Holy Rosary Catholic Church Complex
St. Amant, La.
Trahan Architects

Trahan Architects delivers a powerful statement in concrete and glass for a small Catholic parish outside of Baton Rouge

© Timothy Hursley

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By Robert Ivy, FAIA

The architecture of rural Louisiana tends toward mélange—often a mock Acadian style mixed with a dollop of neon. Parish churches, which are frequently the most significant structures, anchor the smaller communities. The Holy Rosary Catholic Church complex in the tiny unincorporated town of St. Amant, located halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans—near the larger town of Gonzalez—breaks from the formula. Just 3 miles off bustling Interstate I-10, a collection of modest white buildings, designed in an unapologetically contemporary idiom by Trahan Architects of Baton Rouge, unifies a campus formerly distinguished by a casual jumble of building types. The recent architecture, in the words of Sister Mary John Hotard, the church’s pastoral associate, “reflects where we are today.”

While the parish is small in Louisiana terms, consisting of 2,300 families, it had grown beyond the initial capacity of its sanctuary. The original cypress-sided church, dating from 1905, holds only 300 people. Furthermore, when the parish began a master-planning effort with architect Trey Trahan in 1998, its centennial in 2005 loomed large. Parishioners, with a building committee under the leadership of Father Robert F. “Bob” Stine, church pastor, were concerned that the beauty and rural character of their region was being swallowed up in the detritus of the strip-mall economy, currently eating away at nearby communities. Their own complex lacked unity and a sense of permanence. They needed a plan.

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Formal name of Project:
Holy Rosary Catholic Church Complex

Location:
St. Amant, La.

Gross square footage:
17,705 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$2.4 million

Owner:
Holy Rosary Catholic Church

Architect:
Trahan Architects, A.P.A.C
445 North Boulevard, Suite 570
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802
225.924.6333; 225.924.6498 (fax)
www.trahanarchitects.com