From Article: "The Spiritual Shelters of Pietro Belluschi" By G. Douglas Nicoll (Oregon Historical Quarterly / Fall 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 3)
... A few years later, Belluschi designed another Catholic church, this time in suburban Milwaukie, southeast of Portland. The congregation was eager to leave the LaSalle High School gymnasium*, where it had been worshipping in cramped quarters. They selected Belluschi on the basis of his reputation and were open to his ideas. Christ the King Catholic Church was built on Southeast Fuller Road on a spacious, flat site in a partially developed residential neighborhood. Belluschi had a lot of room to work with, and he flattened the pitch of a striking pyramidal roof to provide for elongated frontal planes and a shallow narthex. A trellised gate leads through a sheltered garden to the main portal. Inside, the simple narthex opens on an expansive octagonal nave, with a great octagonal window overhead. The nave wall ties the room together, and the use of natural woods was Belluschi's effort to create what Paul Tillich called "holy emptiness," according to Clausen. As in his earlier churches, there is little demarcation between the nave and chancel, and the natural light from the offset peak of the roof illuminates the two .
*misstated in the article, La Salle gym refers to the old church at Christ the King, currently the CTK gym).
SPECIAL NOTE ON CROSS , Design by Artist Gyorgy Kepes:
In the book, "Spiritual Space, The Religious Architecture of Pietro Belluschi," author Meredith Clausen says that Kepes work at Christ the King Church
" ... creates the effect of a flickering, starry firmament by means of a multitude of tiny, backlit holes in the wall from which emerges the image of a cross."
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