St. John Vianney
Fishers, Indiana

In late 2007, Ethan Anthony and HDB/Cram and Ferguson, Inc. were selected as the architect of a new 1500-seat Gothic church for the parish of St. John Vianney in Fishers, Indiana- a rapidly growing suburb of Indianapolis.

Work began in late 2007, with HDB designing the church and Parish buildings, including a 17,000 Square Foot Parish Life Center, a rectory, and a convent, all clustered around the church on the 75-acre site in Fishers. K. R. Montgomery, led by Mike Montgomery and Stuart Godfrey, designed an elementary and middle school for the parish and the proposed high school for the diocese, located on the same property, and both firms shared the development of the respective parts of the site planning.

HDB designed the site plan scheme to center around the church as the center of the development with all other development growing out of the axes generated by the church. The church was placed several hundred feet back from the road to provide for required settlement and detention basins that will received the drainage from the parking lots and roofs throughout the site. The placement of the church was selected by Father Dudzinski for its visibility from the road that fronts the land and for its centrality.

From the church we established a major east west axis that brings entering traffic directly to the entrance of the church giving full effect to the powerful West Front which is based loosely on our interpretation of the medieval French Gothic masterpieces of Rhiems, Laons and Notre Dame de Paris. A second major North-South axis is established from the entry leading north to the elementary school along a walking corridor which terminated at the playing field area with a devotional area. A third East-West axis leads East along a pedestrian corridor to the High School maintaining an automobile free inner precinct and keeping auto circulation for the Parish buildings to an outer perimeter road. This is critical because some auto circulation to the adjacent residential developments will pass through the site by an agreement with the developers.

The church itself is oriented correctly along the East West axis with the altar facing East in accordance with timeless Christian tradition and liturgy. The church rises 55 feet to the eave line with twin bell towers rising to 125 feet at the top of the crosses that terminate them. The massive roof is in the shape of a cross symbolizing the body of Christ and also the body of the church with a head arms and torso through which one finds the way from baptism to the conclusion of the Eucharistic celebration at the altar.

The Gothic style is expressive of many liturgical ideas, from the expression of the trinity in the three portals of the western entrance; itself an expression of the Gate to the City of Heaven, the entrance to the Holy Jerusalem, with pointed arches at the windows and doors throughout the building. Thick masonry walls fitted with functional pinnacles and buttresses express the power of the wall construction: all contribute to a feeling of massiveness, majesty, and permanence.