page_title: Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C.
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C. / Building / Reception
caption_attribution_description: 2019.11.20 Transgender Day of Remembrance, Washington, DC USA 324 03013
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C. is a congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, a Protestant Christian denomination catering to LGBT people, located in the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1970 as the Community Church of Washington, D.C., the congregation led by pastor Paul Breton joined the new MCC denomination in 1971 with help from local activist Frank Kameny.
  The original members founded MCCDC because at the time most churches did not welcome LGBT people. They wanted a safe space where they could gather, not only as LGBT people, but as LGBT Christians. The church experienced significant growth during its first 30 years, from around 65 people at its initial meeting to over 500 members in the early 2000s, despite the effects the AIDS epidemic had on the congregation. Since MCCDC's founding, several other denominations have changed their views on homosexuality and now welcome LGBT people. These changes have resulted in a decline of people attending MCCDC.
  MCCDC spent over 20 years meeting in its founder's home, other church buildings, and a converted rowhouse, before moving to a new and permanent facility in 1992.
context_section_description: Reatig's design has received praise from a number of critics.  In an article reviewing the new building, Benjamin Forgey of The Washington Post  said it "combines contextualism - the masonry blocks of two facades complement older houses nearby - with stunning pure form modern architecture" and describing the sanctuary as "bold and satisfying in the way that it opens up to trees and sky, it gains an ethereal extra dimension at dusk and nighttime."  In another review Herbert Muschamp of The New York Times said the building "ushers its congregation and guests into a realm of literal and metaphoric transparency: a place where space, structure, and function have been rendered into lucid, accessible form" and drew similarities to Maya Lin's minimalist design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
  Scholar Sigurd Bergmann described the design as "genius" and "while some urban churches choose to be fortresses within the city, this glassy church refuses to shut out its urban neighborhood, or to be shut from it."  Architecture and urban planning journalist Amanda Kolson Hurley said it was her favorite building designed by Reitag and that "Reatig has made modernism an integral part of a residential D.C. neighborhood for the first time since I.M. Pei came to Southwest [Washington, D.C.] in the 1960s."  USA Today included MCCDC on its list of "25 must-see buildings in Washington, D.C."
  For her work on MCCDC, Reatig received several awards.  She was the recipient of a 1993 DC Merit Award in Architecture from the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a Concrete Masonry Award from the AIA the following year.  Reatig was also recognized with the 1993 Excellence in Religious Architecture award by the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture, and the 1993 Masonry Design award by the National Concrete Masonry Association.
caption: Church sanctuary during the 2019 Transgender Day of Remembrance.
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