(NEW YORK, January 22, 2024) ― St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church has been named 2023 New York Project of the Year by Engineering News-Record. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, DLR Group’s lighting design for the church transforms what appears as a solid stone church by day into a luminous beacon of light and hope at night, thus achieving the Archbishop’s goal that the church appears “to be lit from 10,000 candles.”

Destroyed when the south tower of the World Trade Center fell on September 11, 2001, the St. Nicholas Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church was redesigned, constructed, and opened nearly 21 years later. The 12,000-SF Church and National Shrine overlooks Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

DLR Group’s lighting design work included the exterior and all spaces within the church, including lobby, prayer rooms, a community room, bereavement rooms, offices, and a gift shop. The team developed a unique modular lighting system mounted on the rainscreen structure directed inward to reflect off the building’s diffusing white thermal envelope to create an even, shadow-free surface of light emanating outward through the rainscreen. The color temperature and relative brightness of all light sources are carefully designed and controlled to ensure a singular and cohesive effect for the building.

Read more about this honor from ENR here.