The City's Heritage Commission awarded Sacred Heart Cathedral the 2014 Historic Places Award on Saturday

Prince George, BC – The local architect who was instrumental in designing many of the buildings that make up the foundation of this city says this year's winner of the Heritage Citation Historic Places Award holds a special place in his heart…

Trelle Morrow was on-hand on Saturday as the City's Heritage Commission presented the award to Sacred Heart Cathedral.  In presenting a plaque of recognition to the Bishop of the Prince George Diocese, former Heritage Commission member, Dr. Valerie Giles, highlighted Morrow's talent in designing many of the schools and commercial buildings in Prince George, "(But) I happen to know that for Trelle Morrow, (Sacred Heart Cathedral) is his proudest achievement."

Morrow admits it is.  At the time planning for the new cathedral began in the late 1950s, the local architect says a 'revolution of sorts' was underway.  "There was a lot of new building, and experimenting with new materials, and new ideas – and it's the ideas that really were important with church work."

"There's a lot of theory about how do you design a church, how do you put the church together, what kind of atmosphere are you looking for and, in Sacred Heart, we went with a vertical theme," Morrow explains. "A lot of churches, even Catholic churches, have not gone that route at all, particularly in Ontario and Quebec…(but) we felt it was appropriate."

Inside, the cathedral rises 60-feet from floor to ceiling, drawing the eye to the crucifix in the chancel.  "Verticality is important in a church – to develop the theme and develop the feeling of people within the building."

Morrow suggests that many of the building ideas seeing a resurgence – using local supplies and huge glue-laminate beams – became popular in that revolution.  "Now, 50-years later, we're going through that cycle again, people think we should start using wood," he says with a laugh.  "Well, they should look back and see what we were doing 50 and 60-years ago, and then they'd know about wood."