Christ the King Catholic Church and Student Center, LSU

Architect: Post Architects, Baton Rouge
Location: Baton Rouge Cost: $5.3 million
Project Design Team: Raymond "Skipper" Post Jr. and Lisa H. Nice
General Contractor: Milton J. Womack General Contractors Inc., Baton Rouge

Christ the King Catholic Church and Student Center on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge needed a larger and more flexible worship space, new classroom and administration facilities, and additional parking. The original church was built more than 60 years ago, and has developed a very prominent physical and psychological presence on campus.

This presence, along with LSU design requirements, drove the design concept to preserve the existing sanctuary by converting it to a student activity center. The old student center, which was unusable, was demolished to allow the construction of a new 700-seat sanctuary. Old and new were joined by the Gathering Area, a dramatic, glass-filled connection space that becomes an enclosed "courtyard" for the entire facility.

The administration offices, classrooms and parking were located on a new adjacent site, connected to the church via covered walk.

The existing site was very constricted by size and by four huge live oaks along Highland Road (to the west) and Dalrymple Drive (to the south). This, along with the existing buildings, meant that the contractor only had access to the site from the east. It made scheduling and coordination even more critical since the only available staging area was from behind the new building. Any work near the live oaks had to be done by hand.

During the design process, the structural engineer was challenged with how to provide the required wind bracing for the new building. After reviewing several options, it was determined that the steel encased in the 12 concrete columns in the new church would need to extend 50 ft. into the ground in order to transfer the wind loads.