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Comparing a Civic and Religious Building

Introduction

Normally, buildings are built for certain purpose, ranging from residential, religious services, public use and official use. Designers of buildings have the function of the building in mind during designing, and design them around the function they are intended for, but also remain bound by architecture of the time or era the buildings are built. For instance, during the early 20^th century the buildings were influenced by the gothic architectural style and Byzantine as well. One of the religious buildings in ColumbusOhio is the Greek Orthodox Cathedral church that takes the Byzantine architectural style. This was build purposely for worshiping, and its design and interior are fitted for this particular function with centralized areas called the nave for congregation to gather in front of the altar. Another form of building utilizing a different architectural style is the Ohio statehouse that was completed in 1861 just before the American civil war. The building is built using the ancient Greek Doric style with many Doric pillars surrounding it. To serve its purpose, it is built on a big space, with spacious rooms and a cupola that supplies light down to the building. Unlike the Greek cathedral, the statehouse has many rooms form inside meant for each branch of the state government. Both buildings have decorations in the interior, each telling a history of its relevant purpose.

The Greek Cathedral church

The cathedral is built in a traditional Byzantine style of architectures that can be traced to the sixth century. The Byzantine architectural style is characterized by centralized church plans, surrounding isles, use of pendentives and domes on top of them and highly complex interior with decorations and lighting to create fancy interiors. The Greek cathedral church is not without these characteristics. It has a pendentive dome at the top, which is centered in the building. From the inside, it bears the shape of a cross due to others on the sides. This imitates the Greek cross that has all sides equal in length. From the inside of the dome, it is highly decorated with religious pictures such as Jesus, paintings of saints, with fine intricate details and curving on the walls. The dome is further lighted with windows that illuminate light, which is reflected by the brightly decorated interior wall of the dome. This gives a warm lighting color, making it quite fascinating (greekcathedral.com 2012).

The interior decoration is highly decorated to allow a fascinating interior meant to uplift the spirits of the worshipers. It serves to elevate the mind of the worshipers, through creating an atmosphere of worship through its splendor decoration and symbolism. The paintings have meaning to the worshipers, serving as a constant reminder of the Christian journey to heaven. According to the greekcathedral.com, “The primary function of the symbols within the Church is to serve as aids, as instruments that an Orthodox Christian may use in his journey towards a personal relationship with the living Christ,” (2012).

The dome is placed strategically, where both arms of the cross in the floor plan meet. The dome varies in terms of size depending on the particular church. For this church, it is average, placed at the center of the intersection of the floor plan. More so, it is strategically built on the four main corners of the building where the intersection is located, which transfers the weight of the dome to the four corners. Additionally, the dome is raised to allowing a cylinder below it that comes with windows around it. This allows more lighting in the church. Additionally, on top of the isles on the sides are fitted with windows for more lighting. The church is built using stones and only the four pillars supporting the dome need to be reinforced.

Below the dome is the center of the church where the congregation sits during a mass. The central area, referred to as the Nave with equal arms of the Greek cross extending from the center that can sit around 600 people (greekcathedral.com 2012). The stained glass windows built from Venetian glass tell the stories from the bible to create a continuous memory of the Christian journey. Ahead of the central location is the altar, which is below a large apse decorated with mosaics of the Virgin Mary. Further, the altar is separated from the nave, where the congregation sits by a wall with decorated icons and a small gate. The decorated icon wall represents the partition separating heaven and earth, with heaven symbolized by the altar while earth is symbolized by the nave. It also serves as the incarnation of Christ, representing the meeting of heaven and earth.

The purpose of the centralization of the nave is to place the congregation in a position where they can see the altar clearly without strain. These architectural forms are designed to suit the function of the building. Additionally, the altar area is raised from the ground to allow everybody to see listen to the speakers or priest during masses. Additionally, at the entrance there are other rooms meant for different purposes, such as the candle room where the worshipers sacrifice a candle while entering the church. The next part is the nave, where the dome is positioned on top (greekcathedral.com 2012). It stands at the center. Between the nave and the altar, there is a space, referred to as Solea where sacraments of the church are administered.  Additional to this there is a wooden structure on the southeast corner, which is referred to as “kouvouklion” representing the tomb of Jesus that is only used during goof Fridays. All the rooms in the cathedral are accessible and visible from the nave.

