HOLT's building is added to the National Register of Historic Places

September 7, 2011 -

The Chapel + Cultural Center (C+CC) satisfies the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places as a distinctive example of Modernist quasi-religious architecture, doubling as an important venue for the performing and visual arts communities in Troy, NY. This honor was previously reserved for buildings 50 years old but was waived, for the first time, because of the buildings significance. The C+CC was designed by one of HOLT's founding principals, Peter Levatich, and was completed in 1968. 

The Chapel + Cultural Center was built for the Rensselaer Newman Foundation and serves many of the religious, cultural and educational needs of the university and nearby community. Clerestory windows and tinted bronze run the entire length of the main hall at the top of the slope of the room, allowing normal daylight to enter at a reduced level. The wooden altar in the Chapel is movable, with permanent surrounding benches. The Chapel and hall of the Center are easily combined to provide space for large groups. Moveable stacking chairs provide seating in the hall to augment the fixed benches in the Chapel. Natural textures and materials with sparse amounts of stronger colors, are the key note of the Center. The hall has concrete masonry walls, concrete floor and a cedar ceiling with exposed structural steel.

The project was published in Progressive Architecture, Architectural Review, and Liturgical Arts magazines, and the book Neue Kirchen by Reinhard Gieselman, published by Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart.