'Feeling' out the Architecture

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Nashville

Upon entering the sanctuary of Downtown Presbyterian Church, my first reaction was one of surprise.  The "Egyptomania" we have discussed in class is certainly evident this Nashville historic architecture.  In terms of the Horowitz reading, there are many important architectural elements used in this structure that contribute to the overall aesthetic and emotional response that one experiences while interacting with it.  Approaching from the outside, the first thing I noticed was obviously the site of the church.  Situated between bustling downtown sidewalks, city streets, and commercial businesses, the church itself, though not strikingly contrasted physically or visually, offers a brief reprieve symbolically from its very urban environment.  (This would undoubtedly have been different at the time it was constructed).  Once inside, this sensation becomes intensified.  You are immediately transported from 5th Avenue to another place entirely, one reminiscent of Ancient Egypt.  

The sanctuary is cavernous.  The vast space dwarfs the viewer in colorful grandeur, emphasizing its sacredness and the single person's relative insignificance in comparison.  The tall sky-painted ceilings, many windows, and monumental columns amplify this effect.  The light streaming through richly-colored stained glass windows, bathes the space in a warm glow.  In combination with the Egyptian-esque landscapes depicted in the windows' glass, this particular lighting creates a kind of other-worldly ambience that would be ideally characteristic of a religious experience.  The variety of colors used in the rest of the room, on the somewhat Corinthian style columns for example, though slightly out of context contemporarily speaking, would have once payed tribute to the god or gods in question.  Not a regular or particular church attender myself, I find this aspect very interesting--the extreme differences in perspective regarding color, embellishment, and such.  The decoration of Downtown Presbyterian is both elaborate and strategic.  The idea is to convey majesty.  The paintings of sky on the ceiling and hypostyle halls on the walls create an illusion of deeper and open space, as if you were in an outdoor temple rather than a church in downtown Nashville.  The rhythm of the columns, both actual and painted, manifest the same strength and permanence as those of Amun's Temple at Karnak.

Each of these elements--site, light, color, decoration, et cetera--plays a unique role, as I have illustrated here, in contributing to the overall atmosphere of an architectural space and the way a person feels encountering it.