Santiago Calatrava’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church yielded a domed marble edifice within the dense fabric of Lower Manhattan. The original church was destroyed in the September 11th attacks and this new design posits a modern take on liturgical legacy. A highly realistic and detailed model from design firm G&A and digitalization studio Iconem affords visitors and worshippers with the experience of being inside the ecclesiastical space without actually stepping foot inside. The model grants a closer look at the biblical and contemporary scenes adorning the ceilings and the opportunity to light a remembrance candle.
It took over 20 years for the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church to be rebuilt following September 11th attacks. Calatrava’s design perched above a park-like plinth opened in 2022, following myriad construction delays, including a controversial proposal for a mosque and contract withdrawals. The domed church was clad in Pentelic marble. Its architecture was deeply influenced by Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia. Today, it is, simultaneously, a functioning place of worship, a historical record, and a site of mourning.
Innovative and Immersive Technology
G&A’s immersive website innovatively produced a historic record of the contemporary church via drone-enabled high-resolution photogrammetry. The technique uses camera-equipped drones to capture photographs from different angles, which are then processed by a software into highly realistic and detailed 3D models.
Paris-based digitalization studio Iconem led the 3D reconstruction of the church, leaning on New York–based Hirani Group to conduct the drone scan. New York City and the World Trade Center area are under a “no-fly zone,” rendering G&A’s endeavor particularly difficult. Creative Technologist Luobin Wang researched how to approach the photogrammetry process amid these restrictions.
The final product is an immersive web platform wherein users can click through to digitally visit the three main areas of the church: its exterior, Narthex, and Nave. In viewing each of these realms, the experience combines the church’s historical and symbolic context with its design.
“We asked ourselves, how do you create a mobile experience so wholly integrated with physical space that using it simply feels like part of actually being there?,” G&A’s senior integrated producer, Stephanie Land, said in a statement. “Besides being the site of one of the nation’s worst tragedies, the Shrine and its app needed to be a sacred space for collective hope.”
For the exterior portion, text banners populate the screen with the church’s historical and architectural facts while users click around to observe the white marble facade from any angle. Additional details explain the statue commemorating the original church or the building’s architecture.
Inside the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
Within the Narthex, the spectacular altar comes into view. Users can click to look upward at a painted homage to September 11th depicting the hand of God holding the souls of those who died, represented as young infants. Father Loukas, a Greek priest-monk, is responsible for the church’s intricate iconography.
Those who have stepped foot in the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church may recall the table where visitors can light votive candles in honor of a loved one. The digital experience recreates this moving ritual: First users choose an icon (some examples include an image of the Virgin Mary or the Crucifixion) before sparking the flame. There are options to leave a message or a donation.
The Nave, where Orthodox Christians gather to worship, contains the most prominent display of the Loukas’s iconography. The tour highlights several of these works, including a glimpse of Christ in the dome’s center, resurrection scenes, and the church’s patron, St. Nicholas. Three of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church’s icons are site-specific. Throughout each section, the experience is supplemented with informational videos, audio narration, and slideshows.
G&A’s work extended beyond the website to the physical church, where visitors can find memorial etchings, donor recognitions, and multi-function digital kiosks displaying maps, church schedules, and key donor stories.
Scott Wickstom, G&A CEO, said the website assures that “this once destroyed symbol of hope can be experienced forever.”
