By Robert Hiini
Parish Reporter
Subiaco architect Peter Quinn is enjoying the fruits of his labour upon the completion of St Mary’s Cathedral – a project that has consumed his almost every waking hour for the past six and a half years.
From June 2003 when he started work on a design that was to garner support and praise from Catholics throughout Perth to the December 8 opening, Peter Quinn has been there through every step, challenge and adaptation.
His was one of four architectural firms asked to submit a design for the project by Archbishop Barry Hickey.
As a sole practitioner competing against companies with numerous architects, he had to convince himself that the competition was worth entering.
"I was reluctant to take on the job," Mr Quinn told The Record. "I just thought it was too big."
He spent 10 straight weeks on the design, knocking back other work, before it was sent out to parishes for comment.
He had been asked to create something that retained and paid due deference to the existing Cathedral, providing a space that encouraged modern liturgy while increasing seating capacity with new function rooms and space for 100 cars.
What resulted was a plan to add a new section of north and south buttresses, uniting the 1865 and 1930 sections while bringing the altar to the centre of the building, providing for increased capacity and visibility.
Wanting to do more than pay mere tokenism to the 1865 section, Mr Quinn’s design retains two bays of the 1865 building – the porch and the belltower – with the southern part of the porch being moved to the western side to create a new entry way providing a direct path of procession to the sanctuary. Mr Quinn’s decision to use huge glass panels in the new section was the result of inspiration and not necessity. When he won the job he set off on an Australia-wide tour of Cathedrals, admiring what he described as beautiful but very dark buildings.
"Light is an incredibly important part of architecture. All my churches have a lot of glass," Mr Quinn said.
"Light gives everyone energy rather than a sense of being locked away."
His decision to move the altar to the centre of the building was made to "bring people intimacy and closeness to the sanctuary," providing visibility on all sides while the previous sanctuary has been redeveloped for adoration and overflow seating as well as being rewired for liturgical concerts and dance. To bring his vision to fruition, four arches and their two supporting pillars had to be removed, a process that required constant monitoring, taking a hardgoing but necessary period of 22 weeks.
Being involved on a day to day basis with the Church’s client representative, Michael Reutens and builders EMCO as well as a host of other contractors, Mr Quinn had the opportunity to tweak his designs as construction progressed. Initial changes came when he was asked to substantially increase the amount of infrastructure to be built beneath the Cathedral’s ground floor, adding more meeting rooms, music rooms and toilets.
The electrical requirements of that infrastructure as well as the installation of airconditioning throughout created new problems that had to be solved.
Before any building could begin, he and his draughtsman, Trevor Osborne, had to produce what ended up being 140 sheets of working drawings, a painstaking task made more difficult by the absence of any drawings of the 1865 and 1930 ‘Cavanagh’ sections (so-named after the original architect of that section).
Laser surveyers had to be employed to provide unknown dimensions such as the heights of the ceilings and stained glass windows.
In what took four months, his draftsman then had to produce drawings based on the measurements, the accuracy of which were confirmed when the ceilings of the new buttresses were added, with builders discovering only a 25mm difference in height.
Once the initial designs and drawings were finalised, the committee managing the project released packages out for competition, for jobs such as concreting, glazing and steelwork.
While a seasoned builder of Catholic schools and churches, including the parishes of Willetton and Morley and Corpus Christ and Kolbe Catholic Colleges, the $32.9m refurbishment dwarfs the largest of Mr Quinn’s previous projects, eight times over.
The 65 year old Melbourne native could not have known that he would eventually contribute to a Perth landmark when he first visited Perth in 1972.
After four years of working in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia, immediately after he graduating from university, he was on the way home when decided to visit a Perth-based friend.
"The sky was blue and the beaches were empty and I’m still here." He set up shop himself in 1978 and has been a sole practitioner ever since. When asked if he had any sleepless nights during the Cathedral’s refurbishment and completion, he replied "many more than one.
“I knew I was having a bad night when I could hear the paper being delivered at three in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep," he said.
After 6.5 years of working often 60-70 hour weeks, Peter Quinn plans to travel to London with his wife early next year, visiting one of their two sons. He looks forward to driving down the Atlantic coast of Portugal and exploring London and other choice parts of Europe.