 Ohio statehouse

The Ohio statehouse is one of the historical civic building that continue to exist from the wartime. Before it was built, government matters were held in a small house but never enough for the expanding operations of the government. In1838 a competition for the design for a new statehouse was announced, where many entries were received but only three got the award. Its construction commenced in 1839 when the cornerstone of the building was laid. Unable to decide on the design of the building from the three winning ones, an architect from New York was consulted. The building went through several difficulties before its completion

It was completed in 1861 at the beginning of the American civil war. Its architectural design is one of the most interesting features of the building. It took the Greek revival Doric architecture (ohiostatehouse.org 2012).

The statehouse has a central recessed porch that is designed with a colonnade and a Greek Doric mode pillars that are built of limestone from Columbus. It has a broad and low pediment that supports the cupola with windows and contains an oculus for lighting the interior rotunda. Greek Doric mode is characterized by Doric columns or pillars that stand on flat pavements, without a base at the bottom. At the top, they were topped by smooth capitals that joined the square abacus intersecting the horizontal beam. The statehouse is surrounded by many of these columns. The building is not patterned on a single building. Rather, it is designed using a combination of Greek elements, modeled to fit the specific functions. The statehouse was influenced by the ancient Greek style since it was the birthplace of democracy (ohiostatehouse.org 2012). Additionally, it was simple and easier to build.

The floor is more definite, taking a rectangular shape with offices and open spaces for various functions. At the center, there is an open space that illuminates light into the building. It is centered where the central porch is located. The porch remains an open space for not only light but also allowing an easy access to all the rooms. The cupola has a height of 70 feet and 64 feet across while the diameter showing the skyline is 31 feet. The building is 158 feet tall from the ground to the top of the cupola. From below the cupola, the other parts of the building are accessible (ohiostatehouse.org 2012). It acts as the central point from where the stairways are accessed to enter the upper floors. Additionally, the ground floor and first floors do not have the same partitioning. Some offices such as the court room, library and a house of representatives. Its massive size and spacious rooms allowed for its functionality since all government offices of Ohio were fitted there when it was new until more space was required in later years.

Conclusion

Comparing the Greek cathedral and the statehouse, some distinct differences can be noted. The first most notable is the dome. Despite both having influence from Greek architecture styles, their domes are different. While the church is a full dome with a cross on top, the statehouse has a two story Cupola instead of a dome that is mounted with a conical roof. Another notable difference is the floor plan. The Greek cathedral’s floor plan takes the shape of a Greek cross that has both all arms equal as described earlier with the dome fitted at the intersection. On the other hand, the statehouse’s floor plan is basic and takes a rectangular shape that spans almost two acres. Similar to the cathedral, its cupola is fixed at the center of the building. The rest of the roof is flat. Both buildings have decorations in the interior. The cathedral represents the journey of a Christian through the stories from the bible and depictions of Jesus. With the statehouse, the decorations show paintings and pictures of famous leaders, depicting the history of Ohio. While the church has a central place the same as the statehouse, they both serve different purposes. For the church, the central area is where the congregation sits and everything else is accessible from there. There are few rooms. On the other hand, the rotunda in the statehouse is a central point as well, but only serves to allow access to other rooms and floors as well. The statehouse has many spacious rooms for official work. all branches of the government were once found there.

Work cited

Greekcathedral.com. The Annunciation Greek cathedral ColumbusOhio. greekcathedral.com, 2012. Web. September 29, 2012.

Ohiostatehouse.org. the Ohio statehouse. ohiostatehouse.org, 2012. Web. September 29, 2012.