Chapel Windows Ellis II Maximum Security Prison Huntsville, Texas Architecture: Lawrence Associates, Fort Worth, Texas Ten @ 2.67' x 15.76' each (0.8 x 4.8 m) The window framing in this chapel are the same welded steel security frames that are used throughout the prison. At first the idea was to install stained glass panels inside of frames glazed with clear glass. After considering this approach, I advised the architect and owner to consider an alternative for two important reasons. First, the allowance for stained glass was insufficient for a project of this size. Second, with a confining 6" x 9" (15.2 x 22.9 cm) grid as a given, conventional leaded, stained glass would add more light obscuring and confining linework. My proposal was to use solid panes of etched flashed glass glazed directly into the security frames.
The design uses a blue field of transparent glass as the starting point for each window. Beginning at the rear windows, a white shape first intrudes into the field with a general upward movement. The white shapes are filled with straight scarlet lines of etched red on clear flashed glass. In each successive pair of windows, the scarlet lines increasingly align so that by the time the windows at the front of the nave are reached, the lines create the illusion of upward sweeping arcs. This crescendo of upward movement never exceeds the heavy horizontal mullions that divide a small upper area from the rest of the window below. In the two windows flanking the altar, this movement finally makes the transition into the upper part of the window as a wispy, golden version reminiscent of resurrection, transformation, metamorphosis or transcendence.