Colorado Springs Relocation

The United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel

"It is at once old and new, physical and spiritual, solid and soaring, of the earth and of outer space." Thus has an industrial magazine described the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel whose 17 silvery spires soar over 150 feet toward the Colorado skies, blending with the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The Cadet Chapel was envisioned as the crowning architectural feature of the Air Force Academy campus. The design evolved out of a desire to achieve a structure symbolic of the religious aspects of a cadet's life and also to provide chapels respecting the individuality of the major religious faiths. Each chapel has its individual architectural charcteristics supporting the religious service for which designed.

Five years of planning and four years of construction went into the building of the Cadet Chapel. The chapel structure was designed by Walter A. Netsch, Jr., of the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architectural firm, Chicago. The General Commission on Chaplains in the Armed Services, the National Jewish Welfare Board and the Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate worked with leading architects to design suitable furnishings and ecclesiastical appointments.

Construction was begun on August 28, 1959 by the contractor, Robert E. McKee, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico and was completed in the summer of 1963.