St. John Paul II Newman Center

2018 AIA Nebraska Design Awards | Don Littler Excellence in Masonry Award winner

For the Archdiocese of Omaha the unique challenge was to create intelligently crafted spaces that support day-to-day student activities, a rectory for the priests along with an oratory to serve as the spiritual nexus. Drawing inspiration from monastic programs, the design respects the traditions and rituals intrinsic to the Catholic faith without connection to a conventional vocabulary of construction or past architectural styles. The programs revolve around the unifying courtyard to endow the oratory and provide a place of contemplation and communal connection.

This 88,000 SF facility was completed in 2016 and sites adjacent to UNO’s Pacific Campus.

The four-story building provides housing for 164 students in 49 fully-furnished apartments in addition to study spaces, a library, prayer and meeting rooms, a chapel and rectory — all surrounding a central prayer garden and courtyard. Above all, the center provides a permanent home for campus ministry programs.

AIA Design Awards Jury Comments: Limestone masonry for this well considered sacred space is thoughtfully deployed and carefully detailed to create a strong spatial sequence from outside to inside. The jury appreciated the plain faced monolithic stone volumes used in the project both for larger architectonic elements and also for liturgical furnishings both defining space and passage.