Newman-Rensselaer Foundation at Troy in New York by Levatich and Miller

Manplan 5 was originally published in March 1970, and was republished online in May 2016. Read the full piece on church design here

In America the social emphasis in church building is centred, not so much on providing a service, as on providing a milieu where the members of the community can encounter one another and other people. The Newman Rensselaer Foundation at Troy in New York State (architects Levatich and Miller), puts the congregational space to other uses: as a clubroom and as theatre in the round. The homely interior, suggestive of an early film studio, is characteristic of the American movement for church reform. Designers are more eclectic and will, for instance, have no qualms about inserting a rose window if they think it will be socially helpful.