Features
The 25 – Duncan G. Stroik
Duncan G. Stroik, architect and professor of architecture, is the premier evangelist of Classical ecclesiastical architecture.
His award-winning work encompasses 40 new buildings and 33 renovations in 26 states, including seven cathedrals, 12 parish churches, three chapels for universities or prep schools, and eight projects for monastic communities.
Credited with helping to revive the field of sacred architecture and demonstrating how beautifully it can be done in the 21st century, Stroik has gained recognition not only for restoring a number of cathedrals but also for designing new Classical buildings.
“I’m always looking for a challenge, so when experts tell me something our forebears did cannot be done today, I try to do it,” he says. “I believe that our role is to try to make more openings for the talented architects, artists, and craftsmen who create sacred architecture today.”
Stroik, winner of 53 personal and project awards, including six Palladios, 10 Acanthuses, and the 2017 Clem Labine, has been at the forefront of sacred design since 1990, when he became a professor of architecture at Notre Dame.
“When I started, I knew very little about how to design religious buildings,” he says. “No one else did either. So we taught ourselves, traveling and sketching, reading and conversing with historians, and finally building. There are now numerous architects who can design Classical or Gothic churches of a quality close to the past. It is inspiring that at a time that seems to be getting more secular, many Americans are investing in houses of God that speak of faith and transcendence.”
