Liturgical Furnishings FF&E, Chapel of St. Ignatius, Loyola University New Orleans
FF&E. Twelve item types and 225 pieces of furniture and liturgical millwork for Trahan Architects' Chapel of St. Ignatius at Loyola University New Orleans.
A commission from Loyola University New Orleans for the furniture and liturgical millwork of the Chapel of St. Ignatius and the Gayle and Tom Benson Jesuit Center, designed by Studio Goons in collaboration with Trahan Architects. The chapel is a cylindrical volume in handmade brick on Loyola’s historic quad, the first cross-laminated timber structure in Louisiana, its plan organised on interlocking circles. It has received an AIA New Orleans Honor Award, a National AIA Small Project Award and a Faith and Form Award for Religious Architecture, all in 2026.
The scope covered twelve item types: 138 stacking chairs, twelve with arms, eighty kneelers, the ambo, presider’s chair, tabernacle, credence table, great cross, processional cross, reconciliation screen, presentation podium and a curved desk. All were delivered to site by July 2024. The architect’s reference images formed the basis of the design, which the studio then developed through detailing, joinery, shop drawings and fabrication coordination, working closely with Trahan throughout.
The governing image was lightness. Seating had to read as transparent, so that the congregation is visible through it and empty chairs recede, and every item had to hold a slender profile at liturgical scale while remaining free of visible seams and visible fasteners. A joint detail developed on the chair, which exposes the end grain of the legs where they meet the seat, resolved that problem and was then carried through the rest of the set, giving the collection a single structural logic and a family resemblance. Built in solid ash. The tabernacle exterior and table surfaces are finished with a naguri relief, a controled carving, set against smooth surfaces elsewhere. The reconciliation screen pivots on hardware set into floor and ceiling.
