View from West North West

Description View from West North West

Date 12/10/2000

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number D 79215 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 713562

Scope and Content St Paul's Roman Catholic Church from west-north-west, Warout Road, Glenrothes, Fife St Paul's Church was built 1956-7 to designs by the architectural firm of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. Jack Coia (1898-1981) was assisted at this time by the architects Isi Metzstein (b.1928) and Andrew McMillan (b.1928). Using a limited budget of £20,000, the church was built of painted brick with a wall of stained glass and wood. The site also includes a presbytery (priest's house). This shows the church (left) and presbytery (right) with their access road and surrounding gardens. The wedge-shaped lower part of the church is topped by a taller, tower-like section with single-pitched roof and off-centre cross. Both levels of the church feature large glazed walls to flood the church with light. The presbytery is more modest and domestic in character, with a combination of narrow and square windows. The buildings are visually linked by their white-painted brickwork. The bright, open aspect of this church was to become the model for many other modern ecclesiastical buildings. The wedge-shaped plan of the building was designed to symbolise the gospel (word of God) spreading out into the world. This building has been selected as one of Scotland's key 20th-century Modern architectural monuments. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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