Inside Glenwood United

Back in May – I covered Glenwood United from the outside. I met up with a parishioner, who gave me the guided tour of the interior.

Designed by the firm of Pennington & Carter and built in 1962, the architect who designed it was William Fraser while working for the firm (thanks to Doug Johnson and David R. for confirming that). The church is just as interesting on the inside as it is from the outside.

Here we go…

A view of the sanctuary upon entering the church. The windows from the outside, give no hint of their colourful display inside.

Looking back towards the entrance.

A view of the very modern altar (is it called the altar in the United Church?)

These modernist aluminum screens flank both sides of the altar.

A detail view of the large colored window. The panels are made up of Kalwall panels.

From the manufacturers website:

What Is Kalwall?

Kalwall is NOT a plastic, polycarbonate or glass. Kalwall is a translucent fenestration system whose primary element is a structural composite sandwich panel formed by permanently bonding, under heat and pressure, specially formulated, fiberglass-reinforced translucent faces to a grid core constructed of interlocked, structural aluminum/composite, thermally broken “I” beams. Panels can be curved or flat. Every job is custom pre-engineered from standard components to assure a perfect fit.

A final view of the sanctuary as we head over to the church hall…

An interior view of the church hall. The hall came first, and services were held here until the Church was built in 1962. According to my information, the church hall was built in 1957 by Johnson & McWhinnie.

Both the church and the church hall feature massive large laminated wood ceiling beams.

A big thank you to David for the tour yesterday.