Photo courtesy of Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

[Virginia Theological Seminary press release] Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) is proud to announce that Immanuel Chapel received from Faith & Form Magazine an award in the category of “Religious Architecture: New Facilities and from Period Homes,” and won a 2016 Palladio Design Award from Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines in the “New Design and Construction” category. Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) Partners Robert A.M. Stern and Grant Marani led the design of Immanuel Chapel, which was consecrated on October 13, 2015.

“We were very pleased to receive news of the awards from Faith & Form andTraditional Building and Period Homes magazines,” said the Rev. James Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., vice president for Institutional Advancement at VTS. “Immanuel Chapel deserves such recognition! As we live into the Chapel, we continue to be grateful for the Seminary’s creative and satisfying collaboration with Robert A.M. Stern Architects.”

The Annual Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards program is co-sponsoredby Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), a knowledge community of the American Institute of Architects. The awards program was founded in 1978 with the goal of honoring the best in architecture, liturgical design and art for religious spaces. The program offers five primary categories for awards: Religious Architecture, Liturgical/Interior Design, Sacred Landscape, Religious Arts, and Unbuilt Work.

The Palladio Awards honor outstanding achievement in traditional design. The program recognizes both individual designers and design teams whose work enhances the beauty and humane qualities of the built environment, through creative interpretation or adaptation of design principles, developed through 2,500 years of the Western architectural tradition. The Palladio Awards are the first and only national awards program for residential and commercial/institutional projects which demonstrate excellence in traditional design.

These impressive design recognitions follow the recent announcement that Immanuel Chapel was awarded with Leeds-Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. In 2015, the Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. of Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the construction of the project, was honored with two Craftsmanship Awards from the Washington Building Congress (WBC): one in the plaster finishes category and one for the project’s architectural millwork.

Founded in 1823 as a beacon of hope in a country new and finding its way, Virginia Theological Seminary is the flagship Seminary of the Episcopal Church. One of our first benefactors was Francis Scott Key whose poem provides the text for our national anthem. In the 191 years since being established, VTS has led the way in forming leaders of the Episcopal Church, including: the Most Rev. John E. Hines (VTS 1933, D.D. 1946), former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; the Rt. Rev. John T. Walker (VTS 1954, D.D. 1978), the first African-American bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington; and theologian, author and lay preacher Ms. Verna J. Dozier (VTS D.D. 1978). Serving the worldwide Anglican Communion, Virginia Theological Seminary educates approximately 25% of those being ordained who received residential theological education. Visit us online at www.vts.edu.