SAINT GILES CHAPEL

St. Giles Chapel is a historic chapel beloved by its parishioners. When it was decided that renovations were needed to improve programmatic and sightline issues, MGA was hired to come up with a way to achieve this without dramatically altering the building. One of the main issues to be addressed was the lack of visual connection between the organist, who was hidden behind the large reredos screen, and the choir. MGA proposed to create this connection by extending the chancel enough to bring the organ out into the open, and to raise the reredos and relocate the choir beneath it. This fulfilled the parishioners’ goal of retaining the reredos while creating a more open, light-filled chancel space. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of this project, we spent much of our time in the design development phase exploring various ways to alter the reredos. A physical scale model was also a useful tool for helping the parishioners to fully visualize the final solution. The project used a traditional delivery approach for architectural services, and a negotiated construction contract, and cost approximately $100,000.