. Trinity Church’s lower part is dark and the top is red. Chevrons highlight the front protrusion of the church. A continuous band of checkerboard is like a belt and circles the chapel bringing the lower and upper sections of the church together. Richardson was influenced by many different styles but always disciplined his architecture. Form serves function. His designs were usually based on ratios and symmetrical balance. Overall, the use of massive walls and piers as supports for the heavy stone vaults resulted in a typical building plan that treated the entire structure as an additive complex composed of semi-independent units. These units are called bays, the square or rectangular spaces enclosed by groin vaults. Trinity’s general vertical massing and polychromy reveal traces of High Victorian Gothic style, but the strong geometric order and the French Romanesque ornaments are all new developments. Trinity’s tower would have been taller and more inventive, but structural problems due to the spongy soil made a shorter tower necessary. The lantern of the tower was modeled after the tower of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca, another prime example of Romanesque architecture. Trinity Church is a building fronting on three streets; therefore, Richardson wanted the tower to be central. He wanted the tower to equally belong to each front instead of locating it in a corner where it would not be visible from at least one side. The tower became the main feature of the church instead of looking like an unnecessary addition. So supporting systems would not get in the way in the interior of the church, a large tower was compensated with a magnified church making Trinity into the size it is today. The tower of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca was also a central tower known as the Tower of Cock because of the weather vane that crowned it and because it was covered by scales of slate. The towers of both churches are partitioned into eq...
