facilitator: Siegel, Lipman, Dunay, Shepard, & Miskel,
Construction Team David Gerrits Ross Lumsden Willie Walker Sr. Tim Talbert
Photos courtesy of:
Robert Benson, Robert Benson Photography, Peter Newman and James Elmasry, Newman Architects, Will Wayman courtesy of Gerrits Construction, Mark David Luttio, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Religion College of Arts and Sciences and Council Administrator of The Snyder Sanctuary
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