Downtown Presbyterian Church!

Visiting the downtown Presbyterian Church was quite an expereince. To have a "themed" church or a church decorated in a certain theme for a certain purpose is an interesting and foreign concept for me.  We have been discussing and reading in class how places of architecture give off certain feelings. I deffinately felt dwarfed when walking into this church. There were high ceilings with clouds painted on top to give the illusion of the sky, as well as width and depth that gave the space a very open feeling. I could image that sounds of worship in this building would carry well throghout the space. The church was also very stimulating, there were lots of color and decoration throughout the architecture of the church. For example, the stain-glass windows were decorated in an Egyptian theme with symbolic representations of ancient Egypt, such as blue water droplets symbolizing the Nile River. Another example was the illusion that the columns continued even after the actual 3D stuctures ended because of the trompe l'oeil effect of the painting on the wall. The temples of ancient Egypt were massive in size and were filled with rows of continuous columns. There were many geographical shapes throughout the architecture as well, reflecting ancient Egyptian decor. The actual site for the church made the inside of the church more intriguing because from the outside the building has the characteristics of a church and sits in downtown nashville among towering skyscrapers. No one would know that inside the church is another world, reflecting that of ancient Egypt. As far as the colors go, there were many, including: green, yellow, blue, red and more. The lighting in the church was someone dark, since it was a large church with only side windows, which were stain-glass. However the light that did come in through the windows was very beautiful because it came through the different colors of the window, which included bright blues, yellows, greens and more. The preservation of the church throughout time has been done well. The man who was there to show our class around mentionted that some of the paint it the origional paint from when it was first painted. Overal this expreience was very interesting and intriguing to see. I am glad that we visited this church because I probaly would not have known this existed otherwise.