Tag: Brunettini (Ermes)

  • St. Ignatius de Loyola Church, Glendale

    St. Ignatius de Loyola Church

    Glendale is a semi-urban neighborhood of Scott Township, just outside Carnegie, that was heavily Polish. The center of social life was St. Ignatius de Loyola parish, which until 1952 was housed in a combined school and church building. In that year the school burned. Fortunately the parish had the resources to build on a much larger scale. The result was a beautiful late-Gothic church and a separate school building. Although the Catholic parish is gone now, the buildings are still in use as the Red Balloon Early Learning Center.

    The church was designed by Ermes Brunettini, whose simple but traditional church bridges the gap between Gothicism and modernism.1

    Entrance

    The front of the church was once adorned with a crucifix by Oakmont sculptor Louis Vergobbi, but it was taken away, along with most of the stained glass by the Henry Hunt studio, when the Catholic congregation moved out. All that remains is the cherub that served as the base.

    Cherub
    Angel

    Angels by Vergobbi still guard the two towers.

    Angel
    Angel
    Angel
    Angel praying
    Tower
    Tower
    St. Ignatius School

    The school is in a more straightforwardly modernist idiom, but the stone matches the stone of the church. Since it was built at the same time as the church, it is very probable that Brunettini was the architect of the school as well, along with the additions to the convent. The architect’s drawing shows that, except for new tinted windows, very little about the outside of the school has changed.

    Rendering of St. Ignatius School
    Convent

    The convent was originally a splendid Queen Anne mansion, the Dr. Henry House. It was expanded with additions that match the architecture of the church (and fight noisily with the architecture of the house), including a chapel with a round apse.

    Convent
    Tower and eyebrow dormer

    The roofline of the original house still sticks up behind the large additions in front, including the tower with balcony and a Richardsonian eyebrow dormer.

    Tower with balcony
    Convent
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

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