James Dixon Architect

I enjoy designing liturgical furniture. This client was a priest who knew of my other work for churches, and asked if I couldn't help them out with a very simple and inexpensive Throne for Exposition of the Tabernacle. This order of priests still say the traditional Tridentine (Latin) Mass that went out of favor with the reforms of Vatican II, and they wanted an ascetic, modern and beautiful portable Throne. The Throne is used once a month and can only be on the altar when this special service occurs. The Throne must also support a Monstrance which will be displayed above the Tabernacle. So once I had all the prepositions lined up in my head, and mindful of their requirements and limited budget ($500±), I was able to say confidently that I could have them something in a week. It took one man-day to go to Mass (where I madly thumbed through the Missal trying to find what in the world they were saying), photograph the Chapel and altar, develop a preliminary design, and modify the preliminary design based on the comments of the priest. I presented the final design to him and we will get it priced up by a cabinetmaker. It was a piece of cake with PowerCADD and WildTools. The gradient tool was indispensable for the presentation.

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