Architect & Plans
The monks of Saint John's chose Vincent James Associates Architects (VJAA), Minneapolis, as project architect. His work and design sensitivity are faithful to the Benedictine values of good stewardship. His designs for the Guesthouse and Church Pavilion demonstrate a keen sensitivity to the Breuer architecture on campus, especially in regard to the abbey church and the Chapter House.
Vincent James, his wife and partner in the firm, Jennifer Yoos, and their team began the design process by first exploring efficiency models and then moving toward imaginative ways of working with those schemes. The result has been an early conceptual model based on simple rectangular forms interacting with each other in ways that respond well to the program and that relate to the Breuer architecture of the campus and to the guest facility's glorious setting overlooking Lake Sagatagan.
The firm's work for Saint John's is based on simple modern forms addressed with great attention to detail and material. The conceptual design for the abbey guesthouse involves a two-story "L-shaped" building that houses public spaces and guestrooms attached to a rectangular retreat wing set into the hill below the upper forms. The scheme offers minimal invasion of the site, clear organization of the different kinds of spaces in the guesthouse, and views of Lake Sagatagan from each of the visitor's rooms.
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