The design for St. Mark Church uses a traditional architectural style and configuration that is reflective of the Catholic faith and heritage. It is modeled on the broad tradition of Catholic architecture in the United States as well as churches dedicated to St. Mark in Venice, Florence and Rome.
The new 1400 seat church, along with the parish center and school, are conceived as a city on a hill. St. Mark Church will incorporate the forms and the symbols that make it unmistakably a Catholic church. As an image of the eternal, it will be constructed out of timeless and low maintenance materials, such as brick, stone, and wood. As a Gate of triumph and a sacred place, it will have a large front portico and vertical proportions. As a liturgical building, the exterior plaza will serve as a site for the Easter fire, for outdoor prayer services, and for processions. As a house of prayer, the exterior and the narthex will be welcoming, ennobling, and exude a sense of reverence. An inscription over the front door and an image of St. Mark will greet all those who enter.
The exterior of the church is located so as to create the St. Mark plaza in the front and a prominent apse and entrance along Stumptown road. The new plaza has a central fountain and will be defined by the Msgr. Kerin center, the new church and an edge of trees. The plaza will become an outdoor gathering space as well adjacent to the majority of new parking along with providing dropoff and handicapped parking. Side entrances will have drop offs and turnarounds on grade.
A future cloister garden will provide an outdoor place of tranquility surrounded by brick arcades with a columbarium built into the walls. The arcade will make a covered connection from the Msgr. Kerin center to the bell tower entrance.
The exterior of the church is predominately constructed of brick and stone with a metal roof. Front stairs and ramp lead up to a raised terrace and a welcoming Doric loggia. Two lions (symbols of St. Mark) and statues of four saints greet the visitor. The generous narthex is a place of preparation with views into the nave and into an octagonal baptistery. The octagonal baptistery will be articulated by ionic columns and will spiral up into a faceted dome with a skylight above. Inscriptions referring to baptism will be placed in the frieze of the baptistery. The St. Mark room will provide a place for ushers, brides, wakes, as well as committee meetings or gatherings. The narthex will double as a cry room and will also have off of it stairs, bathrooms, and an elevator. Above the narthex is a choir loft with provision for a future organ while below is located storage and the mechanical room.
The nave is a cruciform space in the style of a Roman basilica with ionic arcades, side aisles, stations of the cross and devotional shrines. Confessionals will be placed near the beginning of the aisles symbolic of the process of repentance and forgiveness on our journey toward the Eucharist. Clerestory windows bring light into the vaulted central nave with smaller arched windows in the aisles. In the transepts shrines dedicated to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Virgin Mary will be placed with the left transept doubling as a daily mass chapel. Large Corinthian pilasters support the four corners of the shallow saucer dome with images of the four evangelists beneath.
The interior will focus on the altar as the place of sacrifice and communion. A prominent tabernacle will indicate the central mystery of faith and that the church is a Eucharistic house. A longitudinal nave will exemplify the journey of faith with stations of the cross along the sides. As a transcendent place, the interior will soar upwards, heavenly light will flood the nave from above, and images of the saints and angels will surround the congregation. Devotional areas with a painting or statue, and a place to light a candle and pray will be provided. As a house of God, the sanctuary will be raised and will receive greatest focus and finest materials. A prominent marble ambo for proclaiming and preaching the Word of God will be decorated with symbols of the four evangelists or scriptural narratives. A smaller lectern balances it for the cantor. A triumphal arch, decoration, and steps at the location of reception of the Eucharist will frame the sanctuary. A large marble altar will be framed architecturally by a baldachino. The church will also be seen as a sacramental place with a prominent baptistery, elegant wood confessionals, as well as a generous area near the sanctuary for weddings, confirmation and ordinations.
The semicircular apse is ringed with windows and an ambulatory that will connect the work sacristy and the priest’s sacristy. Materials in the church will be painted wood and plaster with tile floors in the nave and marble in the sanctuary. The building is to be constructed with a steel frame and concrete masonry infill above a concrete foundation, brick and limestone exterior veneer walls, and steel roof trusses.