Steel Chapel

Description

Steel Chapel was developed as a design-build research project. The brief: design a memorial space that recognizes the steelworkers of Homestead — men and women whose labor built Pittsburgh’s industrial legacy on a site now largely erased by commercial redevelopment.

The chapel is built entirely from reclaimed steel salvaged from demolished mill structures: rough, dark, oxidized. It seats thirty people in near-darkness except for a single overhead oculus that traces the daily arc of the sun across the interior walls.

The building has no artificial lighting. It is only open during daylight hours, and only when the sun is present — making each visit contingent on weather and season, like the industrial rhythms it commemorates.