Saint Augustine's
Catholic Center
In 1964, Dick Owen, a U of I student in the school of architecture and a member of the Catholic community, participated in a contest to design a building for a church. He and Fr. Schumacher talked about the idea of a round church with a cluster of round rooms. Owen went ahead with this idea for his project and received the first-place award in the contest. The geometry of the church was intended to symbolize a pitched tent where "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."