St. Peter's Lutheran Church

 church, interesting place, Modern (architecture)

Postmodern-style church completed in 1977. Designed by Hugh Stubbins & Associates and Emery Roth & Sons with an interior by Vignelli Associates, it sits at the northwest corner of the block, with the office tower at 601 Lexington towering over it, cantilevered on giant stilts. The church exterior as well as the interior floor and baptismal font are of grey Caledonia granite. While the grey color complements Citicorp’s silver skin, this choice of material (and its orientation) helps distinguish the church as an autonomous place of worship.

The church is designed as a prismatic form with a substantial skylight and sloping granite walls. The entrance to the church is on the north side of the lower plaza, recessed beneath the walkway (now enclosed by glass) that connects Lexington Avenue to the west part of the elevator lobby of the office tower. Set at a 45-degree angle to the office tower, it features a continuous skylight that divides the structure in half.

At 54th Street and Lexington a large, angled window overlooks the sanctuary. A second and larger window, at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 54th Street, frames a view of the top of the pipe organ. A bronze cross, designed by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, is installed in front of the smaller window, in the angled planting bed at the corner of 54th Street.

Since its founding on June 2, 1862, as the Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Sanct Petri-Kirche by a group of German immigrants, St. Peter's has faithfully served the midtown Manhattan area. Worship services in the German language began in a loft above a feed and grocery store at the corner of 49th Street and Lexington Avenue. By the 1890s, it became apparent that English services were required.

During its first ten years, parish growth required several moves to larger quarters, eventually purchasing the former Lexington Avenue Presbyterian Church at the corner of 45th Street and Lexington Avenue. St. Peter's remained at this location until being uprooted by the construction of Grand Central Terminal. The building was sold to the New York Central Railroad in 1903 for $200,000, with the proceeds going toward the construction of a new Gothic-style church at 54th Street and Lexington Avenue. The new church was dedicated on May 14, 1905, and was typical of Lutheran church design of the time.

In 1970, the First National City Bank (later known as Citibank) purchased the property for $9 million and agreed to build a new church next to and below its 59-story office tower. Hugh Stubbins & Associates designed both the tower and church, and Vignelli Associates designed the church interior. Stubbins described the church as two hands held up in prayer with light coming in between them." Consecrated in 1977, the church is a flexible space allowing for a great variety of expressions of worship through liturgy, song, sermon, dance, music and poetry.

saintpeters.org/your-church/
www.saintpeters.org