St. Andrew Catholic Church
Upper Arlington, OH
3/35 Austin
Opus 2771 - 1998
Organ Facade - Design
The facade for the St. Andrew Austin pipe organ
was designed
by architect
Craig Vander Veen who also designed the church. The facade itself was
built by St. Andrew parishioner Dr. Charles A. Caranna, who also built
the chairs for the church's altar.
Dr. Caranna said that he was asked by parish priests Fr. Frank Lane and
Fr. Thomas Buffer if he would be interested in building the facade for
the organ. "I said 'Sure, it sounds like fun' even though I had no idea
what exactly I was getting myself into."
Austin Organs initially sent a few drawings of the organ's layout. But
Dr. Caranna said that he was expecting to see a lot more. "I was
expecting
elaborate, detailed drawings of what was needed. So I called Austin for
information." During the conversation, the person from Austin asked
about his woodworking experience. "I told them this was a hobby of
mine, and they said that I was in over my head and to tell the church
to hire a professional to do it. That actually motivated me to want to
do
it."
Dr. Caranna went back to Fr. Buffer who was
overseeing the organ
project and let him know of Austin Organ's comments. Unknown to Dr.
Caranna, Fr. Buffer had already obtained a quote
for the job, but he was convinced that Dr. Caranna could do it. "He
kept
telling me that we could do this. He said to work with the architect on
the drawings and he would help out as well."
Fr. Buffer and Dr. Caranna visited
a couple local organ installations to look at the organ facades. After
seeing things up close, Dr. Caranna agreed that there wasn't too much
to the facade itself and that he could do the work. "Except for some of
the hand-carved ornate pieces, it was pretty straight forward work."
Read
more about the story of the organ's facade by clicking the
"construction and assembly" link below.
Austin Organs, Inc. provided a number of computer aided
drawings
(CAD) showing various aspects of the case, facade and pipework. Some of
these drawings have been scanned and can be viewed below
using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Some of the
drawings may appear upside down or sideways but can be rotated when
viewed.
Main Sill/Yoke layout of the organ facade. Lists pipe lengths and other
dimensions of the facade.
Close up of
dimensions of
sill heights of organ facade.
Facade layout
with pipes
noted.
Another drawing
of the
facade layout with additional information about pipes/ranks in facade.
Drawing of
tower detail.
Drawing of
bracket detail.
Drawing of T2 sill layout. This sill contains the longest metal pipe in
the organ, the 16' Violone at pitch CCC showing a weight of 113 lbs.
Drawing of T4 sill layout. This sill contains the second longest metal
pipe in the organ, the 16' Violone at pitch CCC# showing a weight of
104 lbs.
Drawing of F5
sill layout.
Note:
All CAD drawings have been reproduced
with written permission from Austin Organs, Inc.
Links about
the facade of the St. Andrew Austin Pipe Organ.
