Thomas Aquinas' Renaissance
College building its crown jewel
(August 1, 2006)
Thomas Dillon started by asking himself this question:
"What kind of church would Father Serra have built if
he'd had enough resources?"
Dillon believes that the early California missionary and friar
might have commissioned a house of worship like the one now
under construction in the hills above Santa Paula.
Scheduled to be completed by fall 2008 at a cost of $21 million,
Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel at Thomas Aquinas
College is one of the most extraordinary projects to come
to Ventura County in a long time, said Ventura architect Larry
Rasmussen, who is helping with the project.
The chapel isn't the only new building under construction
at the college. Thomas Aquinas, which has called Ventura County
home since the late 1970s, also is building a $7 million faculty
building next to the chapel. The building will contain offices
for faculty and administrators and is scheduled for completion
in spring 2007.
From its cruciform floor plan to its long nave, its pillars,
arches, vaulted ceiling and marble floors, the chapel exudes
a classical feel.
With a capacity to seat some 700 worshippers, the chapel's
design draws from numerous architectural styles, including
early Christian, Italian Renaissance and California Mission
influences.
The chapel not only will serve as the crown jewel of the
campus, but will also "symbolize what is intrinsically
great about our college," Dillon, president of the college,
said as he stood last week next to where the chapel is being
built.
No attention to detail was spared in planning the chapel,
Dillon said. The marble that will be used in its floors and
towering columns is being quarried in Italy.
The chapel represents nothing less than a renaissance in
classically designed churches and other buildings, Dillon
said. Other such recent works include the Chapel of the North
American Martyrs for the campus of Thomas More College in
New Hampshire, the new Canonry and Parish Center in Chicago,
and the Church of Blessed Josemaria Escrivá in Rome.
Thomas Aquinas' chapel, Dillon said, will embody beauty,
magnificence and permanence, traits that are a hallmark of
the college.
"The chapel represents another important step toward
the completion of the campus," said John Brungardt, a
Wichita, Kan.. native who will start his third year at Thomas
Aquinas this fall.
Founded in 1971, Thomas Aquinas College sits on a 132-acre
campus four miles north of downtown Santa Paula.
Students at the school use the "Great Books" curriculum.
They read directly from the works of such thinkers as Homer,
Plato, Aristotle, Pascal, Marx and Goethe. They then discuss
these works around a table with their professors, called "tutors"
at the college, in keeping with the school's Socratic method
of teaching through guided questioning.
The college emphasizes the works of certain authors in the
Catholic tradition, including Plato and Aristotle, and St.
Augustine and St. Thomas in theology. But it recognizes that
learning can come from a variety of authors whether they are
Catholic or not.
In researching the chapel's design, Dillon consulted books
and experts. He also visited other churches near and far.
He traveled to missions throughout California. And he went
to some of the great churches of the world, including Saint
Peter's Basilica in Rome and Saint Paul's Cathedral in London.
Thomas Aquinas has not spared any expense in building the
chapel, said Duncan Stroik, a Yale-trained architect known
for his work on churches, including his design of the chapel
at Thomas Aquinas.
"They put their riches where their mouth is and focused
a great amount of energy, time and money on building a structure
that would be to the glory of the Creator," Stroik said
in an e-mail from Italy, where he was procuring marble columns
and flooring for the chapel.
When it opened its doors, Thomas Aquinas only had 33 students.
The college operated in Malibu Canyon outside Calabasas during
its first seven years. The college opened at a time when there
was a widely shared perception that many colleges and universities
were turning away from the Great Books tradition.
Thomas Aquinas College eventually was forced to vacate the
property. It moved to its current location, a former ranch
at the base of Los Padres National Forest.
Conditions at the college were fairly Spartan during the
first year at the ranch, campus spokeswoman Anne Forsyth said.
She was a student at Thomas Aquinas when it moved from Malibu
Canyon to the steep hills north of Santa Paula.
Longtime college administrators and tutors recall having
to trudge through a muddy campus carrying hundreds of library
books as they worked to move items essential to the college
during that first rainy winter.
Numerous buildings were planned for the campus under a master
plan. But of those, only St. Joseph's Commons was built during
the early years. The Commons contains the campus eatery, but
also its chapel.
Rasmussen said Thomas Aquinas hired him in 1988 to help it
carry out its master plan. Since then, he has participated
in the construction of every single building on campus, including
its residence halls, classrooms, a science hall and library
and most recently its chapel and the adjacent faculty building.
"It's been an amazing adventure," he said.
Thomas Aquinas gets no public funding. The college instead
depends on private donors, many of whom have been quite generous,
Dillon said.
Donors have included Carl Karcher, founder of the Carl's
Jr. hamburger chain, and the Fritz B. Burns Foundation, which
gave $3.5 million toward the campus' faculty office building.
The foundation is named after one of the most important real
estate developers in Southern California during the 20th century.
Many colleges and universities will reward large donors by
naming a building after them. But Rasmussen said a decision
was made at Thomas Aquinas early on to name its buildings
after saints.
"This is reflected in the strong sense of mission and
continuity at the college," he said.
With 359 students, the campus is now at full enrollment,
Forsyth said. And U.S. News & World Report ranked Thomas
Aquinas College among the top 104 liberal arts colleges in
the country in its 2006 edition of America's Best Colleges.
Dillon is confident that the faculty building and chapel
will be completed on time. It has so far raised $14 million
of the $21 million for the chapel and $5 million of the $7
million for the faculty building.
Construction of the chapel and faculty building began a year
ago. There were some surprises during the first year. For
example, contractors had estimated that they would have to
take out 200 truckloads of rock to build the foundation. Instead,
they had to take out 850 truckloads.
All that rock had to be replaced with truckloads of dirt,
Forsyth said.
The project also was delayed by heavy rains during the late
winter and spring, she said. But with the foundation laid
and the project above ground, Forsyth is hoping for clearer
sailing.
"The chapel represents another important step toward
the completion of the campus," Brungardt said.
This article originally appeared
in the Ventura County Star on August 1, 2006. Reprinted
with express permission.
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