Michigan Stained Glass Census

Building

Kanley Chapel
university chapel
unknown
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008
Kalamazoo County
Web Address: http://www.fm.wmich.edu/ap/bldg/031

About

Date Built: 1953

Floor Plan Sketch: Download

Building Notes: Kanley Memorial Chapel was a gift to Western Michigan University by one whose affection for it had spanned many years of experience and memory...William Kanley. Designed by Ralph Calder and patterned after the early Christian churches, it is constructed of Italian marble with no ornamentation except the five Greek crosses representing the wounds of Christ. During the construction of the building it was evident that though design and desire called for stained glass windows, lack of resources would preclude them from becoming an immediate reality. Thus, to insure that stained glass windows would be produced, Lydia Siedschlag came up with the idea to have students design the windows. After convincing Dr. Henry Lee Willet, of the Henry Lee Willet Stained Glass Studio in Philadelphia, that the students could indeed design the windows themselves, the planning process began. In early 1951 Dr. Willet traveled to Kalamazoo in order to discuss the planning and manufacturing of the Stained Glass Windows with Hazel Paden's art students. Under Miss Paden's counsel and leadership, students of Western Michigan University prepared, in actual size and color, the designs for each window in the chapel. Over, approximately, the next ten years students in Hazel Paden's classes would work on cartoons that may have become windows. Many of these original cartoons still exist, framed around campus or in one of two portfolios. The cartoons that were made into windows were chosen by those who were dedicating them. The project turned out to be one of the most interesting in the country, "distinctly Western." Kanley Chapel is the nation's only such student-created ensemble of stained glass windows. There are only five windows in the Chapel that were not designed by students. These were designed by the architect, Ralph Calder, and are located behind the altar. The windows were completed in memory and honor of individuals whose lives have been touched in various ways by Western Michigan University.

https://projects.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/208-794-1169/97.0017-ext.JPG

Kanley Chapel

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