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Three Chapels

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1955, Harrison and Abramovitz.
  • Three Chapels (alternate shot) (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)
  • Chapels Pond with Bethlehem [Catholic] Chapel and Berlin [Jewish] Chapel (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)

On the northern edge of the campus stand the Three Chapels, considered by many to be Brandeis's most influential architectural symbols. They express in their abstract form the Holy Scriptures of Western religion. This American Institute of Architects award-winning concept presents a different abstract shape for each of the three major Western faiths—Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant. Where the shapes of the Catholic and Protestant chapels are suggestive of books, the Jewish Chapel's shape is based on a scroll. Harrison and Abramovitz used a glazed, gray brick that sets the chapels apart from the red brick of most of the campus architecture. The chapels can be reached from the peripheral road or by walking across the Chapel Field.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

Brandeis University
Shapiro Student Center
Usdan Student Center
Brown Social Science Center, Schwartz Lecture Hall, and Lemberg Hall
Rose Art Museum

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Three Chapels", [Waltham, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-WT8.6.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 477-477.

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