FRONT ROYAL – A construction crew laid the last beam on Christendom College’s new Christ The King Chapel at a topping-out ceremony Friday.
Dozens of students, family members and school faculty employees gathered near the construction site at the college off Shenandoah Shores Road in Warren County for the event. Hundreds of people including students and alumni signed the white beam. Workers with Hoar Construction then pulled the beam by crane to the top of the metal frame of the building and put the piece in place. The crowd cheered as the workers attached the beam to the chapel’s 114-foot-tall main tower.
Christendom College’s Director of Student Activities Marilyn Charba stood at the site awaiting the event.
“We’ve known it’s been in the works for a long time but actually seeing it going up, it’s just bigger and more massive than we could have actually, like, anticipated,” Charba said. “So actually seeing it going up and having a part of it it’s really amazing.”
Michael Larochelle graduated with the class of 2019 and returned to the college to watch the ceremony.
“I probably won’t experience it that much. but hopefully my little brother will be graduating this year and have his baccalaureate mass here, so that’ll be cool,” Larochelle said.
Thomas Bayley graduates in 2021 and said he was impressed by how fast the construction had taken so far. Bayley said he might visit the college over the summer to see the progress.
Christendom College picked Hoar’s Washinton, D.C., division in August as the general contractor for the project. Initial site work began in September. Construction teams finished laying the underground pipes and installed concrete footings and slab, according to information provided by Hoar. Crews now plan to focus on the chapel’s remaining steel skeleton, scheduled for completion this month. They expect to complete this phase of the project possibly in March 2021 and to reach completion of the project in December 2021, according to information from Hoar.
The design for the Gothic-inspired chapel includes more than 100 stained-glass windows. The chapel will seat more than 850 people.
Christendom raised $45 million for the project in the two-year, capital-campaign “A Call to Greatness.” The college completed the campaign in 2018 in time for the school’s 40th-anniversary celebrations.
Hoar and its trade partners collaborated with the school during the planning stages to make sure the project design stayed within budget. Hoar saved the college money on the project budget while navigating the rising costs of building materials while securing all of the steel needed to complete the 20,000-square-foot frame.
Kegg Pipe Organ Builders custom-made the chapel’s 2,500-pipe organ that will take several months to tune. The chapel also includes solid mahogany and red oak doors with leveled lead-pane glass and two 35-foot bell towers
O’Brien & Keane serves as lead architect for the project, while Beyer Studio oversees design and production of the stained-glass windows. Other project partners include Meyer Consulting Engineers, Provectus Inc., and Pennoni.
Visit chapel.christendom.edu for more information about the project.
Christendom College is a Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1977 in Front Royal. Hoar Construction, established in 1940, has offices in Birmingham, Houston, Austin, Orlando, Nashville, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., and has projects in nine states.
