RESPONSIBILITIES

The design intent is to create a new vision for the 21st century chapel for the airmen and their families. Rather than applying a traditional design of a chapel with a steeple and Christian references, this new chapel focuses on spirituality and healing of the soul regardless of any religious affiliation. This “Spiritual Resiliency Center” seeks to be inclusive of everyone and has become the new prototypical design for the United States Air Force.

The Chapel is a one-story building inclusive of indoor and outdoor meditation prayer spaces, with flexible spaces that can be used for multiple denominations, teaching and/or counseling. Breaking the barrier of isolation, the building was designed to have a relaxed feeling with oversized "living space" and a firehouse style kitchen.

The Chapel was designed to be the key marker in the new urban square that was created by the new master plan for the "Base of the Future." Serving as a marker, we reinterpreted the traditional bell tower into a tower of light that is both symbolic of the hope that spirituality brings and is visible from a very far distance.

Gurrimatute was the Architect of Record and sub-consultant to Burns & McDonnell

Location: Panama City, Florida
Size: 22,000 sf