How not to

I was at my sisters wedding recently in Langham, SK. The event was held at Zoar Mennonite church, which is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this weekend. And, if you like pancake breakfasts or Roll Kuchen as much as I do, you'll want to head down there this Saturday. Moar (get it?) information is available here.

Now, I did a closer inspection of the church, and the original portion of the church building may be 100 years old, but I am skeptical of which parts. The basement is rather new, and the additions are new as well. But the rest of the building seems to be in remarkable condition for that age. But it could be the sanctuary portion, with its beautiful, sloped, theatre-esque floor.

Speaking of additions...I've been thinking of doing a series on ugly churches, but I feel like I might have to walk on egg shells if I did that. Plus, I am not a big fan of open criticism. It is much harder to come up with good design than it is to criticize mediocre or bad design.

That said, what is with destroying the essence of the style of a building with a brutal add-on? This one isn't even at the back of the building, away from the street and from view. And the exterior service stairs on the front are just the icing on the icky cake. I believe that churches...hold onto your hats all you iconoclasts...that the church should be a beautiful structure to help inspire one's thought's towards the heavens.

They must have built a model of the original church for the celebrations, and you can see, humble though it be, that it had a certain vernacular elegance to it. The one end simply had stairs, while the other had some sort of apse at the eastern end. See, that's nice, and it's even consistent with pre-reformation style with putting the altar at the eastern end.

The newly constructed apse done at some point is okay, and effort was clearly put into retaining the origianl style of the building. But what hack put that horrid, utilitarian box at the western end?