Cultural/Worship, Award of Merit: The Arboretum at Christ Cathedral, Garden Grove
In 1961, Robert Schuller—a Protestant minister who went on to commission the Crystal Cathedral, which is also sited at the 34-acre Garden Grove campus—hired architect Richard Neutra to design the first "drive-in" church that included a balcony from which Schuller could preach to congregants who stayed in their parked cars. In 2012, the Catholic Diocese of Orange purchased the campus and began transforming it into a worship and meeting place. The renovation included facade-glass replacement, a seismic structural retrofit and building system upgrades, such as under-floor air conditioning. The project team successfully met an expedited delivery schedule while designing and installing contemporary systems in a way that remained faithful to Neutra's original vision.