After he and his draughtsman pulled off a task that might ordinarily take 15 architects, he said he is "pretty sure" he and his colleagues have earnt the rest, leaving behind a completed project with which he is extremely pleased.
"It’s amazing. I’m absolutely thrilled with it and I can honestly say that I’m sure I couldn’t have done any better and I’m proud of that, because you can only do the best you can."
He spent 10 straight weeks on the design, knocking back other work, before it was sent out to parishes for comment.
He had been asked to create something that retained and paid due deference to the existing Cathedral, providing a space that encouraged modern liturgy while increasing seating capacity with new function rooms and space for 100 cars.
What resulted was a plan to add a new section of north and south buttresses, uniting the 1865 and 1930 sections while bringing the altar to the centre of the building, providing for increased capacity and visibility.
Wanting to do more than pay mere tokenism to the 1865 section, Mr Quinn’s design retains two bays of the 1865 building – the porch and the belltower – with the southern part of the porch being moved to the western side to create a new entry way providing a direct path of procession to the sanctuary. Mr Quinn’s decision to use huge glass panels in the new section was the result of inspiration and not necessity. When he won the job he set off on an Australia-wide tour of Cathedrals, admiring what he described as beautiful but very dark buildings.
"Light is an incredibly important part of architecture. All my churches have a lot of glass," Mr Quinn said.
"Light gives everyone energy rather than a sense of being locked away."
His decision to move the altar to the centre of the building was made to "bring people intimacy and closeness to the sanctuary," providing visibility on all sides while the previous sanctuary has been redeveloped for adoration and overflow seating as well as being rewired for liturgical concerts and dance. To bring his vision to fruition, four arches and their two supporting pillars had to be removed, a process that required constant monitoring, taking a hardgoing but necessary period of 22 weeks.
Being involved on a day to day basis with the Church’s client representative, Michael Reutens and builders EMCO as well as a host of other contractors, Mr Quinn had the opportunity to tweak his designs as construction progressed. Initial changes came when he was asked to substantially increase the amount of infrastructure to be built beneath the Cathedral’s ground floor, adding more meeting rooms, music rooms and toilets.
The electrical requirements of that infrastructure as well as the installation of airconditioning throughout created new problems that had to be solved.
Before any building could begin, he and his draughtsman, Trevor Osborne, had to produce what ended up being 140 sheets of working drawings, a painstaking task made more difficult by the absence of any drawings of the 1865 and 1930 ‘Cavanagh’ sections (so-named after the original architect of that section).
Laser surveyers had to be employed to provide unknown dimensions such as the heights of the ceilings and stained glass windows.
In what took four months, his draftsman then had to produce drawings based on the measurements, the accuracy of which were confirmed when the ceilings of the new buttresses were added, with builders discovering only a 25mm difference in height.
Once the initial designs and drawings were finalised, the committee managing the project released packages out for competition, for jobs such as concreting, glazing and steelwork.
While a seasoned builder of Catholic schools and churches, including the parishes of Willetton and Morley and Corpus Christ and Kolbe Catholic Colleges, the $32.9m refurbishment dwarfs the largest of Mr Quinn’s previous projects, eight times over.
The 65 year old Melbourne native could not have known that he would eventually contribute to a Perth landmark when he first visited Perth in 1972.
After four years of working in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia, immediately after he graduating from university, he was on the way home when decided to visit a Perth-based friend.
"The sky was blue and the beaches were empty and I’m still here." He set up shop himself in 1978 and has been a sole practitioner ever since. When asked if he had any sleepless nights during the Cathedral’s refurbishment and completion, he replied "many more than one.
“I knew I was having a bad night when I could hear the paper being delivered at three in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep," he said.
After 6.5 years of working often 60-70 hour weeks, Peter Quinn plans to travel to London with his wife early next year, visiting one of their two sons. He looks forward to driving down the Atlantic coast of Portugal and exploring London and other choice parts of Europe.
After he and his draughtsman pulled off a task that might ordinarily take 15 architects, he said he is "pretty sure" he and his colleagues have earnt the rest, leaving behind a completed project with which he is extremely pleased.
"It’s amazing. I’m absolutely thrilled with it and I can honestly say that I’m sure I couldn’t have done any better and I’m proud of that, because you can only do the best you can."