Churches: St. Cecilia
Wisconsin Dells, WI
This church is located in the heart of a tourist area, and has the good fortune of a swelling crowd at Mass during the summer. After years of planning and design, it was determined that their 100-year-old, 400-seat church could not meet the growing needs of the parish and visitors, thus a new 1,000-seat church was designed by River Architects, and construction was completed in 2016.
Rich in traditional detailing similar to that of the original church, the new structure carefully integrated the original stained-glass windows, artwork, statuary, and furnishings into a much larger structure, while still maintaining appropriate scale and proportion. The new church is fully accessible and provides an overflow/gathering area that can accommodate an additional 200 people. The ultimate goal of the project was to find balance between design and budget while maintaining a high level of detail, character, and quality.
