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Modern Stained Glass at the “Fish Church”

 

Stamford, Connecticut is home to a delightfully unique example of modern stained glass – the First Presbyterian Church, aka the “Fish Church.” Designed by Wallace K. Harrison (perhaps most famous for the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center), the new sanctuary was dedicated in 1958; and the building has been an architectural landmark ever since.

It looks nice enough on the outside; but inside, the glass is really something to behold. The walls of the church are comprised of 152 precast concrete panels, in which are embedded 20,000 pieces of faceted amber, emerald, ruby, amethyst, and sapphire glass. Harrison was the first architect in North America to use this approach, known as dalle de verre (literally, “slab of glass”), in a church’s load-bearing walls. It was a truly innovative approach to modern stained glass at the time and remains an important contribution to the history of glass in architecture.

 

 

The environment swallows visitors up in a transcendent world of color and light, an experience that I can attest, having visited a few times, is quite extraordinary – no matter what system of beliefs you embrace.

The “Fish Church” nickname comes from the shape of the building, which is indeed fishlike (and of course, fish are important symbols in Christianity). The nickname has become so fondly embraced that it’s even the URL for the church’s website! Now that’s a place with a good sense of humor. I wonder if the Onion and the Gherkin will follow suit one of these days…