Thousands of north American churches closed in 2022. Many of those needed to dispose of cherished buildings, but one of them – North Christian Church in Columbus, Ind. – needed to dispose of a cherished building that also is a landmark of modern architecture. A six-sided building topped with a sloped roof and a tall, thin spire, it was the final project of famed Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen, who also designed the St. Louis Gateway Arch and Washington Dulles International Airport.
The process of designing the building began in 1959, but by early 1961 Saarinen felt it still wasn’t quite right. In a letter to the building committee chair, Saarinen wrote: “I want to solve it so that as an architect when I face St. Peter, I am able to say that out of the buildings I did during my lifetime, one of the best was this little church, because it has in it a real spirit that speaks forth to all Christians as a witness to their faith.” Saarinen died just three months later; the building, completed in 1964, has been hailed as a modernist masterpiece, and its design has served as inspiration for many other church buildings.
Part of the church’s status as an architectural exemplar is due to the building’s seamless integration with its surroundings. Its 13 park-like acres were designed by Dan Kiley, identified in the church’s application for the National Register of Historic Places as one of the pioneers of the modern movement in landscape architecture (the property was added to the Register in 2000). Taken as a whole, it is a significant site in a town famous for its modernist architecture, including a second Saarinen house and the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei.
It,s never easy to transition a church property for a new purpose, but the congregation found an ideal partner to steward their property going forward: the Bartholomew County Public Library system. Donated in 2024, it opened this April as The LEX: The Library of Experience. Its mission is to be a place where everyone in the community feels welcome; the first few months on The LEX’s schedule included Fairy Tale Fridays and a Renaissance Faire. The grounds now include a disc golf course.
A few weeks after The LEX opened it suffered vandalism from fire extingishers sprayed throughout the building, including to the monumental pipe organ in the sanctuary. Most of the cleanup has been completed, but work on the organ won’t be finished until 2026; a police investigation is continuing.
