Despite its spectacular collection of Modernist architecture, Columbus, Indiana, has a surprising dearth of architects. Louis Joyner is one of just a handful of architects currently based in this small city of about 50,000 residents.

So, when First Christian Church—one of the nation’s first Modernist churches, designed by noted Finnish American architect Eliel Saarinen and built in 1942—needed an architect to restore its iconic, 166-foot-tall clock tower in Columbus, Joyner was one of the only local options. But he was far from the default: Dave Woodall, the Church’s facility manager, said Joyner was the obvious choice for the job.

“We did look at some other [firms that] were out of state,” said Woodall. “It came down to Louis because he knew the facility so well.”

The restoration was completed in late 2023, funded in part by a grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places, a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. But Joyner’s involvement with First Christian Church’s preservation began more than 25 years ago, when he first started advocating to protect Columbus’s Modernist legacy.

Cracking Under Pressure

In the early 2000s, Joyner helped spearhead an effort—with the help of preservation organization Indiana Landmarks—to secure a National Historic Landmark designation for First Christian Church and three other Columbus buildings designed by Eero Saarinen, Eliel’s famed son, along with a few other significant structures in the city. To get a National Historic Landmark designation for not just one, but seven Modernist buildings “really pushed the normal boundaries” of what was considered historic at the time, Joyner said.

Joyner’s next professional encounter with First Christian Church came in 2014, when his firm was hired to assess the church's condition. The tower raised immediate concerns. Joyner noted significant water damage, but the cause wasn’t clear, so he recommended further study when possible. A couple years later, he was completing some work on the roof of the sanctuary, allowing him to see the tower from a new vantage point. That’s when Joyner saw cracks in the masonry.

“As torsional forces of wind and heat and expansion—just all the forces that a building is subject to—move up through the tower and hit this area of the grid ... suddenly it’s able to move,” he said. “That had resulted in a huge amount of cracking on the east and west walls, but also on the north and south walls, because they were twisting as a result of that movement.”

The cracks allowed water to get in, and the lack of ventilation meant it wasn’t getting out, creating “this really high-water vapor atmosphere in there,” Joyner said. Water droplet patterns observed on the floors indicated it may have rained inside the tower.

Mending a Masterpiece

With a renewed sense of urgency, First Christian Church got to work raising money for a massive restoration undertaking. Heritage Fund of Bartholomew County provided a $600,000 bridge loan so the project could get started before grant funding was secured. The fundraising team secured a $500,000 Save America’s Treasures grant from the National Park Service in 2020; a $500,000 grant from the Jeffris Family Foundation in 2021; and a $250,000 grant in 2021 from the National Fund for Sacred Places. The Save Our Tower campaign raised the balance of the $3.2 million project through donations. Both Heritage Fund and Landmark Columbus Foundation played key roles in helping bring in donors.

“We were able to do it without incurring any debt,” said Tim Bond, executive minister of First Christian Church. “One of the most significant things about this project was the coalition of community members that participated in it.”

With Joyner on board as architect, the restoration began in 2023 and was completed by the end of the same year.

To stabilize the upper third of the tower where the grid had been causing trouble, the team installed a concrete-block wall on the east and west sides of the clock chamber. These walls were then faced with a brick grid just like the original, and each opening was filled with panels of Indiana limestone, as were the zipper openings.

“They’re milled in a pattern that replicates the original precast concrete grilles,” Joyner said of the limestone panels. “One of the nice things about Indiana limestone is that it looks a lot like concrete. So as the material, it made a lot of sense. It’s actually more stable over time than concrete. It doesn’t have rebar in it that can rust, which is why the precast concrete grilles, we’re pretty sure, failed.”

The team also repaired the tower’s roof; restored the interior floors; sealed a cistern in the basement, which was allowing water vapor to enter the tower; installed a new heating and ventilation system; and restored the clock on the north face of the structure.

One of the final touches was reinstalling the pedestrian door at the tower’s base.

"It’s a series of vertical and horizontal slats. The pieces are put together kind of like Legos. It’s a pretty amazing construction,” said executive minister Bond. “When they were trying to deal with some of the [moisture] issues in the tower, at one point they cut a hole in that door and put a fan in it.”

To fill the gap and restore the door, the team sourced 1940s white oak to match the door’s original old growth lumber.