Essay, Research Paper: The First Presbyterian Church - An English Gothic Work Of Architecture

The First Presbyterian Church – An English Gothic Work of Architecture
Pittsburgh is an architecturally rich city containing designs from the Classical Period of the early Greek architecture to the Gothic styles of France and England all the way to architectural styles of the twentieth century. One such example of this boundless architecture is the First Presbyterian Church located on Sixth Avenue and Wood Street in Oakland. The original church was built on this same lot in 1851 and faced Wood Street, but in 1903, Theophilus Parsons Chandler of Philadelphia, was commissioned to build a new church facing Sixth Avenue. The new church adjoins the Trinity Cathedral, which stands on the original property donated by the Penn family in 1787. The Presbyterian Church structure was modeled after thirteenth and fourteenth century English Gothic architectural style, while it deviates in some ways from the English style and adopts a somewhat more French approach in certain aspects.
The Gothic style of architecture was born mainly in France and exercised most desirably and prominently by Abbot Suger in the Royal Abbey Church of St. Denis in France, and lasted through to the late 1300s and early 1400s. From the cathedral-like exterior, it is evident that the architect was focused on the Gothic ideal of height, which signified a “rise from the physical, material world to an immaterial, spiritual realm.” (Wilkins, 204) The exterior draws most of the viewers’ attention to the façade and the intricate detail of the exterior structure, while tending to hide the appearance of the nave and the side aisles. The back portion of the Church is rectangular with raised side galleries. Although the Church has a lower and broader front than those modeled after French Gothic architecture, the spired towers help to direct one’s attention upwards toward the heavens. Similar to Chartres Cathedral, the First Presbyterian Church has two spired towers on either side of the façade. The use of such towers is a denial of gravitational force downward and continuing emphasis on reaching towards Heaven. Although not as decorated as Amiens Cathedral, the Church borrows the idea of pointed arch entrances in the front led to by a few steps, while the entire Church is also elevated on steps. Once again, these characteristics are all present in an attempt to gain an illusion of the mystical and out of this world into Paradise. The pointed arches at the entrances to the Church point upward as do the collaboration of arches that shape the windows on the façade and along the sides and towers further back.
One trademark characteristic of Gothic architecture is the flying buttress, which is adopted by the Presbyterian Church. While buttresses were always used to carry the outward thrust of arches, the Gothic was the first to unveil them as an aesthetic structural attribute. They affected the impression a viewer can get by looking at the Church. They provide for an overall lighter structure and contribute to the upward trend. Because the thrust is so reduced by the flying buttresses, structurally the walls are thinner allowing for more windows; therefore, there is an increased amount of natural light in the Church, despite the artificial light that also contributes to lighting in newer structures such as the First Presbyterian Church.
Similar to Gothic cathedrals of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the First Presbyterian Church is a monument not only to the daring engineering endeavors of that time, but also to the reconstruction techniques of modern engineers in order to pay tribute to and carry on the tradition of the Gothic style. It is the interrelation and combination of several techniques, such as pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, clustered piers, and stained-glass windows, that define the First Presbyterian Church as a Gothic piece of work both exteriorly and interiorly. Pointed arches have the same effect on the inside of the Church as they do on the outside. They extend space upward by creating higher passageways and outward through the arcade and side aisles by expanding openings into many varied shapes. The high, narrow nave lined by pointed arch trusses represents the heavenly goal of the Christian religion. The arches lead to a high altar backed by a flat wall. All the pointed arches come into ribbed cross vaults, which more efficiently handle the thrust than round arches. Each vault is supported by a thin column known as a colonnette. Groups of colonnettes taper together to the floor supporting the weight of the arches and forming clustered piers characteristic of the Gothic style. The vaults are ribbed in order to define the structure and to create lines that draw attention higher. They also contribute to the overall lighter structure of the Church. In the First Presbyterian Church, the interior consists of rock-faced stone, which bends the natural light in a wrinkling pattern contributing to the light, otherworldly atmosphere.
In keeping with the Gothic “crown of light” (Wilkins, 204) image of the divine and the “opus modernum” (Wilkins, 205), or modern architecture of the Gothic period, the First Presbyterian Church displays many stained-glass windows breaking up the monotony of the wood-paneled walls. In spite of the addition of natural lights, a large stained-glass window sits behind the altar on the gallery level above the arcade, along with the Tree of Jesse scene on the east window and the famous “west” window of the Church, providing streams of brilliantly colored light. The stained-glass window approach to providing light is designed to lend to the image of heavenly paradise. The Tiffany Studios, who did the work for the windows for the Church, never before used the technique applied in the First Presbyterian Church for stained-glass windows. It consisted of painting on grayish glass, which was then backed by a layer of opalescent glass. The term used for the technique that made all these beautiful windows possible is “skeletal” framework. This means that the walls of the Gothic style architecture were made to be as little wall and as much window as possible. Since they did not have artificial lighting the early centuries, the influx of natural light was extremely important to the people. This idea has been carried over into the revitalized Gothic style of the First Presbyterian Church despite the artificial lighting that was added.
English Gothic differs from French Gothic in one very distinct way. The English focused more on length rather than height in building their cathedrals. The First Presbyterian Church took both the height approach and the length approach in its construction. Its height is evident in the many pointed arches, the spired towers, the flying buttresses, and finally, in the elevation of the interior. The First Presbyterian Church consists of an arcade level, a gallery, and a narrow clerestory, where stained-glass windows are very numerable. This reflects the Gothic belief that a tall Church was more pleasing to God. The Presbyterian Church also emphasizes length from the exterior, which displays five entranceways across the front, and also from the interior, where the side aisles and transept crossings extend the Church’s width. The series of pointed arches that lead along the nave also produce a sense of length leading to the altar, the focal point of the Church.
The First Presbyterian Church combines English Gothic style architecture with many facets of the similar French Gothic in order to create a timelessly beautiful work of architecture. It pays tribute to the Gothic period and adds to the Pittsburgh plethora of architectural display.



Bibliography


Kidney, Walter C., Landmark Architecture: Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
Pittsburgh History and Landmark Foundation: Pittsburgh, 1985. p 45 & 155.
Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past Art Present.
4th ed. Prentice Hall, Inc.: New Jersey, 2001. p 204-205, 208-213.


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