The Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center, located near the campus of Ohio State University, will undergo a complete interior renovation during summer 2023.
The project, which is estimated to cost $3 million, is intended to upgrade the interior of the building and provide a more functional space for students. The redesigned space will enhance the capacity for collaboration, discipleship and community-building among students, said Sarah Lightle, communications associate at the Newman Center.
“The ultimate goal of remodeling is to help students on campus come to know Jesus,” said Jocelyn Trout, vice president of the Newman Center’s student board. “More specifically, we hope to create a student-centered environment … by creating more space for Bible studies, small groups, as well as study spaces and the new coffee shop.”
The student organization at the Newman Center meets monthly, and teams meet weekly to discuss their vision for the facility, their concerns and how to best serve students.
“The Newman Center will be run by students for the students,” said Elyse Holdgreve, secretary of the student board. “Our responsibility as the exec board is to ensure that this is happening. We will constantly be hearing student feedback and doing our best to point Buckeye Catholic (ministry) in the direction that students want.”
One thing that students might want most from the Newman Center, she said, is a place that feels like home and a church that reflects their home parish.
“With so many changes in the life of a college student, the Catholic church on campus should feel like a second home to them,” said Pat McNulty, assistant director of the Newman Center. “Our hope is to create a more welcoming environment for our students by reorganizing the space to be more accommodating for them.
“A revitalized sanctuary space that mirrors the churches across our diocese will help students to feel more at home while worshipping our Lord. Additionally, we are reimagining our social spaces and placing them at the forefront of our building so that students can spend time here and feel confident about inviting their friends to our church as well.”
The nave, the central part of the church building where the congregation worships during Mass, will have a seating capacity of almost 500 after the renovation is completed.
The sanctuary, the front of the church where the altar is located and the Mass is celebrated by the priest, is currently on the west side of the building. The sanctuary will be shifted to the north side, adjacent to Norwich Avenue.
A landing that is currently filled with chairs and is part of the nave will be the new sanctuary. The sanctuary will be located next to the sacristy, the room where the priest prepares for the celebration of the Mass and sacred objects are stored.
“When most students enter the Newman Center, they do not feel as though they are entering into a church,” Trout said. “By implementing a more traditional sanctuary, the space can help orient the hearts and minds of students to the full reality of Who is present in the tabernacle and what takes place during Mass.”
The existing confessional, on the west wall, will be used as a sacristy for the altar servers to store the liturgical vesture, or clothing worn by altar servers, or other sacred objects. Two confessionals will be built next to the server sacristy.
The east side of the nave will be closed off, and a group event space will be created in its place. A wall will be constructed to divide the nave from the new event space.
“The new social event space will allow students to go straight from Mass to our student nights and will generally just be easier for students to find and use,” Holdgreve said. “Right now, our event space is upstairs, and many students do not know that it exists. I look forward to having more people stick around for events now that it is so accessible.”
Existing staff offices at the Newman Center, which are located along the south entrance of the building on Lane Avenue, will be moved upstairs to the second level of the building.
The first-floor offices will be removed, and office walls will be demolished. A fully furnished student lounge will be created in their place. This will make the area more conducive to student interaction, Lightle said.
Father Adam Streitenberger, executive director of the Newman Center, will work among students in an office space incorporated into the new student lounge.
A student lounge is currently upstairs on a landing that overlooks the sanctuary and nave. That room will be converted to a choir loft.
The existing chapel in the southeast corner of the Newman Center will be replaced with a coffee shop. The new coffee shop, directly across from the student lounge, will serve as a place for study and for students to encounter other Catholic young adults.
The chapel was at one time used for Eucharistic Adoration, but the small space could no longer accommodate the large number of students regularly coming to spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist.
“We have outgrown the chapel,” Lightle said. “Eucharistic Adoration was moved to the main sanctuary.”
The Newman Center is home to Buckeye Catholic, a diocesan-led mission for the evangelization of young adults.
Buckeye Catholic has seen significant growth in student involvement during the past year. At this year’s Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass on April 8, 20 students entered the Catholic Church at the Newman Center.
“These renovations will set us up to grow the mission,” Father Streitenberger said. “We’ve had a very successful year with our numbers and students getting involved, and with these changes in the design of the building, it will help us to grow even more and give us more room for Bible studies and small groups, making the Newman Center more conducive for student activity.”
The Newman Center has partnered with Elford Inc. of Columbus to perform the building’s construction. The interior will be redesigned by Clark Architects Collaborative 3, and the space will be furnished by King Business Interiors.
Clark Architects Collaborative 3 has worked with Newman Centers at Catholic churches across the country to design their interior spaces. The redesign of the St. Thomas More Newman Center will be the company’s eighth Newman Center project in the United States, McNulty said.
Traditional forms and designs inform the work of Clark Architects Collaborative 3, according to its website. The number “3” in the company’s name “denotes that every design needs an owner, a creative team and faith. It is that working trinity and the Holy Trinity that form the core of our work,” the company said on its website.
“They have a great understanding of our mission and what our building needs to be to fulfill that mission,” McNulty said.
The redesigned Newman Center will also provide a place for Catholic missionary apostolate groups on Ohio State’s campus to build community with students.
The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) and Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) are two Catholic missionary outreach programs that have chapters in Columbus and minister to college students and young adults on Ohio State’s campus.
The Newman Center offers prayer groups and Bible studies in collaboration with FOCUS. The redesigned space will give programs and organizations, such as FOCUS and SPO, a place to meet and invite students to join a small group or attend an event.
Providing students with an invitation to get involved in their faith will draw them closer to Jesus Christ, Lightle said, which is one of Buckeye Catholic’s main missions at the Newman Center.
“We hope to make a place where students feel comfortable, seen, heard and supported,” Holdgreve said. “College is a crucial time in the faith life of Catholics. It is during this time that people are rapidly falling away. I hope that a student-centered space makes people feel more comfortable here at Buckeye Catholic and that it becomes easier to find a community and home here.
“This remodel will also help bring unity amongst the greater Catholic community at (Ohio State). Right now, FOCUS and SPO spend a lot of time at their respective homes (off campus) and spaces (on campus), but having spaces for students here (at) the Newman Center to hang out will allow us to be more unified.
“I am also very excited to be able to invite my non-Catholic friends to come hang out here with me and experience true community. I mean, who doesn’t love a good coffee shop?”
The new sanctuary will be completed before students return to campus in August. Most of the other renovations will be finished in autumn, McNulty said. The project is estimated to be completed by early November 2023.
